Writer/executive producer Michael Hirst turns his attention from Vikings to America’s Wild West with EPIX’s new drama Billy the Kid. Hirst created the series, based on the life of the legendary outlaw, and during the Television Critics Association’s winter press panel he explained his fascination with the gunslinger.
“He’s like a rock star. He’s young. He’s like a rock star of the West. I thought I knew things about him but when I started doing the research, I realized that I knew very, very little indeed, you know?” said Hirst. “I had cliched ideas about him that he’s probably psychopathic, that he was a born killer, that he was a roughneck. What I didn’t know was about his background, born of Irish immigrants, very devoted to his Catholic mother who taught him to respect women, to read, and to empathize with the underdog. He had a beautiful singing voice. He played musical instruments. He was incredibly sensitive. As he said himself, he was more sinned against than sinning.
He’s a wonderfully attractive character. He’s a compelling character. And I grew writing about him, thinking about him – I grew to love him. And I think, and I hope, that the audience will love him as much as I do, and they should. Again, what I think people think they know about Billy, they will see a totally different young man.”
British actor Tom Blyth (The Gilded Age, Benediction) stars in the title role, portraying Billy the Kid as an intelligent, fearless young man who Michael Hirst describes as a natural leader.
“[…] Tom was the perfect, perfect actor/person to play Billy because he had a deep empathy and understanding for Billy right from the start. And also, uncannily, he looks like Billy,” said Hirst.
Blyth and Hirst both grew up in Norfolkshire in England, and both share a love of Western tales. Blyth was always drawn to the story of Billy the Kid and actually found he has a lot of qualities in common with the Wild West figure.
“Geographically, on paper, we couldn’t be [farther] removed, but I think actually that it would be – you’d be making a mistake to kind of assume that there’s too much difference there because there’s something about him that sung to me from the very, very beginning,” explained Blyth. “He grew up in a house with a strong female presence. He was brought up by this incredibly strong mother, really, who was very principled and taught him how to move through the world with strength, grace, and humility, but also savviness. And I was raised in a house with a single mother and strong women who brought me up with the same kind of strength.”
Blyth added: “I think for me, the immigration side of it is very interesting. I think moving to America six years ago as a 21-year-old and stepping into a new world, kind of looking for something bigger, I think I relate to that. I relate to the idea of going out there and searching for something bigger.
And there’s a survivor in him which I always related to, something about the scrappiness. I’ve always felt that kind of fight-or-flight mentality and usually a willingness to dig in and fight for what you believe in. I think that in him is very attractive to me. Yeah, he’s someone who I think is always watching and always kind of reacting based on his principles. And I think for me that was incredibly attractive.”
Tom Blyth really latched onto the fact Billy the Kid is an immigrant story.
“I mean, it’s the beginnings of America, and I think that’s what drew me to it in the first place is this idea that the America that at least I currently live in and have grown to love coming here, the origins are messy and brutal and not always tied up with a neat bow. And it’s quite recent, you know?
I think there’s something about this story, particularly, where you’ve got this Irish family who have come with the promise of a better life, getting here and realizing that they’re going to have to fight for that better life. It’s in the fight and the striving to thrive that I think the kind of adventure lies. And that’s what’s really attractive is watching people really fight for themselves above all else. To go, ‘Okay, what I thought I was going to find when I got here is not the case, and what I was promised is not the case, but I am going to – in [Billy’s mother’s] case – fight tooth and nail and claw for the best life for my family.’”
Blyth continued: “When you think about how recent that actually was and compared to where we live right now it’s an entirely different world, and yet so much of that still exists. You can see the threads of it in today’s society. I think people will find that fascinating because I think we’ve created such a brutally honest show, I think. It’s very authentic and you can see the kind of blood, sweat, and tears – and mud – that went into creating a life here. All these different societies all trying to build their own life in this kind of messy landscape.”
Blyth grew up a latchkey kid with a librarian grandmother, and he’d often stop by the library on his way home from school. Blyth recalls he was always drawn to the Western section.
“I would sit there and read Western books for hours until it was time to go home. And, you know, I wish I could tell you exactly why that was but I think it’s something about this idea of an unknown landscape that is both brutal but romantic,” said Blyth. “I took a trip to New Mexico to prepare for the role and there’s nowhere like it. I mean, the sunsets are magical and spiritual, and you can see why people arrive there and went, ‘Oh, my God. This is heaven on earth,’ and then realize that what they’d been promised when they got there was quite, quite different. They had to fight to create their little pocket of heaven, and it wasn’t always clean. It wasn’t always done in the right way, but I think the idea of striving for a [richer] life, I think, appeals to everyone.”
EPIX’s Billy the Kid will premiere on Sunday, April 24, 2022. In addition to Tom Blyth, the season one cast includes Daniel Webber as Jesse Evans, Eileen O’Higgins as Kathleen McCarty, and Jonah Collier as a young Billy.
