Ron Perlman is probably best known for his role of Hellboy in both the original movie of the same name and the sequel, which came out earlier this year, as well as his role as Vincent in Beauty and the Beast which first aired in the late eighties.  This earned him various awards, including a Golden Globe. Perlman also wrote and directed for the show.  Perlman has been quite busy this past year and has several movies listed as in production that are due to arrive in theaters soon.  Besides appearing in movies, Perlman also has done quite a bit of voice work for film, television, and video games. In total he has appeared in over one hundred fifty projects during the last four decades.

Ron Perlman recently joined the cast of the new television show, Sons of Anarchy, which airs on FX.  Perlman plays the part of Clarance ‘Clay’ Morrow, stepfather to the main character of Jackson ‘Jax’ Teller, played by Charlie Hunnam, and husband to Gemma Teller Morrow, played by Katey Sagal.  Sons of Anarchy revolves around the story of an outlaw motorcycle club of the same name, lead by Clay.

Earlier in life, Perlman would never have expected to have such a career in acting.  “I couldn’t make it on the swimming team in high school.  In fact, I got thrown off the swimming team and was forced to audition for the school play because they had at the audition about 35 girls show up and no boys, so my swimming coach suggested that I might be able to do the drama department more good than I was doing the swimming team.  Why he had that instinct I don’t know, but the rest is history.”

Perlman approaches working in film and television the same way.  “Well, the approach is the same.  The general work is the same.  The only difference is with a TV series you go a lot faster, you have to get more stuff done in a day than you do in a movie because the constraints of the schedule are really austere.  So it’s speed, and it’s concentration and focus because it’s relentless.  I mean, you finish one episode at midnight on a Tuesday and then on Wednesday morning at seven you’re in the makeup chair getting ready to start the next one without having a chance to take a breath in between.  So that’s basically the difference, but fundamentally you approach the work the same way.”

Perlman was approached for the role of Clay by the creator and executive producer of Sons of Anarchy.  “Kurt Sutter asked to have lunch with me and told me that they were interested in exploring the idea of me playing Clay and that I was going to have to audition for the network, and so I did and here we are.”

The writing is what first attracted Perlman to the show.  “It’s incredibly smart, very, very, very vivid, completely un-gratuitous for a show’s that as hardcore and violent with explosive and radical behavior, these are not your average conservative Republicans, these guys are ruthless and badass.  And the way it’s depicted is very organic, which you could only do if you’re a brilliant screenwriter, as Kurt Sutter is, and as an actor you know you’re always going to be supported by—you’re never going to be made to look gratuitous or silly because everything is incredibly well supported in a very organic and very brilliant way.”

Perlman was not surprised by the level of violence in the show.  “I knew these were pretty ruthless, rough guys, but there are certain things that we’re doing that shock even me, and I thought I was shockproof.  It’s pretty hardcore.  I mean, you start getting to the third episode, the fourth episode, the fifth episode, I mean, we do stuff that is like—I finished reading it and I was just like, I’ve got to lie down.  It’s definitely—the envelope is being breached.”

The character of Clay was a much different type of role than Perlman is used to playing.  “To tell you the absolute truth, the first time I read it I wasn’t sure I could play the guy.  I’ve never played anybody like him.  No matter how sociopathic or psychotic the character was that I was playing, I always saw something in there that made them that way so that there was always some sort of a duality, like Hellboy is a badass but he has this really soft center.  He’s got a very strong feminine side.  There was always a duality in all the characters I’ve played no matter how radical they were.  There’s no duality in Clay Morrow.  He’s got one gear and it’s win at all costs, and he’s not big on sense of humor.  He has no feminine side whatsoever and I really didn’t know whether I could, whether I had the chops to pull it off.  So I said to myself, there seem to be more people on the periphery who thought I could do it than I thought I could do it, so I figured I’d put my trust and faith in them and use it as a big challenge because the one thing I do love is to be challenged and to be kind of on the tree limb, where one false move either way and you’re toast.  I kind of like that, so I took this thing as a challenge and we’ll see.  So far I’m having a good time, I’m exercising different muscles than I’ve ever used before.”

Perlman approaches playing Clay differently than other characters he has played in the past.  “He’s about as far from my own approach to life as anyone I’ve ever played but having said that, as an actor you’re always using your own facets behaviorally to loan the character his reality, and I can only play Clay as I can access him from my own field of experience.  But he’s really, really, really different from me and, as I said before, a challenge because of that because I’ve got to adjust my point of view and my way of processing a situation.  I don’t process situations the way he does.”

Perlman, however, does not have a preference on which type of characters he plays.  “I don’t have any preferences.  I feel as though my criteria are based more on how challenging the role is, it doesn’t have to fit into any particular profile, is it something that I’ve never done before, and is it something that I feel like I can really feel challenged and therefore fully engaged in, and that’s when the work gets to be the most fun.”

Working on Sons of Anarchy is different than working on other shows for Perlman.  “We don’t have any typical days.  Every single day is a complete different set of problems.  Every single day is not like any other day.  You just try to make sure that you’re well nourished and you’ve got enough energy to get through it because they’re very often 14, 15, or 16 hours long and we’re moving at a really quick pace because we’re shooting an episode in seven days, and the workload is overwhelmingly concentrated and focused.”

With so much of the story focusing on biker culture, Perlman felt the need for research.  “I’m continuing to do research into biker culture.  I got kind of thrown into this thing with no prep time so I just basically dove in with two legs, with two feet, and started playing him and have picked up things.  You know, we have a tech advisor who’s a member of the Oakland Chapter of the Hells Angels named D.L., he’s one of the most famous guys in that club, and he—whenever I get a break in the action, I sit and chitchat with him.  Charlie’s [Hunnam] done time up there, he’s spent serious time up there learning, immersing himself in the subculture, and whenever I have a minute I pick his brain, I learn from him.  And I feel as if I have enough of a foundation where I’ve got a pretty strong point of view about where Clay is coming from and what his core values are, but I really would like to learn more because the more I know about them the more fascinating they become to me.” 

Perlman has had many great moments while working on the show.  “Every single scene that I’ve done has been, like, I can’t even put into words what a great writer Kurt Sutter is and what an amazing staff he’s assembled because every script is just filled with scenes you can’t wait to do…The most surprising episode was, I think, the fifth episode.  It’s called AK51, and it was written by a woman named Nicole Beattie and it’s basically a script that could only have been written by a woman and it deals with one of the things I alluded to earlier, the fact that Katey’s body and my body are going through these changes and there’s some amazing stuff in there that comes as a surprise to both of us and the playing of those things was pretty surprising and revealing.  I just can’t wait to get to work every day because these scenes are just like hanging fastballs, hanging curveballs, as the pitch is coming in you just lick your lips waiting…”

Perlman hopes that the series will draw a big audience.  “I don’t know, I can only hope.  I can never second guess what happens when you take a piece of culture and try to funnel it into the mainstream.  I’ve been wrong almost every time before so I’ve stopped guessing.  I hope people like it for its uniqueness and for the effort that everybody’s putting in, which is a pretty magnanimous effort.”

You can currently see Ron Perlman in The Sons of Anarchy on Wednesday nights on FX.