“Animal Kingdom” Star Shawn Hatosy Previews His Directorial Debut

By
Pie
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Shawn Hatosy in Animal Kingdom

Shawn Hatosy is making his directorial debut on TNT’s Animal Kingdom and he opened up to ET about stepping behind the camera.

“It is something that I had wanted to do my whole career, and they don’t just let anybody do it. You can’t just raise your hand and say, ‘Hey, I think I would be good at this!'” he told ET. “Fortunately, I have worked with John Wells since ER and I did five seasons of Southland. I knew that directing was a path that I wanted to take, so I dropped some subtle hints during Southland. Had we gone another season of Southland, I probably would have had a chance to direct that, along with Michael Cudlitz and Ben McKenzie.”

The 42-year-old actor who plays Andrew “Pope” Cody in Animal Kingdom, directed the Tuesday’s episode, “Jackpot.”

“My biggest fear was that I was in episode 10 quite a bit. How are we going to schedule the pre-production, the scouting and all of the meetings that occur prior to actual production? That was a big factor for me,” Hatosy explained, giving credit to the crew and producers for giving him enough time to prepare. “Another concern [I had] was when you’re on the same playing field as the other cast, how [does] taking on this leadership role would affect that relationship? We had no issues there.”

“I’ve been around the show for so long that I know things that other directors aren’t going to be privy to. I know the strengths and weaknesses of our cast. I know the set better than most people and having me there as a director is an asset in many ways,” he added. “And just having been around these characters and having read every script and being so familiar it gives me an edge that is really helpful.”

When asked how his directing differ from his role in the crime drama series, he said, “”It’s a great question because I do think that when I’m playing Pope, I tend to become a little bit quiet and maybe a little bit introspective and internal,” he explained. “Part of that is I’m just trying to stay as focused as possible, particularly on days when Pope has a heavy scene or a heavy workload. You just kind of want to keep all the distractions away. I think my demeanor does change. As director, that’s not going to work. You’re in a position where you need to be available and present and ready to answer all the questions — and there are a lot of questions.”

Animal Kingdom airs every Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on TNT.