{"id":8353,"date":"2019-04-15T15:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=8353"},"modified":"2019-04-15T17:07:13","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T15:07:13","slug":"qa-with-walton-goggins-nathan-miller-of-foxs-deep-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2019\/04\/15\/qa-with-walton-goggins-nathan-miller-of-foxs-deep-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A With Walton Goggins (Nathan Miller) Of Fox’s ‘Deep State’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pictured: Walton Goggins as Nathan Miller in DEEP STATE
\u00a9 Fox Networks Group, Europe & Africa

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Tell us about Nathan Miller and Season Two?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathan Miller is a very interesting guy. He\u2019s a \u2018fixer\u2019 for the deep state. He comes from a CIA background and has spent his entire career in counterintelligence. Those skills are very useful to people who are trying to manipulate, or move the chess pieces around the board in order to get what they need. Nathan Miller is a very important tool for the deep state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think Nathan Miller is a good guy or a bad guy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that Nathan Miller is a person who believes that he\u2019s doing the right thing. I think that he is a man who believes in country, and that his country should come first. I think there are a lot of people that work in the shadows of governments that have the same outlook as he does. Nathan Miller is a person who protects our interests even though, at times, it is at the expense of our liberal values and that\u2019s a very complicated place to be in the world. He\u2019s also a loving father and husband. He loves his family as much as he loves his country but sometimes he is asked to do things in his work that are at great odds with who he sees himself to be in his personal life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do the two worlds get a little bit blurry for Nathan?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. Nathan Miller is a person that can bring down kings but has a hard time keeping his marriage together. These are very powerful people that move in shadow economies and shadow politics, trying to protect the interest of their country and their constituents. Sometimes their constituents come before country, but in the head of Nathan Miller, I think that there are moments where those interests align.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is he a bad guy? It depends on who you ask. It depends on who benefits from the decisions that he makes, and the actions that he takes. The way that Matthew Parkhill, our creator, has constructed this story, nothing and no one is black and white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you and your character, Nathan Miller, have things in common?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We both like nice suits. Walton Goggins and Nathan Miller both like to dress up. He has a style. It\u2019s not my style, but it\u2019s pretty close. I understand him. I understand his level of pain, and his joys and sorrows, his victories and defeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re playing two different timelines which forces the audience to really pay attention. How do you, as an actor, keep those two storylines clear in your own head?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You just have to read and reread the script every day before you come to work to really understand where you are. It\u2019s so exciting but you have to keep on your toes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about the collaboration you have with Matthew Parkhill?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m always asking questions, poking holes, so I can better understand what Matthew wants and what is right for the character. I\u2019m saying to myself on a moment to moment basis, what are we saying right now? What do we want the audience to feel? What note are we playing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were a number of books that Matthew turned me on to when I took this job. One was called \u2018The Way of the Knife,\u2019 and another was called \u2018The Looting Machine,\u2019 about the pillaging of minerals in Africa. I didn\u2019t know what had been going on in this region of Africa since World War II. I didn\u2019t truly understand that, but now I do thanks to Matthew. Matthew has woven a tale that explores all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s it like being both the star and an executive producer on the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I take both positions, executive producer and leading actor, very seriously. One moment you\u2019re behind the camera, and then the next you\u2019re in front of the camera. As an executive producer, I\u2019m constantly thinking, how can I help the other producers and department heads? How can I make their jobs easier? You also want the crew to feel like they\u2019re making something worthy of their time. I think that\u2019s only achievable if you, as an actor or as an executive producer, sincerely believe that for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This crew has all worked together before on the first season, and you\u2019ve come in at the beginning of the second season. What was that like? What\u2019s your experience been like with this crew?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s so intimidating and daunting to step into a machine that has already made one full revolution, and also to be the only American in the bunch. The Brits are amazing actors, and so you don\u2019t want to be the one to drop the ball. All I could do was to be as well prepared as possible. Also, everybody has opened their arms and invited me in. It\u2019s been wonderful being invited into this close knit family. Mark Strong was the lead in season one, and I\u2019ve been a fan of Mark\u2019s for such a long time. He\u2019s such a good actor and to try to fill his shoes would be foolish. So I say to myself, well, okay, I\u2019m not Mark Strong but I\u2019m Walton Goggins, and it is going to be by its very nature, different. I wanted to see what it would be like with an American in this situation. We see the world a certain way, and sometimes that\u2019s very similar to a European aesthetic, and sometimes it is quite different! The four things that attracted me to this show were the writing by Mr Parkhill, the photography, the actors, and last but not least, South Africa. It is one of my favourite countries on the planet. I just fell in love with the place and its people. It\u2019s also got some of the best crews working in the business. That\u2019s why people are coming here to tell their stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you politically aware, politically concerned or politically active? Where are you in that spectrum and has it changed at all since you started working on the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m politically aware; I\u2019m politically concerned; I\u2019m politically active, but I don\u2019t speak about politics publicly. I try to express what I feel about the world through my work, and through the choices that I make when I\u2019m given those opportunities. However I\u2019m not, by nature, a conspiracy theorist. I do think that we are living in very dangerous times, and the world is going through a change that we\u2019re all trying to figure out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you believe there is a deep state?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I personally vacillate between believing in the deep state and not believing in the deep state. I don\u2019t think that there is a boardroom of four or five people that control the world, but maybe there\u2019s a group of a 1,000 people that are able, by how big their corporations are, through lobbyists, sway policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about Deep State season 2<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q&A with Joe Dempsie (Harry Clarke)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q&A With Karima McAdams (Leyla Toumi)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q&A With Matthew Parkhill (Co-Creator, Writer, Showrunner, Director \u2013 Eps 1, 2, 7, 8)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DEEP STATE 2 will broadcast on FOX Africa on Wednesdays at 20:45 CAT, from 15 May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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