Starr's character is an enigmatic career criminal who, upon release from jail, suddenly finds himself in a position to take on the identity of a murdered man, Lucas Hood, who was just about to start work as the new sheriff of Banshee. He's frequently dealing out punishment, and getting smashed all over the place, so it's almost surprising that his smashed wrist is Starr's first major injury (though his achilles, hamstring and lip have all taken a pounding too).
"When fight training goes wrong," he laughs. "It's a pretty brutal, physically demanding show, and I like to try to do whatever I can. But more and more as I get older, I'm happy to be on the bench. I'd rather tag in with my stunt guy and let him take the knocks. We've got a great stunt team too - they're always coming up with fresh, cool ideas, and they let me get involved and mix things up. I can be that pain-in-the-ass actor putting his two cents in."
The physically demanding nature of the role wasn't something Starr recognised when he read the pilot, but he's enjoyed the new challenge.
"Naively I didn't realise it would contain so much action. I don't know what I was thinking it was going to be, but being that I've only ever done dramatic stuff, that's where my sensibilities lie. So I immediately honed in on the drama, and what's going on with the characters, it never really occurred to me that I would be lugging 250-pound men around, or be lugged around by them," he laughs.
Still, he sees the show as having a truly dramatic heart that balances well with all the fighting and violence.
"Lucas and [his former accomplice] Ana are like star-crossed lovers that can never be together, and there's this great element of this guy being locked away for 15 years, and how that would effect someone. So from the acting side, he's an amazing character to play, you know, a guy pretending to be a cop. And the way the show has evolved, we don't just skim along the surface of things, we tend to get a bit deeper into the characters. There's a lot of moments where the characters are alone, and we get to see them at their core, you know, what people do when they think eyes aren't on them. We get glimpses into those worlds, which is so telling."
Starr has found that it makes the show appeal to different audiences too.
"People [who] want more out of their TV viewing can get into it, and it's a little bit more cerebral, there's a little more thought, and the people who just want to see guys getting punched, they can have that too. It landed us, at the end of season one, in a pretty good spot to move into season two, playing to those strengths, and it's come up very positively I think."
The show has Alan Ball (True Blood, Six Feet Under) and Greg Yaitanes (prolific director and early Twitter investor) as executive producers, and has become something of a spearhead for Cinemax, the sister network to HBO, as it develops a new brand.
"Greg is a Silicone Valley guy, and he's very conscious of the need to go online and build up social interaction. I'm still typing with two fingers, and he's light years ahead," says Starr.
Being set in such a layered, larger-than-life world, makes Banshee ideal for multi-platform, multi-media exploration. Indeed you can find back-story videos for almost every character, extra scenes, recaps, more videos that delve into the ever-changing and somewhat cryptic title segments, and a graphic novel that explains the events leading up to the pilot episode. The show wasn't envisioned as a comic in the beginning, but that notion and style have become more influential in season two.
"Yeah, it's become quite a big part of it with the comic book, and we went to Comic Con earlier last year," says Starr. "It's cool because people don't expect that the show came first and then they created the comic book. And it gives the show a different style."
In terms of what fans can expect in season two, after the explosive events of the season one finale, there's a bit of cleaning up to do, and a few new faces getting involved. But despite the escalating pressure, Lucas seems to be sinking into the role of sheriff with even greater dedication. Somehow, he copes with the perpetual knife edge of being found out, by throwing himself even deeper into the lie.
"The thing is, you can't sustain being all twitchy and on the look out for trouble forever, because otherwise it becomes unwatchable. You can't have someone who pulls a gun every time a twig snaps. It's interesting, because I think, if you tell yourself the lie enough, if you repeat the lie enough, then you start to believe, and make other people believe it.
"There's an element of that with Lucas, you know, when he pulls it off, he gets more confident, and it just becomes his day to day. So you see Lucas becoming relaxed in the role of playing the sheriff. You know, he gets a system going, he's got someone to do the book work. I mean, let's face it, the show is not grounded in reality, there's some bullshit, because in the real world you wouldn't be able to pretend to be a cop for five minutes, it's ludicrous, but if we're going to suspend disbelief around that, then let's not split hairs about who's doing the paperwork. We're interested in the broader brush strokes of the story here."
Those broader brush strokes are of course what allow for the entertainment, and even some humour to shine through.
"Episode two is a musical. No, not really, but there are moments of lightness in the dark, trying to keep spirits up a bit."
Part of the humour comes from how far they can push the extremities too - how elaborately imaginative the violence and retribution can be, or how colourful the characters are.
"If we have a bad guy, we have a big bad guy. And there are fight scenes that are super-violent, but you end up laughing. The violence is almost a character in itself really, and a multi-faceted one at that."
As to Lucas' personal relationships, well, those seem to pose a greater challenge than pretending to be a sheriff.
"Without spoiling anything, the relationship between him and his daughter heats up. No, those are the wrong words. That suddenly got very ancient Greek. Their relationship thickens up. All his bad relationships get worse and his good relationships get worse. Everything gets worse.
"That's drama right? If it ain't broke, break it."
Who: Antony Starr
What: Banshee, season two.
Where and when: Monday, January 13, 8.30pm, on Soho.
Website: welcometobanshee.com
- TimeOut
