Jimmi Simpson is something of an enigma. He’s been in some of the biggest TV shows and films made in the last 20 years but even with that, not everyone knows who he is because he is that good at it.
From Liam McPoyle in It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia to William/The Man In Black from Westworld and his lead role in Stan’s Perpetual Grace, LTD alongside powerhouse Ben Kingsley, Simpson is one of Hollywood’s most versatile actors.
GOAT spoke to Simpson about how his career turned from not wanting to play the “everyman” to embracing it:
It’s at about Westworld where they said “we’d like you to play not just the spike in the punch but the punch, we want you to be apart of the moral fabric that brings the audience into this new story, into this new world that they live in” and the responsibility I felt to do that.”
Simpson explained the differences between his latest show,
Perpetual Grace, LTD and HBO’s Westworld:
It [Perpetual Grace, LTD] wasn’t that small of a production, I guess there was such a clear artistic vision from Steve Conrad and Bruce Terris and when they had the idea they showed it to EPIX and MGM and they said “we’re going to help you execute that the way you see it” which is rare in television.
So it wasn’t like a monumental amount of crew like Westworld, I mean we generally had about three units going on Westworld which means three different cameras shooting three different things to try to cover everything we needed to do. This was also one unit, very focused but it was a full on production working though, full hours, everybody’s working their butts off to the bone and again, it’s that vision that got everybody motivated.
Here’s the thing, you can see that when you watch Perpetual Grace, LTD. The show is artistically driven from everyone and it’s a fantastic series with some of the most talented actors and creatives driving it.
It streams on Stan and has some career defining performances from Jimmi Simpson and Ben Kingsley, so really what more motivation do you need?