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That Dirty Black Bag: Douglas Booth on Westerns, Method Acting & More

Douglas Booth was always fascinated with American Westerns growing up in England. In the Western series That Dirty Black Bag, he was able to live that dream by playing Red Bill, an infamous solitary bounty hunter known for decapitating his victims and stuffing their heads into a dirty black bag. He's on a collision course with the unrelenting sheriff, Arthur McCoy (Dominic Cooper), who's trying to overcome his own trouble past to bring law and order to the new frontier. Booth spoke with Bleeding Cool about horseback riding, love for Quentin Tarantino, method acting, and what Booth and Bill share.

Bleeding Cool: What attracted you to That Dirty Black Bag?

Douglas Booth: I've always wanted to do a Western. I rode since I was a kid. To do anything where I can be on a horse, I'm always happy. Dominic Cooper was also attached, and I love him as a person and as an actor. He's also been a friend of mine for over a decade, and we know each other very well. [The show] was just coming to the tail end of a COVID lockdown in the UK. I was really very lucky to go out and be able to travel to Almeria in Spain, Pula in Italy, and the Sahara Desert in Morocco to shoot this great epic adventure. I was all in.

BC: You said always want to do those things, aside from riding horses, was there anything else you had to learn on set?

Booth: I didn't know how to throw a tomahawk, so that was something I had to learn. I also had to learn how to handle a weapon quite as well as Red Bill handles. There was a bit of work to be done, but it was all fun.

BC: What Westerns did you grow up watching?

Booth: I remember when I was a kid on Saturdays, there were old American Westerns were playing. I saw horses on them, and I liked watching them, but I can't tell you specifically what those were since they were just on repeat. I remember the first one that was really stuck in my head was "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," which I loved and thought was really impressive. I'm also a huge Tarantino fan, so the Spaghetti Western has a heavy influence on his work. I enjoyed his movies as well.

BC: Was any aspect of Red Bill that was particularly difficult to capture?

Booth: It took me a minute to get into his physicality. He holds himself very firm and steady, whereas I'm definitely more of a fidget [laughs]. To find that centeredness that he had was a bit of a challenge. On a practical level, I never wore cowboy boots before running up and down on unsafe, uneven rocky mountains, so my calves were completely destroyed. That was a challenge. As a character, he was a joy to dive into. He had a complex past, and he was dealing with some trauma. As an actor, that's always interesting and exciting to delve into and play.

BC: What was life like on the set when you weren't filming?

Booth: We hung out a lot, and we were very close. When we were shooting in Italy at the beginning, we were all confined to a hotel because we weren't supposed to really go out that much. We had good fun. It was heavily stocked with very good red wine and white wine, actually. We cooked together, bonded, we worked the scenes, and it was a joy. I definitely say lots of eating and drinking was the main pastime [laughs].

BC: Some people view things like method acting as something that helps gives the actor the edge. Do you find it's something that would help your performance?

Booth: People have lots of different opinions on method acting. I think it's up to any actor what they do as long as it doesn't become selfish and negatively impact other people. Sometimes, you can make it all by yourself, and "my process is the most important process." That's not what acting is. It's a collaboration, really. There are two people in the room or more. I try and sink into certain character traits while I'm filming on set, but I'm very much able to leave my character at the door when I go home. I think it's too draining. You can't work six days a week for six months and then try to take that character to bed with you every night too. It would be too much. You come back fatigued rather than refreshed and ready to dive. As soon as I come into the makeup trailer and go through the works, I try and remain as close to the character as possible.

BC: Was there any external inspirations that help mold Red Bill for you, or was it just something that just off the script you just knew what you got to do for the character?

Booth: I think kind of just off the script and then, bringing in your own personal experience. One of Red Bill's main things he's dealing with is the loss of his mother. That's what has brought him to the point he is where we find him in the story. Me, I'm very close to my mother. As a kid, I used to have recurring nightmares about losing her. That was always an idea of hell for me, and that was kind of my starting place. Where I connected with him as me, Douglas with him, Red Bill, is this love of his mother for him. He lost his mother at a very young age, and later how he was really dealing with that grief. That's that was my connecting point.

Season one of AMC+ and RLJE Films' That Dirty Black Bag, which also stars Niv Sultan, Aidan Gillen, and Travis Fimmel, is available on DVD and Blu-Ray.

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