Entertainment
He’s Had a Few Teeth Pulled
Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for the Dark Winds Season 4 finale.
This season of Dark Winds has been quite the roller-coaster. As Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) have quite literally left the reservation to bring back a missing girl who has scurried off to 1970s Los Angeles, they find themselves in the crosshairs of a dangerous conspiracy — one with Titus Welliver‘s Dominic McNair at the very center. Collider had the immense pleasure of speaking with the Bosch star himself about his role in Season 4, his love for the original Tony Hillerman novels, his hopes for the show’s future (and his potential involvement in it), and more.
COLLIDER: First off, I heard you’re a big fan of the original Tony Hillerman novels; is that true?
TITUS WELLIVER: That is true. That is true. I read them… you know, it’s very funny. My youngest brother — half-brother, although I say half-brother only because of our age difference — he’s 19 years younger than I am. But he started reading the Hillerman books when he was, I wanna say, nine years old.
Oh, wow.
WELLIVER: Yeah, he was at a used bookstore with our dad, and he was attracted to the cover art on the paperback. He started reading the books, and he would be talking about them all the time. So, I was like, “You know what? Let me check…” It’s not like I wasn’t aware of them. So, I started reading them, and I got into them. When I heard a few years ago that they were doing the show, I was like — as I’m sure the experience was for people who had read the Bosch books — who were they going to cast as Leaphorn? Then it was announced that it was Zahn [McClarnon], and I was like, “Yes! So excited.” He so embodies that character. Because I have that experience, Zahn and I kind of talked about it briefly, but it’s the daunting prospect. He brought breath of life into Joe in the most perfect way. Everybody does on that show. To then be asked to be a part of it was really, really exciting.
Titus Welliver Was a ‘Dark Winds’ Fan Long Before He Joined AMC’s Smash-Hit Crime Thriller
“To then be asked to be a part of it was really, really exciting.”
I’m assuming then that you’ve read The Ghostway? Obviously, there are some differences between Dominic McNair, your character, and the George McNair character in the novel. Did you revisit the book when crafting your take on the character, or did you always kind of see them as two different people?
WELLIVER: Yeah, I did. I think sometimes, with certain things as an actor… obviously, if you’re going to be Harry Bosch or Leaphorn, it ain’t broke [so] there’s no need to fix it. You don’t want to mess around with it. But it had been a while since I had read [The Ghostway], and when I was speaking to [showrunner] John Wirth, it all kind of came back to a certain degree. But he’s incarcerated, so all of his action is put into motion and enacted from jail, which is interesting and challenging, right? Because he kind of flips the switch and sh*t starts to go sideways. So, in that way, it was cool to have that character really contained but still be formidable and be this sort of malevolent character.
Will their relationship survive the fallout of Joe’s decision?
You’re almost a dark specter behind everything that’s going on this season.
WELLIVER: Yeah. And also, visually, they really did interesting things. Todd A. Dos Reis, he was one of the cinematographers on the show, and he shot the first season of the spin-off Bosch: Legacy. So, he and I already had a shorthand [as] actor and cinematographer. The whole show is shot beautifully. I always say: “A cinematographer creates a beautiful painting, or they create an image, and then you, as an actor, go in there and dwell within that image.” You’re telling the story, but the story is also going on all around you with the visual aspects of it. And I thought that was really… well, look, I was just looking at the monitors.
As I think I said to you, I save it up, I squirreled it, because once I start Dark Winds, I’m gonna blaze it. I have not yet watched it. But, you know, you go to the monitors, and you look at the stand-ins, and you’re like, “Ooh, okay, now I understand where I’m playing, and what I can and can’t do, and what’s gonna really work.” So, it was really exciting.
McNair and Vaggan Have a Complicated Past, According to ‘Dark Winds’ Titus Welliver
What can you tell me about McNair’s relationship with Irene Vaggan? These two clearly have some sort of rapport. What does he see in her that others don’t, and do you think that he’s somewhat scared of her himself?
WELLIVER: I don’t think that he’s scared of her. John sort of alluded to the fact that there’s probably been some kind of a sexual relationship, possibly, in the past, although he said, “Don’t let that inform what you want to do.” John was really generous in that way. He was like, “I just wanna unleash you.” But we did have a conversation. McNair, he’s a puppet master. He knows Vaggan’s capabilities, and so I think in that regard, you have a guy who’s using this instrument of destruction. I would say it’s like somebody who uses a dog as a weapon, like a pitbull or a vicious animal that you have to dominate and control, or else it turns on you. That was sort of the analogy I played in my head. “Yes, of course, that snake can bite you, but you know how and when to grab that snake by the neck so it can’t injure you.” So, there’s that. But he’s more than aware of her capabilities.
We had worked together, Franka and I, on Titans, so we knew each other. Because we knew each other, there was a comfort. As actors, we were already friends. So, we got in there and really played with it, and despite you never [seeing] that happen, it creates some dynamic in the relationship so that the audience had a sense of that.
Titus Welliver Hopes to Return for ‘Dark Winds’ Season 5, but Nothing’s Official Yet
At the end of Season 4, McNair is still behind bars, but he’s certainly not down for the count. Can we expect him to come after Joe and his allies in the upcoming fifth season?
WELLIVER: I don’t know… I’m not sure. I would certainly do it in a heartbeat. With the renewal, and they were renewed early, which is always a great thing. I don’t know if there’s necessarily room in Season 5, but you never know. That being said, if I get a call from John in the eleventh hour, and he goes, “Hey, we just decided to throw this scene in. Get on a plane tomorrow.” I’d be there in a heartbeat. It’s just a marvelous group of people to work with.
Here’s hoping. I think there’s still a lot of potential for your character.
WELLIVER: I think he’s been… He’s had a few teeth pulled by Leaphorn, but I don’t think that he’s been sidelined to the point where he’s ineffectual as to what he can do. But it would be interesting to revisit that character for sure.
All four seasons of Dark Winds are available to stream on AMC+.
- Release Date
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June 12, 2022
- Network
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AMC
- Directors
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Michael Nankin
- Writers
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John Wirth, Steven Judd, Max Hurwitz, Rhiana Yazzie, Thomas Brady, DezBaa’
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