Taron Egerton Explains His Surprise During 'Black Bird' Finale Fight: 'It Was All To Be Won'

Watching “Black Bird” over the past six weeks has been like watching a MasterClass on acting, writing, and toxic masculinity. It's this last element that was precisely why writer and series creator Dennis Lehane wanted to tackle the series in the first place. “I said, I would do this story if I could talk about misogyny. I would do history if I could talk about the male gaze,” Lehane told IndieWire via Zoom. And the show certainly did, elaborating a brutal story about a serial killer, expertly played by Paul Walter Hauser, and the arrogant drug dealer turned informant (Taron Egerton) intent on bringing him down.

The series has always been about the dynamic between Hauser's Larry Hall and Egerton's Jimmy Keene as they try to figure out each other's motivations. But with the finale, "You Promised", Jimmy must get a confession from Larry by any means necessary. Filming the confrontation between the two men was not something Egerton felt comfortable showing up for in a casual manner. "Paul and I had a long discussion about it," Egerton told IndieWire in a separate chat. “We didn't know what was going to happen. We didn't know what the physical items would look like. We didn't know if it was going to be a fight between us. Everything was up for grabs."

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While the actor has starred in several action movies, Egerton kept it simple. "What is the story we are telling with this moment of violence?" he said. Egerton campaigned for Jimmy to be defenseless against Larry, culminating in Jimmy being pinned against a wall. “I thought for the storytelling [that] Jimmy should be stripped of whatever strength he has,” Egerton said. It's the moment when audiences see the perceived sweet and gentle Larry for the real monster that he is. Egerton said Hauser was so in the moment that his shouts at Egerton's character as Jimmy is escorted out of the room were all off the cuff.

Like Lehane, Egerton also wanted the opportunity to present the series' themes of misogyny and violence against women. Egerton suggested rolling the camera and putting Jimmy under Larry. "My idea was that I felt Jimmy, at that point, needed to feel what it felt like to be Jessica Roach and Tricia Reitler," he said. "You feel it [Jimmy] being overpowered."

It's certainly a far cry from where Jimmy Keene started the show. Egerton said he fell apart reading the final script, especially when Jimmy, trapped in solitary confinement, begs the guard for a pen and paper to draw a map "before I be useless". Hearing this scene brought the actor back to the beginning of the series when he wondered if he could continue playing such an insufferable character. "The challenge of the role is that he's an insufferable fucking pig in the first episode. Can I keep him with me for that long? he says.