Gaslit star compares working with Sean Penn to Marlon Brando
Shea Whigham is part of a very starry cast for the new Watergate drama.
Boardwalk Empire star Shea Whigham is joined by a host of big names in the cast of new Starz series Gaslit, which is set to offer a fresh take on the Watergate scandal.
Julia Roberts, Dan Stevens, and Betty Gilpin are among those to feature prominently in the limited series – which debuts in the UK on Sunday 24th April – but it was working with Sean Penn which proved most appealing to Whigham.
In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com, the actor said the experience of working with Penn – who plays Attorney General John N Mitchell – is not unlike how Al Pacino must have felt working with Marlon Brando on The Godfather.
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"When you first see him, it's so well done by Kazu [Hiro, make-up artist]," he began. "I mean, he is two-time Oscar-winning, just recently, because he's a master at what he does. And so when you see him at the start... It was pretty transformative.
"The main thing with Sean is, when I was a kid, I had Sean's poster on my bedroom wall, of Spicoli [in Fast Times at Ridgemont High] and of [1983’s] Bad Boys," he added.
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"I've worked with him before and I've been around him a little bit, but I never get used to how great he is. I remember hearing Pacino talk about The Godfather, acting with Brando at the beginning of that, and how unsettling that was.
"I think that's the way it is with Sean. I really have a lot of reverence for those that have come before me, like Penn and Oldman and Daniel Day-Lewis, and so to be on the set, that's more unsettling almost than even seeing him in character."
Whigham plays G. Gordon Liddy in the series – a lawyer and FBI agent who was the chief operative in the White House Plumbers unit during the Nixon administration and was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and illegal wiretapping following the scandal.
Additional reporting by David Craig.
Gaslit begins on Sunday 24th April 2022, with new episodes available to stream on Starz in the US and on StarzPlay through Amazon Prime Video in the UK weekly. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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