‘The Bastard Executioner’ Star Stephen Moyer Compares His Character To Clay On ‘Sons Of Anarchy’

Kurt Sutter’s newest drama, The Bastard Executioner, is only days away from its highly-anticipated premiere. With that in mind, Stephen Moyer recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly and discussed his role as Milius Corbett in the upcoming series.

The Bastard Executioner is a medieval drama that centers on the story of a warrior knight named Wilkin Brattle (Lee Jones). In regards to Milius, Moyer described his character as a former military man who enjoys a place of high ranking in the local shire.

“I am kind of a soldier who has elevated himself within the ranks to a position of power within the castle, and I’m the right hand to Lord Ventris, whose shire this is,” he stated. “He’s married a girl, the princess of the shire, and he and I, we’re soldiers together, and I was his corporal or sergeant, if you’d like, and he was the leader of the army.”

Moyer went on to reveal that his character has close interactions with Brattle and will be one of the main antagonists on The Bastard Executioner.

“Nobody else knows in the whole world other than my captain, Lord Ventris, that he fought for us in the Scottish War,” he explained, referencing Jones’ character. “When he turns up in town with this new brand on his face as an executioner, I know that’s not who he really is, but I’m the only person who knows he isn’t who he says he is.”

With Moyer’s character being one of the big villains in the show, the actor went on to add that he sees a lot of similarities between The Bastard Executioner and Sutter’s hit biker drama, Sons of Anarchy.

“I tweeted a picture of me on my horse and I said, ‘This is my Harley Davidson.’ If you actually analyze it, a very simple first look, I’m Clay, and he’s [Lee Jones’ character] Jax.”

Moyer added that Sutter’s brand of storytelling, especially the element of tragedy, is also present in the new series.

“I suppose in a funny way my boys who are working under me are an amalgam of the Sons boys, but they’re also antagonists,” he related in the interview. “There’s definitely connections, and you see rhythms within his storytelling, which lead to Shakespearean tragedy in the same way that Sons was Hamlet with leathers. There were definitely traces of that within it.”

The Bastard Executioner is set to premiere September 15 on FX.

[Image Courtesy: FX]