From the twisted, creative mind of Kurt Sutter (a staff writer and eventual executive producer on the critically acclaimed The Shield), Sons of Anarchy follows the love lives, the sexual appetites, the lethal rivalries and illegal activities of an international outlaw biker gang that rules the tiny town of Charming, California.
Ron Perlman plays the hot-tempered Clay, the club president of this branch of SOA, head of their gun-running business “Sam Crow,” and stepfather of Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), the pensive 20-something son of a former SOA founder who is being groomed to take over the club by his devious, ambitious mom, Gemma Teller (Katey Sagal). With Season Two of the Emmy-nominated show slated to air next month, the show’s creator, Kurt Sutter, his real-life wife and the actress behind Gemma (Katey Sagal) and veteran character Ron Perlman sat down to discuss their roles, how real bikers are reacting to a bloody and violent show about them, and the dynamics between the lead characters.
During the course of the first season, Jax is forced to keep his friends close and his enemies closer as he slowly begins to distance himself from those he once considered members of his club and actual family. But while Jax is questioning his loyalties, he must still constantly watch his back from groups of white supremacists, gunrunning hoodlums, meth-dealing rival gangs and crooked cops — arch enemies all out to bring down Sam Crow and the Sons of Anarchy.
Katey, is it comfortable playing the role of Gemma, Clay’s [Ron] wife, and the female head of the Sons of Anarchy? Since your are married to Kurt Sutter [creator of Sons of Anarchy], if you have a particularly horrific day on the set, can you drag your husband home and still have a normal evening at home. Or does the tension of a really traumatic day on the set, or a bloody, death-filled scene, come home with you?
KATEY SAGAL: “As an actor, you have to shake stuff off, but this was a particular experience where it was difficult. And it wasn’t so much, you know, coming home to have a normal evening. We sort of have normal evenings, don’t we, honey? But we’re kind of working in progress right now. We have family at home, kids at home, and they’re a pleasant distraction from what transpired in the beginning of this season. So I guess my answer to you is it is difficult. It was difficult. It’s not always difficult. You know, but uncomfortable is not necessarily a bad thing.”
Kurt, how can you make it easier on your wife, for God’s sake?
KURT SUTTER: [Laughs] “You say that like it’s a bad thing. I think Katey is right. When I had the notion to do what we did in the premiere, there was discussions and giving her a heads up about emotionally where she would need to go. And, I think a lot of it was just preparing and getting her head in that place. It was a pretty dark place. I think she got a glimpse of pretty much where I live all the time and really didn’t like the neighborhood. So, that was a bit of a struggle, but I mean, she’s right. I mean, the upside is that we have a very busy household, and you can’t sort of linger too much on your own shit or you just get way behind. So that really didn’t answer your question at all, but I chose not to.”
Ron, for the first season, you weren’t a real pro on the motorcycle. How are you doing with the motorcycle at this point, for Season Two?
RON PERLMAN: “I’ve learned how to ride for the new season, and what else can I tell you? There was one episode where we were on the road. So there was a lot of riding. And I was able to do every shot. So, you know, I wasn’t happy about it, but I did it.”
Does being able to ride it now give you any deeper insight into your character of Clay? Or it’s just something you have to do for the part?
RON PERLMAN: “Well, the interesting thing about Clay is that we’re dealing with a character whose riding days are probably coming closer to an end than a beginning. He’s got these problems with his hands. He’s got this oncoming profound arthritis which will disable him from being able to ride, which is one of the story points that we kind of revisit every once in a while. So that helps me, you know, in my disposition about my relationship with the bike, but the show is really so heavy on the presidency and all of the things that that entails that, you know, the riding of the bike, thankfully, is just, you know, sort of an accessory to a very complex network of who the guy is.
Ron, the physicality of your character, it’s very visceral in the way Clay interacts with everybody. How does his physicality compare with your other roles you’ve done in the past?
RON PERLMAN: “Though this guy is a compendium of a lot of experiences that I can only imagine — you know, he’s a Vietnam vet, and all the things that led up to his desire to go and fight — are things that I can only kind of relate to intellectually. But Kurt provides me with a lot of opportunities to visit my sordid little imagination, you know, and hopefully the gap between what I don’t know about him and what I need to know about him is the fun of playing him. It’s like getting the rubber to meet the road. I feel as though there are varying degrees of success, but certainly the challenge is the ongoing and welcome.”
Kurt, you are sort of famous for conceiving the really dark stuff on shows like The Shield. Obviously, you’ve done some ground-breaking, dark stuff on this show. Where does it come from? Why do you feel the need to put it on television?
KURT SUTTER: “That’s a much longer conversation. [Laughs] Look, I’d like to believe that the pushing of that envelope is never gratuitous. I’d like to believe that I support it through character,
It even gets darker in Season Two, doesn’t it?
KURT SUTTER: “I will say, even the turn that we take in the [second season] premiere — and we were discussing this a little bit yesterday — that it becomes the emotional engine for Gemma [Sagal] and for some of the bigger seasonal arcs the new year. And I’ll tease this much and say that, you know, to put a character like Gemma Teller on any kind of spiritual path, it would take an act as strong and visceral and violent as what happened in the premiere.”
Kurt, the show is really powerful, and there’s almost an aspect of The Godfather at times, but more visceral. Could you talk about your definition of family and that notion and how you try to push the notion of it within all the characters on Sons Of Anarchy?
KURT SUTTER: “Ultimately, the world that this show takes place in, the subculture, is really background for what is a family drama — and it is a love story. I think to make characters like the Sons relatable and palatable to an audience, you really have to stress those elements of family and brotherhood and love and — I think all those things are important to me and what I love to write about. We have two consultants on the show who are part of an outlaw club. Because to me, if we can keep those details real and keep the show rooted in that reality, then I’m given the freedom to tell really big, dramatic, almost epic stories that, if I didn’t have this, I wouldn’t be able to do. They would lapse into melodrama, or they would seem unbelievable. It’s why I’m blessed with, a great crew, a great creative staff and actors that can take all that big stuff and really root it and make organic choices and make it real.”
I don’t know if they watch television, but have you heard from any of the motorcycle clubs or gangs relating to Sons Of Anarchy and how you portrayed them?
KURT SUTTER: Have I heard from any of them? As I said, I’m in touch with them, and it’s important for me to have an open line of communication to that world, quite frankly for my own well-being and also because I take creative license. We take a lot of liberties, but I don’t want them to feel exploited. We’ve made a couple of adjustments over the course of these seasons when we get feedback, but the feedback has been mostly positive. I actually went to a rally about a month and a half ago and saw a bunch of guys who were in the world, and they said an interesting thing, that this show has ultimately, become a good PR vehicle for outlaw clubs in terms of general acceptance from the general public all the way to law enforcement.”
That’s frightening.
KURT SUTTER: “I don’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But, you know, I was glad.”
In many ways, Season One was this unlikely recruiting tool for motorcycle clubs. This season, you have Sam Crow going up against this other group — a white supremacist group — who is even worse than they are. How do you avoid just making it seem like, ‘Okay, now, these are the good guys because the other ones are so much worse?”
KURT SUTTER: “I mean, obviously, that’s a narrative device that’s important for the show to keep these guys — to keep the hero an anti-hero, but here’s the deal, we will see the evil things that this separatist group is capable of doing, and there won’t be a whole lot of redeeming things that they do throughout the course of the season. But there’s always the things that the Sons are doing that in any given scene could be seen as protectors or the good guys, and yet the very next scene can be killing somebody, can be cutting somebody. Their line is never straight. So I don’t think there’s ever a sense of a black-and-white between those two distinct groups.
Katey, the great thing about the female characters is that you really sort of push it with the aspects of the power struggle but also about the love that they have for these men and how everything is run.
KATEY SAGAL: “The women are all somewhat displaced. I think if you look at it that way, these are people that kind of — I would look at like they come from out here, and they’ve united from their own little world because they’ve all had their own separate problems, somewhere else. There’s reference in the newseason that when you become a part of a club, you leave your family of origin behind. That is no longer the important thing. So you have a lot of interaction between people that aren’t really socially knowing exactly what, where, when. They react, and they respond. This season, Maggie [Siff] and I have, really, just an interesting journey where it’s combative, but there’s a bonding because she knows the world, and she just needs to be reminded of what this means. This is a major commitment when you commit to this kind of life.”
Sons of Anarchy: Season One Blu-ray DVD — Bonus Features: Behind-the-scenes, making-of featurettes; cast and crew commentary on select episodes; deleted scenes and a gag reel.
The Simpsons: The Complete Twelfth Season
If you pick up any DVD box set of The Simpsons, it has to be Season Twelve, because two of the funniest and most clever episodes in the history of the series are contained in this collection of shows from its 2000-’01 season. First, it’s the incomparable, laugh-you-butt-off episode “New Kids One The Beech,” which features Bart’s boy band odyssey with then pop sensations ‘N Sync — poking fun at the whole boy band phenomenon in only the hysterical, tongue-in-cheek way Simpsons creator Matt Groening can. And, in Homer, Bart and Lisa’s hilarious, less-than-ordinary day in “Trilogy of Error” is classic Simpsons humour — this episode is one of the reasons the series is the longest running animated series in television history. Okay, if those two comic gems aren’t enough to convince you to get Season 12, then the flawless vocal guest spots from Drew Barrymore, Edward Norton, Justin Timberlake (in “…Beech”), Stephen King, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Roger Daltrey will do it. More than just another great year for the show, the Twelfth Season of The Simpsons is a hysterically historic collection of a show at its pinnacle. Bonus Features: Introduction from Matt Groening; audio commentaries with Groening and cast & crew; deleted scenes; animation showcases; original sketches; special language feature; featurettes and collectible packaging modeled after the overweight and over opinionated retailer Comic Book Guy.
The Five Deadly Venoms
Released on the premiere martial artist label Dragon Dynasty, the classic The 5 Deadly Venoms fight-filled thriller has artistically given birth to several genres of action films and generations of rap music, as well as pop culture trends. The story of the soon-to-be-dead master of the notorious Poison Clan trusts his very last martial arts student with one of his final and greatest epic pursuits. The student must find five of the master’s most mystifying and potentially dangerous disciples who have been forced to live under assumed identities. He must bring these disciples together as one — who have each been trained in a different style of fighting—or bring them back to face justice. Directed by Hong Kong filmmaking legend Chang Cheh (The One-Armed) and starring Hard Boiled lead fighter Philip Kwok, 5 Deadly Venoms ignited the international martial arts craze that dominates the cinematic world to this day, by taking a story jam-packed with thrilling twists and turns and filling it with with charismatic characters and first-rate martial arts choreography. Bonus Feature: Commentary by Hong Kong cinema cxpert Bey Logan.
Greek: Chapter Three
Frat series 
Greek is garnering more and more fans as the seasons progress. And, what makes it even more surprising is that it’s not a show aimed just at the young, it also appeals to the young at heart. In Greek: Chapter Three, audiences are treated to a whole new school year filled whole new crop of pledges and challenges. A harmless, surprisingly fascinating look at college life, Greek: Chapter Three possess one of the most irresistible soundtracks of any primetime series currently on the air. Bonus Features: Bloopers; the “20 Questions with the Cast of Greek” featurette and audio commentaries.
Surveillance
Surveillance is a sinister, skin-crawling tale of roadside rampage. Although it was overlooked at the box office, there’s no excuse to miss this blood-curdling award-winning mystery (scoring a Best Actress win for Julia Ormond and a Best Director prize for Boxing Helena filmmaker Jennifer Lynch at The NYC Horror Film Festival). The film stars Ormond and Bill Pullman as FBI agents who are sent to investigate a series of gruesome murders. These competent, yet confused agents must contend with three conflicting views of how the roadside massacre actually occurred. As they start to unravel the mystery and discover that the fragile little details that each of their witnesses have concealed all lead to a bigger truth that comes at a unlikely, devastating cost to everyone involved. Bonus Features on DVD and Blu-ray: The “Surveillance: The Watched are Watching” featurette; the HDNet feature “A Look at Surveillance”; deleted scenes; alternate ending and audio commentary.
Wyvern
Leave it to humans ignoring the warnings about that nasty old global warming to unleash a very agile and human-hungry monster on us. When the temperature rises just a few degrees above normal in the small town of Beaver Mills, Alaska, a natural, icy cage/tomb is melted away just enough for the prehistoric winged creature — known as the Wyvern — to fly its way into a new feeding ground, downtown Beaver Mills. A segment of the Sci Fi Channel’s Maneater series, with Barry Corbin, Nick Chinlund and Erin Karpluk star as the humans trying to put the Wyvern back into deep freeze.
NFL Minnesota Vikings 5 Greatest Games
This is one 5-disc DVD set that not a single solitary fan of the Minnesota Vikings should be without, especially if they’re gearing up for what promises to be an exciting 2009 NFL season. In another first, Vikings aficionados can own the original, full network broadcasts of five of the most legendary games in the Twin City franchise’s history. Once again, you can relive the great 1998 season when Randall Cunningham threw three touchdowns when they stomped the Arizona Cardinals; cheer when Adrian Peterson set the NFL single-game rushing record and watch their miraculous 2008 postseason game against the Giants when they scored with a last-second 50-yard field goal. This is only a sampling of the improbable playoff victories, heroic performances by Vikings legends such as Adrian Peterson, Randy Moss and Chris Carter and the most thrilling victories in team history.
Dirty Sexy Money: The Complete Second and Final Season
With one of the best titles in TV history, an Oscar and Emmy-winning cast featuring Peter Krause, Donald Sutherland, William Baldwin, Lucy Liu, Blair Underwood and Jill Clayburgh and a sexy, over-the-top plot that only more salacious and fun each week, how could Dirty Sexy Money lose? How about low ratings? One of the final victims of the writer’s strike, the cancelled Dirty Sexy Money was tossed around the primetime schedule like a Vikings football, so even fans of this delicious guilty pleasure had trouble finding it — even on our DVR or TiVo. Focusing on the over-the-top antics of the ultra-rich Darlings — a family that would make the Trumps look poor — the delectably dishy DSM only got dirtier and sexier as the (last) season went on. Although many of the storylines aren’t wrapped up in this Final Season DVD, there’s still enough fun to go around. Just pray somebody decides to tie up all the loose ends with a mini-series. Bonus Features: Three featurettes; bloopers and deleted scenes.
Eli Stone: The Complete Second and Final Season
Another series that met its demise long before it had been given the chance to find an audience, Eli Stone, starring Angelina’s ex-hubby Johnny Lee Miller as the lead character, is the wild and wacky tale of corporate litigator Stone, a man who can see the past and look into future — in full-out musical dance numbers with tunes and performances from such stars as George Michael — thanks to a horrible little brain aneurysm. Stone’s visions transform him from legal barracuda to a spiritually-enlightened optimist almost overnight. Filled with great music, elaborate musical numbers and a hip social conscience, the legal drama/comedy also stars Victor Garber, Natasha Henstridge and Dreamgirl Loretta Devine. Before the end of Season Two, even Katie Holmes, Taraji Henson, Sigourney Weaver, Katey Sagal and Seal showed up for a couple of song and dance numbers of their own. Maybe not for everyone’s taste, Eli Stone is a laugh-filled, smile-inducing series that’ll put a spring in your step. Bonus Features: Two behind-the-scenes featurettes; blooper reel and deleted scenes.
Everybody Hates Chris: The Fourth and Final Season
Everybody loved Chris Rock’s recollections of his early childhood experiences for at least four seasons. The funny and touching story of a teenager growing up as the eldest of three children in Brooklyn, New York during the early 1980s, the fourth season of Everybody Hates Chris hilariously followed the ninth-grader who just wanted to hang with the cool kids, talk to the pretty girls and keep his family off his back. A single-camera comedy, the fourth season was clearly the best of Rock’s hysterical, real-life remembrances of a funnier, gentler time. Bonus Features: Gag reel; five featurettes; director webisodes; intro and commentary with executive producer Ali LeRoi and deleted scenes.
Julia
The Oscar-winning Tilda Swinton deserved another Academy Award for her riveting and jaw-dropping performance in Julia. The recipient of the Evening Standard’s British Film Awards (for Best Actress), Tilda Swinton pours every ounce of her soul and talent into playing Julia, an alcoholic loser who survives by taking minimum-wage jobs to support her lifestyle of nonstop booze and endless one-night-stands. Tired of standing by while her life disappears in front her, Julia sees the chance to make some money and better her existence after she meets a woman who is currently estranged from her son. Determined to put a lot of money in her pockets, Julia becomes involved in a criminal plot that becomes more complex and dangerous than she ever imagined. Julia’s bad dreams are quickly becoming a nightmare. Bonus Feature: Deleted scenes.
Gossip Girl: The Complete Second Season
Gossip Girl is changing the way a lot of women dress (there is talk of a GG fashion line at major department stores), how many teens talk (several slang words and terms have sprung from the series), and the way we communicate with each other (the show has taught us more about hi-tech chatting than Apple itself). Starring Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Kelly Rutherford and Matthew Settle, in the sophomore year of Gossip Girl new romances bloom and fade, scandals pop up at at every turn and alliances shift faster than the mysterious Gossip Girl can email, Twitter or text message them. Additionally, families, reputations and fortunes are destroyed and even the strongest friendships are tested in all 25-episodes in this 7-disc collection. Bonus Features: All-new featurettes; unaired scenes; gag reel and a downloadable audiobook of Gossip Girl: You Know You Love Me by Cecily von Ziegesar, read by Christina Ricci.
NOW ON BLU-RAY
Dexter: The Third Season
A sensational and bloody great dark comedy, in Season Three, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) has eluded the FBI and is trying his best to live a normal life, but his murderous thoughts never seem to be far from his mind. Even a marriage (Julie Benz) and a new family can’t keep Dexter’s darkest demons at bay. What’s a self-respecting serial killer supposed to do? When a high-profile case brings him to the attention of a Miami D.A. a lot changes in Dexter’s life — but has he found a friend or foe? Another great season (co-starring Jimmy Smits), Dexter continues to slay audiences with its witty dialogue and nail-biting storylines. Also on DVD. Bonus BD-Live Features: “Dexter By Design” book excerpts; Two First Season Episodes of United States of Tara; Two Episodes of The Tudors Season 3 and interviews with Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Erik King, Lauren Velez and David Zayas.
The Last House On The Left Unrated
In this gripping and terrifying re-imagining of one of horror-meister Wes Craven’s most notorious and disturbing classics, director Dennis Iliadis uses fate, destiny and revenge to exact justice in the most ruthlessly brilliant ways imaginable. After a sadistic killer attempts to get out of a terrible storm and unknowingly shows up at the house of the parents of one of his rape and murder victim’s, normal everyday people go to gruesome extremes for vengeance. Also on DVD. Bonus Features: Deleted scenes; “A Look Inside” featurette; a digital copy; D-Box Motion Enabled and BD-LIVE! features.
How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days: Deluxe Edition
How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days illustrates what a good romantic comedy should look and sound like. Complete with a funny script and genetically refined onscreen chemistry between Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, the films tells what happens when Andie (Hudson) needs to prove she can dump a guy in ten days, Ben (McConaughey) is determined to show that he can win the heart of a girl in the same amount of time. Also on DVD. Bonus Features: The Blu-ray features two new feaurettes; previously released features including commentary by director Donald Petrie; deleted scenes with optional commentary by Petrie and a music video of Keith Urban’s “Somebody Like You.”
The Last Starfighter: 25th Anniversary Edition
Believe it or not, it’s been a quarter century since Alex (Lance Guest) was recruited by the Star League to defend the universe against Xur and The Kodan Armada. A charming and stunning tale of excellent video-gamer who is asked to leave his life in a rundown trailer part to jump behind the controls of a starfighter to safe the universe and Earth itself. The Last Starfighter is just as amazing and exhilarating as it was in 1984. In fact, on Blu-ray it’s better. Fight Earthling, fight!! Bonus Features: Two featurettes; image gallery; feature commentary; D-Box Motion Enabled and BD-LIVE! features.
