When Black Sails returns to Starz this weekend for its third season, the series will welcome a new, and legendary, character to its cast: Edward Teach, most often referred to as Blackbeard.
The actor portraying Blackbeard is Ray Stevenson, known for his roles in Dexter, Rome and Divergent.
Tech Times spoke with Stevenson about his take on the infamous pirate in the series, as well as about how one takes on such an iconic role.
With Blackbeard being such a legendary historical character, as an actor, how do you approach taking on a role like that and making it your own?
I guess the simple answer would be you just turn up, and it's obviously yours and nobody else's. But there's so much research about this character: he was one of the most documented pirates of his day. And you make it your own, literally, just by playing the truth of it. You play this role within the framework of Black Sails, and with all the research and all the work: you're not doing a documentary based on some historian's view. But all that is fleshed out. But also, it's more about fleshing out the world in which he existed.
You basically, at one certain point, turn your head and put the books away and concentrate on the script at hand. And exist within the world that's being created for you.
How does Edward Teach differ from the other pirates on the series? What motivates him?
He was 6 feet 4 inches tall: he was a colossus. He was a larger-than-life character straight off the bat. He was also an extremely good navigator and captain. He could also be absolutely ruthless, when required. But he wasn't a psychopath. He was a leader of men, and he also was a great leader.
He understood the benefits of the surprise attack and the theatricality involved in presenting yourself to a ship that you wanted to take. He took a lot of ships without so much as a skirmish because of his reputation. Therefore, none of his crew died, they all got a share of the bounty. And he was an amazing sailor.
So you've got a man who was basically making his own legend in a time where, normally, you were condemned to the status of society you were born into.
Although it seems that Blackbeard and Captain Flint are at odds early on in season three, the two must face a greater enemy together: the British. What kind of alliance do they create to take on the British and can they really trust each other?
I think there's no better way to unify people than to find a common enemy. And yet, you've got two alpha males: it's like two lions in the same lion den. But it's great, so long as the enemy's there.
Vane is a former protegé of Blackbeard. What is their relationship like now?
Well, this is also, potentially, one of the reasons why Teach has returned. He's been away in Virginia, trying to get land and gentry for eight or nine years. He's been married to eight or nine different wives, but had nothing but girls. Which, at its time, [meant] your name was not going to be carried on. You didn't have a son and heir to maintain your legends, as it were, to be your heir apparent. And the closest thing he ever had to a son was when he mentored the young Charles Vane.
So he's coming back to see if that possibility is still there, but he may reconnect, re-ally himself and regroup, re-establish his pirate credentials and have someone to carry on his legacy and his name.
One thing that's impressive about Black Sails is its production values. What was it like to work on something that looks and feels so epic?
It's amazing. It doesn't get better than this. It just gets better with whatever shoot you're on. They put their money where their mouth is, and you see it onscreen. And this particular coming season is going to knock people out. The stuff they've produced on here is better than some huge studio picture productions. It's epic, it really is, and yeah, they still maintain the ability to bring it right down and humanize it and involve you in the personal relationships between the main characters in among this huge epic. They just surpass themselves.
Why do you think stories about pirates intrigue TV and movie audiences so much?
I think it's probably got something to do with the same thing that attracted people in that age to it: when you feel that you are a victim of your circumstances, you're confined to family circumstances, or work circumstances, this idea of forging your own future and not bowing down to the whims and wiles of the boss man or whatever. It's a part of every human spirit, to go and forge their own destiny.
I also think, even though it's such a brief period in history, it certainly exposes that side of us.
Black Sails season three premieres on Starz on Jan. 23. For those needing to get caught up, Starz now has all episodes from the first two seasons available on its website for free.
