‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 6: Ron Perlman on discomfort, ‘control’ in playing Clay

Over the past couple of “Sons of Anarchy” seasons, what happened to Clay has become a key point of contention in debate for the show’s diehard fanbase. There is almost no arguing the point that this is not a good man or the sort of character that you want to mess with. He’s dark, frightening, and the only real surprise that has come from the character is that he is somehow not dead six seasons in. (Many, including us, thought he would be a goner at the start of season 5.)

When it comes to playing a character like this, it’s not often easy to see the humanity within him, and find some sort of relatable place to go from. We had an opportunity to see Ron Perlman yesterday during a Q&A session at Fan Expo Canada, where he explained specifically what some of his conflicts with the character were:

“He definitely took some turns that I didn’t see coming. He really became very uncomfortable to play starting in season 4 … My whole conflict with Clay is that I really needed to like the guy, there has to be something within him that I admire.

“I had a lot of talks with [creator] Kurt [Sutter] about it, and he told me how to get through it”

In moving into season 6, Perlman describes Clay as a man who “has no control. He’s such a type-A personality, and he likes to [have an agenda]. Now, he’s lucky to even be a part of the agenda when we pick up [for] season 6.” By this, Perlman is clearly referring to the fact that Clay is behind bars, and one of the only familiar characters he could come into contact with is Donal Logue’s Lee Toric … a man who has made his feelings and intentions for SAMCRO extremely clear.

“Sons of Anarchy” season 6 premieres on FX come Tuesday, September 10 at 10;00 p.m. Eastern time. Click here if you haven’t heard some of the first details about the planned aftershow, and we are going to have more scoop from Fan Expo soon about “The Walking Dead” and “Arrow”.

Photo: CarterMatt.com