The second season of HBO’s True Detective has had more names linked to it than Marvel’s Doctor Strange. Following its mind-blowing first season, the amount of speculation and rumour concerning the season two lead roles came as no surprise whatsoever. After all, the show would make a welcome addition to any actor’s resume with its rootsy, guttural approach to the darkest recesses of humanity. Now, we can confirm another name who’s bagged a role – Taylor Kitsch.
Kitsch, who made the best of a bad situation in Disney’s John Carter, has long since been referred to in connection with the show. His name has been doing the rounds and was mentioned recently when Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn were confirmed as the two main leads, and once more when Rachel McAdams was offered the female lead. While McAdams is still unconfirmed, in an interview with AdWeek (via The Playlist), Kitsch spoke out about his experience getting the role, which he confirmed with a head nod and an “mmm-hmmm.”
“I’m really excited. I’ve just been prepping. It’s been almost a full year since I’ve been on camera, so I’m itching, man. I’m overdue,” Kitsch said. “You’ve just got to grind it out. Even taking this year off was… I mean, you want to work, but you also don’t want to just water it down and work for the sake of working. So, it was tough to sit a year out, keeping a finger crossed that I was going to get ‘True.’ “
Taking an entire year away from acting is a massive commitment to a project – especially as Kitsch was unsure of whether or not he’d successfully land the gig. Despite the risks, it seems like 365 days away from the camera have paid off for the actor:
“Yeah, I mean it was just showing a lot of patience on my end and turning a lot of stuff down because I wanted to be a part of it. And having this meeting with Nic Pizzolatto, it kind of brought me back to when I was here in New York and why I wanted to be a actor, why you struggle and why you don’t quit. And when we’re talking, I mean he’s obviously incredibly smart and passionate, so that rubs off. And you’re just excited to go now. I can’t fucking wait to hit camera. So I’m excited. I loved that first season of it so much. It’s just unlike anything I’ve seen in, you know, I don’t know when. And it was so grounded. It could really happen. This is very similar, and I love that. It makes it more relatable. It makes these guys more real. Nowadays, it takes fucking balls to stand by that and do it that way.”
With this new confirmation in the bag, all we need now is an official yes from McAdams and the four leads will be be place. Taking the reigns on the first two episodes of True Detective season two will be Justin Lin, with series creator Nic Pizzolatto back to write all eight episodes.