If you’re a real pop culture nerd, chances are you get as excited when you see a supporting character with a familiar face as you do when one of your faves is the star. Let’s celebrate these heroes!…
Back in the early World Wide Web days, defunct site Fametracker had an awesome column called “Hey, It’s That Guy!”, celebrating character actors and actresses from all your favorite things. So we’re showing our love for that idea every so often in our Friday Five by doing the same, and this week we’re taking a vacation courtesy of the Delos Corporation. (You might not want to get too relaxed, though.) Our possibilities were endless in the faces we could highlight for our Westworld edition of this column – so many great actors, and in fact a lot of the leads in the show are played by actors who made their name doing character work for years. Lookin’ at you, Jeffrey Wright! – but we decided to hand-pick these five favorites who were highlights of Season 2, for various reasons. See where you know these performers from movies and TV!
[Side note: This is one of the first times where we’ve noticed this column beginning to loop on itself. One of the first names that came to mind for Westworld was Clifton Collins Jr. and we realized we already called out his role in the show in a “H!ITP” post about something else entirely!]
(HBO)
Peter Mullan (James Delos)
As Westworld peeled back a few more layers surrounding the history of the all-powerful Delos Corporation, it stood to reason we’d eventually meet the man who started it all. For a role with that much importance and gravitas, you could do a lot worse than the great Scottish actor Peter Mullan, who is a captivating presence from his very first scene. What the show then does so well is use Mullan’s depth as an actor to show him both as a ruthless, cruel tyrant – boy, now we know why his son Logan (Ben Barnes) was such a hot mess – as well as a man literally in pieces, as the true nature of Delos’s legacy is revealed through flashbacks. You’ve also seen Mullan in movies including Trainspotting, Braveheart and Children of Men; an appearance as Yaxley in Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallow Parts 1 & 2; and TV work including Ozark. (Want a recommendation though? Check out the 2001 indie horror movie Session 9, which is terrifying and Mullan is brilliant in it.)
(HBO)
Betty Gabriel (Maling)
So, I’ll admit, I’m including this one not only because the actress in question is amazing, but also I kinda want to call out the creators of Westworld a little bit. I still love you guys! Love the show! – but you bring the extraordinary Betty Gabriel into your supporting cast, and then barely use her? Not cool. Sure, the actress who was such a scene-stealer as housekeeper Georgina in Get Out (“Oh, nooo. No no nononononono…”) makes quite an impression hardened soldier Maling, part of the Delos extraction team, but her scenes in Season 2 are so, so few. Please give this badass more to do in Season 3! (In addition to Jordan Peele’s hit film, Gabriel has been in a number of horror thrillers including Upgrade and The Purge: Election Year, and will join the cast of STARZ’s excellent scifi-espionage thriller Counterpart in Season 2.)
(HBO)
Rinko Kikuchi (Akane)
By far one of the most anticipated elements of Westworld‘s second season was opening up the world of Delos Corporation’s extravagant, android-filled theme parks beyond the eponymous Old West-themed park we started the story in. The Edo-era Japanese landscape of Shogun World was teased at the very end of Season 1, so actually arriving there this year was awesome – as was our introduction to Akane, the tough-as-nails geisha (and thematic counterpart of Westworld’s Maeve) played so beautifully by Rinko Kikuchi. Genre fans will likely recognize Kikuchi first and foremost as Mako Mori, the charismatic heroine of Pacific Rim (she also appeared in this year’s sequel); after getting her start in her native Japan, she was nominated for an Oscar for Babel and also appeared in The Brothers Bloom and 47 Ronin, among more films. (Westworld is her first major foray into U.S. television.)
(HBO)
Jonathan Tucker (Major Craddock)
Oh, man, this guy. We first spotted the face of Jonathan Tucker in a very early flashback during Season 2, indicating that he may be one of the oldest host models in the park; later, he returns in the role of Major Craddock, a fairly unsavory military officer in Westworld with a taste for torture who lands in the crosshairs of Dolores’ revolution. Tucker’s got one of those faces you know you’ve seen a billion times, and you probably have if you watch enough movies and TV; he started as a teen actor in stuff like Sleepers and The Virgin Suicides, but he’s made his biggest mark in TV in shows ranging from Six Feet Under and White Collar to Hannibal and Justified. He also recently appeared as the tricksy Low Key Lyesmith, Shadow’s cell mate, in the first season of American Gods. (No confirmation he’ll be back in Season 2 but if you read the book… well we wouldn’t be surprised…)
(HBO)
Zahn McClarnon (Akecheta)
Opinions were overall divided about this past season of Westworld, but there’s one high point that virtually no one had a bad word to say about – or even a word that was less than gushing praise. “Kiksuya” finally tells the back story of Akecheta, the Ghost Nation warrior who we typically see on the perimeter of the action, covered in war paint; it is an incredible hour that marks an almost unheard of showcase for Native American performers and culture (nearly the entire episode is in the Lakota language with subtitles). The beating heart of the ep – hell, of the show now, he’s that good – is Zahn McClarnon, a character actor with a storied CV who just got elevated to leading man energy with this performance. McClarnon – a Colorado native of Lakota decent – has appeared in tons of films but made his mark most prominently in TV, going all the way back to 90’s hits like Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and Walker, Texas Ranger; more recently you’ve seen him in The Shield, Longmire, Fargo and Midnight, Texas.
