Centuries before Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) was elected mayor of Widow’s Bay, another Reeve Prime and Lord Island Protector ran the cursed seafaring town: Richard Warren.
Early episodes of Apple TV‘s hit horror comedy teased the tradesman-turned-historical legend who founded the town back in 1681. But the Ti West-directed Episode 6 took viewers back in time, diving deeper into Widow’s Bay’s dark past and elaborate lore by introducing the OG mayor (Hamish Linklater) and his wife Sarah Wescott Warren (Betty Gilpin).
When creator Katie Dippold envisioned Widow’s Bay’s ideal founding father, Linklater perfectly fit the bill. “Hamish is such a wonderful actor, and we really wanted someone that would bring real weight and gravity to this founder we’ve talked about all season,” Dippold told Decider over Zoom. “I’ve always heard that he’s very funny, and he really did it all. He’s so great.”
Linklater also received noteworthy acclaim in the horror genre for his award-winning performance as Father Paul Hill in Netflix’s Midnight Mass, a Mike Flanagan miniseries also set in a spooky fishing town.
“You definitely worry that people will only think of you as a bad leader of a parish on a little fishing island, but then you start getting jealous, and you’re like, ‘I don’t want to see anybody else run a little haunted island better than me.’ So then you’ve got to defend your territory,” Linklater joked. Though he admittedly noticed some parallels between the two roles, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that he wanted to star in Widow’s Bay.
“If it hadn’t been Katie writing it, and Hiro Murai [director/EP] setting the tone for it, and Matthew Rhys — who’s the all star of all stars — then I would think twice, but the level of the show was so apparent that I ran towards it. Or I paddled towards it,” Linklater said. “One should never applaud a corporate entity, but way to go, Apple. Way to have faith in artists.”
Each episode of Widow’s Bay strikes a brilliant blend of horror and humor, but Episode 6, “Our History,” strays from the present-day format to show the day Sarah arrives on the island to marry Richard and discovers the town’s chilling truths. In the 1700s, a deadly plague threatened the safety of Widow’s Bay residents, who believed Richard was an evil soul who made a deal with the devil.
From an immersive old-fashioned set to an authentic wardrobe, Widow’s Bay goes full-on colonial period piece, right down to the accents, which helped set the tone for the episode and its encumbered mayor. Since Linklater was due on set before Gilpin, he took the lead on finding Warren’s perfect vocal expression. “I called my dialect guy and I was like, ‘How would you sound if you’re a dead founder back in colonial times?’ He gave me some recordings and I was like, ‘Hey Betty, I’m going to make up the accent that we’re going to use. Do you want me to make you some tapes so you can sound exactly like me?’ And she said, ‘Pass. I’m going to do whatever I want,’” Linklater chuckled. “We had a lot of deep conversations about it. And then Betty did whatever she wanted.”
When Gilpin agreed to be Widow’s Bay’s Sarah Wescott Warren, Dippold was ecstatic. “I just think she’s iconic. She’s perfect. She’s so funny. But I love what she does in this episode. She’s giving you all the emotion you want,” the creator mused. While Sarah arrived on the island with lots of love to give, Richard’s frigid, frightening behavior quickly inspired her to put her guard up. Though Warren was deeply burdened by the island, Linklater saw a softer side to his character that circumstances didn’t allow him to show.
“His intentions are good. He absolutely needed a helpmate. He cared about his kids. He wanted to get them to get out alive,” Linklater told Decider. In a way, the Widow’s Bay star looks at Richard Warren as “a misunderstood hero,” but that didn’t stop Sarah from fleeing the island with his children, or the town’s residents from burying him alive in 1702.
Episode 6 ended with Wyck (Stephen Root) digging up Warren’s grave in present day, and thanks to a special two-episode drop, the Sam Donovan-directed Episode 7, “Seasickness,” swiftly revealed that the ancient founder survived hundreds of years underground. Though Warren defied the odds, when he emerged from his coffin his hair was gray and matted, his skin was tinted, his mobility was majorly limited, and he was grieving the loss of his family. While Linklater played the same character in back-to-back installments, his performance evolved drastically in Episode 7. And let’s just say he took playing an almost dead guy very seriously.
“Hamish was almost always in character,” Root told Decider over Zoom. “It was hard to talk about anything else outside of it when we’re looking at this person who’s 500 years old.”
“It was terrifying,” O’Flynn added with a chuckle. “When we first encountered him he was very much [in character]. It was totally inspired.”
After nailing the deep verge-of-death voice, Linklater worked with an expert to perfect Warren’s unsteady gait. “I had this wonderful movement person working with me: [Mikhail] Baryshnikov’s daughter, who teaches at University of Hartford. She showed me what it would be like if you’ve been in a coffin for 200 years. I don’t know how she researched it, but it was wonderful getting to work with her,” the guest star explained, also praising the “genius” team behind his “gross” makeup, prosthetics, and mask.
“What’s cool was when they were shoving me into that coffin on the boat, it was my birthday, so that was another reason there was no acting required… You’re really speaking your inner truth. That is your story. That’s what it feels like. So I was in character all the time that day.”
Hamish Linklater, Widow’s Bay
When Warren realized that Widow’s Bay would be bound to the covenant he made as long as men with his blood existed, he urged Tom and Wyck to take him far out to sea in hopes that he’d die and freed the island from its curse.
“What’s cool was when they were shoving me into that coffin on the boat, it was my birthday, so that was another reason there was no acting required. When you’re being shoved in a coffin, you have to scream, ‘I want to live. I want to live on my birthday!’” Linklater recalled. “You’re really speaking your inner truth. That is your story. That’s what it feels like. So I was in character all the time that day.”
After a misguided Tom let Warren out of his coffin on-board, Linklater shared crucial scenes with Rhys and Root in a Jaws-inspired boat on the sea, or rather, on a realistic set crafted by Emmy-nominated production designer Steven Arnold, who also worked on Midnight Mass.
“When you get these eyes and you can’t actually see your fellow actors, you’re really just doing a radio play. You just sort of hear it in their voices and try to figure out the cadence and what’s going to be funny,” Linklater recalled, shouting out his co-star Rhys for being “sublimely funny” and “grounded.” After experiencing Warren’s torturous run as Widow’s Bay mayor, however, Linklater issued a warning to Rhys’ character: “He’s got his work cut out for him. He’s got a lot of dubious fates to avoid. So good luck, Tom.”
Another Widow’s Bay highlight? Linklater reuniting with Root years after the two shared scenes together in The Newsroom. “It was so awesome, because I had been such a fan of NewsRadio. So when we did The Newsroom I was fanboying out about him then,” Linklater recalled. “He’s such a nice man and so wildly talented. So we had a really nice time.”
While Linklater enjoyed exploring a new small haunted island, the eating scenes on Widow’s Bay admittedly left him longing for his days spent sucking blood as a Midnight Mass vampire. “Blood is so sweet and it goes down. I would [rank] it blood, then mushrooms, and bottom of the list is definitely those Vienna sausages. They’re disgusting,” he said of his snacking scene on the boat. “I thought they would be a hilarious visual, but the experience of having one in your mouth? I don’t recommend it.”
After his trip to Widow’s Bay, Linklater is teaming up with Flanagan again on The Exorcist, which will further cement him as a key player in the horror genre.
“I think horror is drawn to me. It sees something in me. The genre sees something in me that I am going to try to stay as blind to as long as I possibly can,” Linklater reflected. “I don’t know what’s going on. But if I get to work with wonderful people, I’ll take it.”
Stay tuned for more Widow’s Bay coverage from Decider.