Paris Barclay, the president of The Directors Guild of America boasts an impressive resume that includes directing such shows as NYPD Blue, In Treatment and Glee. He also happens to be the executive producer and principal director of Sons of Anarchy. It’s not an everyday occurrence one gets to speak with someone of Barclay’s stature so I was thrilled to hear his perspective on the show, and Barclay appeared to be equally eager to share his insights. 

When you’re directing a big emotional moment in the show, are you emotional as well when it’s happening? “I wish I wasn’t, it would be better. Even when Opie (Ryan Hurst) got married to Lyla (Winter Ave Zoli) and their wedding at the beginning of season four, I’m crying! It’s like, ‘it’s not a real wedding; we staged this, all these flowers are fake!’ But it was so beautiful even when he said ‘I promise to ride you like a Harley,’ you get stuck in the moment. And when Gemma (Katey Sagal) revealed she got raped, which is so interesting because she doesn’t reveal for the best reasons, she had to get Jax (Charlie Hunnam) to rejoin the club and seek vengeance against these people, she’s always manipulating. It was really emotional. When she told the story of what happened and you look at these guys’ faces, it was something; so, yeah, I always get emotional.”

Barclay confirmed, “Shit is going down,” for sure during Sons’ episode seven next season.

Tell us about the tone and you want to give when you’re directing. Is this up to your discretion or is this an on-going collaborative effort with Kurt? “I’ve known Kurt since The Shield. I directed three episodes of The Shield and he wrote all three of them, oddly enough, so I knew him back in the day when he was a writer in The Shield. He brought me into season one; I directed the third episode of Sons of Anarchy. Kurt has said that’s when the show hit its groove, I don’t know exactly how or what he meant so I came back and did more and more episodes. What I understand about Kurt is the sick demented combination that he’s going for of this pulpy action —this deep emotional story, psychologically deep, and flavored with this really dark comedy. It’s hard to get the balance and ingredients right. It’s like trying to make a cake and if one thing is off, the whole thing is flat. I’ve seen other directors, who have come in and haven’t delivered the balance, and sometimes the scripts haven’t but usually the scripts have. But if you really understand what Kurt is trying to do and you really pay attention to that, you can really play this show like a piano. But it has all the good things that I like —a lot of people getting killed, a lot of people who are really funny and strange like Tig, and a lot of really deeply emotional scenes that I’ve never done before. Even in other shows I do like In Treatment, NYPD Blue or Glee, this is a different type of combination stuff.”

How challenging is it to direct back to back extremely different shows such as Glee and Sons of Anarchy? “Part of what I do as a director, I don’t make up this shit. I get a script, I study it, and then I figure out what’s the best way to take this script and make it the best it can be and bring it to the stage. I’ve always been about, it doesn’t matter what kind of show it is. Once, I think I did Sons of Anarchy and then, I went and did Smash and my head hurt from the whiplash. At the same time, it’s the same skills; you’re trying to figure out what is the show they think they’re making…and you try to give it to them and you’re trying to get the actors to give their best performances. There are 200 people that work on the show that you guys don’t interview. There’s 200 people there every day working on Sons of Anarchy and it’s amazing, and you’re trying to pull them all together and see what you can get.”

Do you know before the season starts which episodes you’re going to direct, and can you choose them? “I do, I choose them somewhat. I don’t want to reveal too much. At the beginning of the season, I’m in the writer’s room with Kurt and they plot the arcs of the season, what basically is going to happen. I’m generally privy to that.  It can change, but generally this is the shape of the season, and then Kurt decides; he sort of casts the directors according to what he thinks is going to happen on those episodes. If you’re looking at this season for instance, I’m directing episode one because I always do the season opener. I’m directing episode seven in which, yes, shit is going down.”

Hearing Barclay share that scoop, and given he’s been responsible for directing many of the most iconic moments of Sons, he must be saying this for a reason!  I can’t wait to see what episode seven has in store for us. In the meantime, please note the show’s season six premieres on FX on September 10, 2013 at 9:00pm EST with a special 90-minute episode.

To learn more about the show, visit: http://www.fxnetworks.com/soa and http://www.sutterink.com/.

To check out Kurt Sutter’s Sons of Anarchy video channel on YouTube, go to http://www.youtube.com/sutterinksoa.

Follow @sonsofanarchy, @sutterink, and @FXNetworks, and tweet using the hashtag #SOAFX.

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