Kim Coates arrived at the San Diego Comic Con press roundtable ready to discuss Sons of Anarchy’s upcoming season six. He was eager to provide an update regarding his character, Alex ‘Tig’ Trager. The charismatic Coates was ready to dish but greeted us first by checking the hand of every single reporter in the press roundtable.

Coates had a challenging story arc throughout last season and this is exactly where the interview began.

Coates is looking forward to the future to work on other TV projects. “I can’t wait for my own show.”

Tig found out Damon Pope (Harold Perrineau) killed his daughter. How did you prepare for that horrific scene? “Kurt Sutter grabbed me in New York City, six weeks before we did season five and told me what was going to happen. I’m not kidding you, guys; I had tears in my eyes and I have two daughters in real life. I really didn’t know what the fuck he had just told me.”

After Coates got the script, he contacted a therapist friend of his to help him go through the internal workings of the human being. “How do you prepare for something like that unless you really get into it?” Coates asked. He asked the therapist, who then mapped out all the emotions an individual could undergo under such circumstances, such as adrenalin, shock, anger, crying, and numbness to make sure Coates conveyed all the right emotions in the raw scene that shows his daughter Dawn (Rachel Miner) being violently murdered.

What was it like to film that scene where Dawn dies? “…Two nights to film that one scene; I think I did one take 38 times. I lost my voice the first night; came back, thank God, for the second one. I didn’t go home; I stayed in a motel. I didn’t shower; I stayed in handcuffs most of the night. I had to smoke occasionally. It was very draining but as an actor, I’ll never forget that entire process.”

What is it like, shooting a scene 38 times? “I’m an internal actor; I’ve been doing it a long time. I started on the stage, I’ve been on Broadway. I’ve been the youngest Macbeth ever at Stratford [Theatre].  I take this very seriously, I never plan anything. I literally just let it happen after I map it out in my head.”

After last year’s events, are we going to see a changed Tig? “Last year, Tig was off the leash from losing his daughter; [now] he’s back on the leash. Jackson (Charlie Hunnam) and Tig have issues and framing Clay (Ron Perlman) in the way that I do, I feel bad about that. I’m not around Clay anymore, it seems. The entire club —you’ve seen the poster —everyone is like a Greek tragedy now. Everyone, its mayhem, boys and girls,” he stated, referring to the recently released Sons’ season six poster.

What can we expect of Tig for this season? “Every season, Sutter does an incredible job in upping the ante it seems. For Tig Trager, I don’t know. I literally try and play the moments as they come and Sutter does a pretty good job in really writing for Tig and then not so much, and then really writing for Tig and then not so much. Even on those not so much times, I’m in it 100%, so we’ll see how this ends up.”

How is Tig’s new pet? “My little girl Bonnie, my little pit bull?” Coates asked with a big smile on his face. “I can’t say; I’m going to leave that as a surprise for everybody.”

Watch out Jax! Coates thinks August Marks (Billy Brown) is smart enough to figure out who really killed Pope (Harold Perrineau).

Really? I’m disappointed that I have to wait but Coates’ genuine affection for Bonnie wins me over. Given all the awful things Tig has done in the past, including murdering two innocent women, to see him doting on a dog provided a different perspective of Coates’ character. Coates continued to discuss Bonnie: “Last season that was amazing, losing my daughter and finding the dog, saving the dog. All the emotion Tig went through the last season, what a nice book end for him. To not die, and I think the entire audience thought ‘This is it, man, he’s going out. Jax is throwing him down the river’ and Jax didn’t’ and again an incredible cliffhanger ending that only Sutter seems to be able to pull off every year. Yeah, we’ll see. Hopefully, Bonnie isn’t asking for too much money this year!”

Has there been a time when you got the script and you didn’t agree with it? “A couple of times I’ve said to Kurt, I’m not doing the scene. A couple of times, he’s stuck me in the office and told me why I will do the scene. And both times, I’m happy to say he was right in the true line of Tig and his character.”

Coates then broke down the overall context of their entire discussion in amazing detail. “First time, it was Gemma (Katey Sagal) and I bang her up against the wall and she’s coming onto me.” He told Kurt: ‘I’m not doing it; I’m not doing that scene. He’s my best buddy; he’s the president, that will never happen.’  “You know what Kurt says to me? Kurt says, ‘Where does Tig go right after that scene?’ I answered, ‘He goes and tells Opie (Ryan Hurst).’ Kurt then asked ‘Yeah, what did he tell him? He tells them, they killed his wife.’ Tig wants to end his life right there, he wants it over.”

Coates continued to elaborate on the scene. “He’s so fucked up from season two, from killing Donna (Sprague Grayden). Gemma is so screwed up from being raped in that very episode, which is my favorite of all, that very first one from season two. Katey was unbelievable. He [Kurt] said, ’Gemma comes to you; you don’t come up to her. Yes, you kiss. Yes, you throw up against the wall. You don’t follow through, you break it off. The biker world is full of drugs, sex, rock and roll, it’s incestuous. It’s crazy; it’s fucked up and you need to do this to yourself and you want Opie to kill you. You’ve had it.’ And he was right, it really kind of worked so I guess that’s the way of Sons of Anarchy; it’s a crazy world.”

Do you sense the feeling of being on the other side and the show is coming to an end? “I don’t know how to answer that because the only person that knows is Kurt Sutter. I don’t know how he’s going to end this thing. From the bottom of my heart, I can’t wait to move on – Kim Coates. I’ve had the best time on this show; this has been my awakening of a regular on a television series. I’ve never done that before, I’ve had arcs before. It’s really taught me there’s some amazing television being written right now for men and women; I can’t wait for my own show. It’s been a great thing to support Charlie, Ron, and Katie like we all have. Sutter giving us our stuff here and there, being a part of this team; it’s something I’ll never forget. I’m really glad it was Sons of Anarchy for me to come in the regular world of television.”

Is Tig skeptical of Jax? Will he ever trust him?  “I’m on Jax’s leach, it seems. Jackson and Tig have a lot of issues that are unresolved. It’s mayhem but Tig is a tough motherfucker. Yet, the loyalty is to the club and the president is Jax Teller, so I think his loyalty will be to Jax Teller until Jax and he can’t come to an agreement on stuff and we’ll see what happens again. Or maybe they’ll become best friends?  And if I do, I can’t tell you anyway.”

Can we expect your daughter Kyla to host the ONEHEARTSOURCE benefit again? “We raised $53,000 for my daughter’s ONEHEARTSOURCE non-profit in Africa for kids that have nothing. We’re doing it again. All the Sons will be there on October 19^th. It will be all over the website, somewhere in LA. I’m very proud of Kyla, she’s an amazing girl!”

Once again, it was a pleasure to talk to Coates. It’s always enjoyable to talk to him due to his engaging and personable nature. The way he talked about the show, it almost sounded like a good bye. Knowing how Sutter operates, anything can happen so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with Tig. In the meantime, it’s going to be interesting to see Tig back on the leash again during season six!

Sons of Anarchy will return to FX on September 10, 2013 at 9:00 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 at YouTube, go to http://www.youtube.com/sutterinksoa.

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

Information on Kyla Coates’ non-profit organization can be found at: http://www.oneheartsource.org/.

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