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'Sons of Anarchy' cast talk The Hoff, Dunbar, McKinnon, Trejo at TCA panel

By April MacIntyre Aug 7, 2011, 18:13 GMT

05/21/2011 - Danny Trejo - 2011 MMA - "Cage vs. Cons" at Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena - May 22, 2011 - Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena - Los Angeles, CA, USA © richard shotwell / PR Photos

Yesterday at the Television Critics' Association summer press tour, "Sons of Anarchy" was up first for FX Network.

The panel on stage included Dayton Callie (Chief Unser), Theo Rossi (Juice), Ryan Hurst (Opie). Tommy Flanagan (Chibs), Mark Boone Junior (Bobby), Kim Coates (Tig), Maggie Siff (Tara), Ron Perlman (Clay), executive producer Paris Barclay, Golden Globe award wining-actress Katey Sagal (Gemma) and Showrunner Kurt Sutter (Otto) all brought up to talk season 4 of the top rated series for the network.

Season 4 of "Sons" picks up from last season, 14 months after the release of SAMCRO from prison. The extended video clip shown at the TCA panel event was the same Comic Con clip that sees Charlie Hunnam (Jax) with a scarred-over stomach and tattoo of "Abel" over his heart, preparing to leave Stockton prison.

Kurt Sutter's character Otto, also imprisoned in Stockton, shines in key scenes for the opening episode that will shock fans of the series.

EP and director Paris Barclay spoke at length, answering questions about his creative collaboration with Kurt Sutter and his path to "Sons of Anarchy."

On the comparison of showrunners David Milch and Kurt Sutter, Mr. Barclay said, "Well, both geniuses. Both really know what every character thinks and feels in a way that I find is highly unusual in television. Usually the writer is hoping that the actor will fill it all in. These guys know, when they’re sitting there to write, the life of what that character is. It’s very, very unusual. David likes to actually direct the actors more than Kurt does, if you can imagine such a thing. And Kurt is much more timely than David is." Paris finished his thought. "But both of them, I would say, with Aaron Sorkin, those are the three great television living writers now Kurt, Aaron, David Milch."

Monsters and Critics asked the cast assembled on stage what was it like working with guest star David Hasselhoff in their creative space, and if they would each talk about their impressions with him and some of the other guest stars.

Tommy Flanagan began to talk as if his mic is cutting out. "Great. Thank you."

(Laughter.)  Mark Boone Junior said, "He was fun."

Kim Coates added, "Listen, what we’re finding with this show is that everybody wants to be on it. All the actors, great, whatever you might think of as great want to be on this show. So that’s really in Kurt’s hands.

Ron Perlman added, "So we started with David Hasselhoff..."

(Laughter.)  "He was hysterical, really," added Coates.
"The porn stuff that we did, he’s supposedly well endowed so I think he played that to the hilt.  And it was funny. That’s all I got to say about it."

Katey Sagal said, "Well, we always have wonderful guest stars. I love Ray McKinnon. We have Ray McKinnon. He’s not a guest star. He’s got a recurring part. It’s a really interesting role this season. Rockmond Dunbar is great."

"Danny Trejo," added Perlman.

"I actually went to school with David Hasselhoff, so I was happy to see him," added Katey.

Mark Boone Junior said, "I mean, we are a pretty tight group, and you come in against, you know, a big bunch of men and it’s..."

"Intimidating," said Sagal, finishing his thought.

"We also have the great Danny Trejo all season long," added Perlman. "Doing a rather powerful arc on the show, so there’s some major gravitas that’s been added to what had already been rather [powerful]."