“He’s got this incredible work ethic – he was in the Army in New Zealand. It was hard work and I could tell how much work he put into it and how great he was in it,” said. But then he sent back a tape quickly and it was great. Rhys established enough where I felt a little weird asking him to do it.
“He did us the favor of reading for the part. When it came to casting Stede, it quickly became clear that Rhys Darby was the right fit for the role. When it comes to an identity crisis, look no further than Stede (played by Rhys Darby) an 18th century wealthy landowner who abandons his family, land and fortune, buys a ship and decides to live a life of a pirate – which ultimately leads to a relationship with the infamous pirate Blackbeard ( Taika Waititi). This is a wealth of embarrassing and fascinating information.’ What a great character.” Maybe you can make a show around this guy.’ Then I just looked at his Wikipedia page, and pretty quickly was like, ‘oh yeah, this is great. “I think she knows that I like men in existential free fall, and women and people just in existential free fall, having some kind of an identity crisis. My wife actually heard somebody talking about him and then told me about him, because she knows my tastes, Jenkins,”explained. How does one decide to tell the story of an obscure person from history like Stede Bonnet, The Gentleman Pirate? Jenkins explained that it had nothing to do with a love of pirates.
(I recommend you listen to the full interview – below.) Based on his insights into the making of the series, it is easy to see why it has connected so well with viewers. The endless social media postings, costumes, fan fiction and original artwork are a true metric for the power of the story.Īwards Radar spoke with Jenkins about the series.
This is not lost on Jenkins who was blown away by the fan reaction to the series – his respect for the series’ audience is evident. While it may be easy to brush off a period piece pirate series with a cast of top notch comedic performers as a one-joke premise – the ever-fervent fans have proven it is anything but.
When talking to David Jenkins, the creator and writer of HBO Max’s pirate-centric workplace comedy, Our Flag Means Death, his passion for his work can be heard in every word.