Task

[This story contains major spoilers from episode four of Task].

Soon after Raúl Castillo read the first script of Task, he got on a Zoom call with show creator Brad Ingelsby to walk through the narrative beats of the show. It was a standard meeting for an actor deciding whether or not to sign on for a new project — save for the reveal that Castillo’s character, Cliff, would be tortured to death by a biker gang in the fourth episode. “I knew that the show was going to take us to some pretty intense places, but it was then that I had to figure out if that was something I could commit to,” says the actor. “But it felt inevitable. Like, oh shit, I have to do this thing.”

Castillo stars in Task (Ingelsby’s follow-up to Mare of Easttown), which follows two longtime friends who launch a drug-house-robbing scheme in order to get back at a local biker gang responsible for the death of a loved one, and the FBI crew assigned to break the string of robberies. In the fourth episode, which aired Sunday evening, Castillo’s Cliff and Tom Pelphrey’s Robbie are outsmarted by the biker gang while attempting to sell off their stolen haul. Cliff, in a long and harrowing scene, pays the deadly price. Here, Castillo chats with The Hollywood Reporter about creating the character and how they made Cliff’s final moments so realistic.

How did you first hear about this show?

Jeremiah Zagar, one of our producing directors, and I have collaborated a few times. We did We the Animals years back, and I made a small cameo in his feature, and we’ve been friends for a bunch of years. When he told me he was signing onto the new Brad Ingelsby show, I was sold from the get. I was a big fan of Mare of Easttown. Jeremiah talked to me about a couple of different characters, but he sent me the script — this was quite early, before the strike and before Mark was attached, or at least before he was attached in any way that Jeremiah could tell me about. I read it and Cliff just felt right for me. There was something about his loyalty to Robbie and his tenacity that felt familiar. The first scene that grabbed my attention was when Robbie and Cliff are taking a break from work and are discussing dating life, and I was enamored with Cliff’s acerbic quality. Even though he’s distrusting of a lot of people, he gravitates to Robbie. It felt really truthful.

Let’s talk about that loyalty. Obviously, Cliff ends up being the victim in Robbie’s scheme — is he a victim of Robbie’s grand ideas? How much autonomy does he have here?

I definitely never saw him as a victim. I see him as very free-willed, and I think there’s some backstory that we as an audience don’t learn in words or plot points, but there’s a sense that these guys have been there for each other in the past and that they’ll continue to be moving forward. There’s a shared history by the time we meet them. Brad is a very economical writer; he gives you these little nuggets of information, but there’s a lot to mine from that information. So I always felt that Cliff was not strung along or forced into any situation.

How did you find this very specific northeastern PA accent?

I was a little afraid of accents, to be truthful. I didn’t study to be an actor; I studied to be a playwright, so I’d never worked with a dialect coach before. But Suzanne Selby was amazing, and I found that rather than it being a hurdle, it was actually a great way to find my way into Cliff. It took me out of my own rhythm and cadence. She actually took me to a couple of DelCo bars before we started filming. It was before I’d made the physical transformation into Cliff, so I still looked like myself, and was dressed like myself, so I stood out like a sore thumb. I was getting glances. I wasn’t treated rudely, but it was enlightening to be in that environment.

Can you talk about that transformation into Cliff?

Well, Tom came to Pennsylvania with that post-strike look. (Laughs) It was perfect for Robbie — that long ass beard, and the long hair. And then Jeremiah and I talked and agreed that Cliff should look and feel different from that. He should have his own distinct silhouette, and that’s where the facial hair came in.

I had a moment when it was time to create the prosthetics for Clint in episode four, where I was like, “What have I gotten myself into?” I flew down from Philly to Atlanta, where Bill Johnson, the makeup effects artist, has his studio, so that they could do a cast of my face. You have two little holes to breathe out of, you can’t speak and you can barely hear. It felt like being underwater. And I’m extremely claustrophobic. It was vulnerable, but they were as comforting as you could be in those circumstances and I think it paid off. The effects look incredible — I’m nervous for my mom to see the episode because it’s so realistic and quite intense.

When you watched the final version of the episode, what did you think about most?

I remembered the four hours that it took for them to apply all those pieces. Usually, you sit in chairs with the rest of the cast, but before that scene, they thankfully had a little tent for me to be by myself. I needed to be in a meditative state. Once you have makeup like that, you almost don’t have to do any acting, because people are reacting so strongly to what they’re seeing on your face. The set got extremely quiet, and people were walking on eggshells around me. It was really intense, and it was also my first time in front of the camera with Sam Keeley, who played Jason, and the rest of the bikers in that scene.

How many times did you have to film that torture scene?

It took a couple of times to get it right. There were all these technical components in place, specifically for when Cliff spits in Jason’s face and when the plastic wrap goes around Cliff’s head. They weren’t working, and it was frustrating because Sam and I would work up to that big moment and then the spit machine wouldn’t work the way it was supposed to. And there was a little plastic tube to help me breathe when the plastic wrap went around my head, and the camera would catch it and it was too obvious. There was one point where Sam took Sally [Richardson], our director, over to the corner to talk. I could only see out of one eye because of the prosthetics, and I was watching them whisper to each other and I was like, “I hope he just wants me to do the spit gag myself.” And that is what they wanted. So they put some fake blood in my mouth and we worked up to that moment, and I spit in Sam’s face and his real reaction to me hawking a loogie is what you see in the show.

The same thing with the plastic wrap. I asked them, guys, I’m an excellent swimmer and I can hold my breath for a long time, can we just wrap my face and if I feel at any point like my safety is jeopardized I can just rip it open. My hands were free. Thankfully, they trusted me, and I trusted them too, and that’s the take we used.

So, how do you come down from a day like this?

Taking off the prosthetics took a couple of hours, so they put on my music and brought me tea and I just calmed down that way. It wasn’t my last day of work, but it was one of my last days and it was certainly one of the darkest things I’ve had to do as an actor. It was emotional saying goodbye to this character.

Do you have the itch to do any of this again?

I’m dying to work with Tom Pelphrey again. He was so incredible, and it felt criminal that we could only do one season of these characters. I fell in love with Cliff and Robbie’s dynamic and I wish we could explore more about who these guys are. I’d love to work in Philly again, too. I love that part of the world, and the way we were embraced by Pennsylvania is not lost on me.

Did everyone in town know you guys were filming?

They didn’t know at first, since these aren’t the same characters as with Mare of Easttown. Tom and I are not people who are getting recognized left and right, but blending in made our storyline even better. But, people did start to catch on to the fact that we were making a new show from the writer of Mare, and we got a lot of love for sure. And we had a lot of Rita’s Water Ice. It’s like paying homage, right?