Jack Huston as Richard, the veteran scarred emotionally and physically by World War I
Jack Huston[1] says he always knew Richard Harrow, his character on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” would not live happily ever after.
Still, he says, “I get choked up watching” the last scenes of Sunday’s fourth season finale, in which Richard put his affairs in order and walked down the railroad tracks to die by his own hand, alone.
Life is cheap on “Boardwalk Empire,” partly because a lot of its characters need killing.
Harrow was different. He was the man in the mask, a Wisconsin farm boy sent off to be a sniper in World War I. He returned with half his face and very little of his soul.
He became a hit man, because he was good at killing. He was also a walking casualty.
“He was a tragic character,” says Huston. “We knew from the beginning there was no way he could ever just carry on. He had to die tragically, and he did. I also think he died beautifully.”
The last scene before his death was a vision in which his face had healed and he was coming home to greet his family.
“To him,” says Huston, “that was heaven.”
Harrow entered the story when he befriended Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), a protégé of Steve Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson and a rising star until he too was destroyed by his time in the war.
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Jack Huston, needing a change of scenery after 'Boardwalk,' is performing in 'Strangers on a Train' in London.
Darmody was killed at the end of season two.
“Jimmy and Richard shared something unspoken that no one else understood,” says Huston. “Jimmy wanted to die, and I think Richard did, too.
“Richard knew his life would never be what he had once hoped. If he hadn’t gone to war, I’m 100% sure he would have led a happy life with a family on a farm in Wisconsin. When he came back, he felt none of that was possible any more.”
Downbeat as this sounds, Huston suggests Harrow did make the best of cashing out his hand.
“He never thought he’d have a wife or a family,” says Huston, “but he did. And at the end he protected them, which is what a soldier does — serving others without regard to your own life.”
After playing Harrow, which the 30-year-old Huston calls “one of the greatest experiences of my life,” he admits he was personally ready for a little decompressing.
So he went back to the stage after a 10-year absence and is now doing the play “Strangers on a Train” in London.
But he says Harrow will stay with him.
“My grandfather John Huston did a documentary during World War II about soldiers suffering from trauma,” he says. “I watched it before I started doing Richard, and it had a very strong impact on me.
“Richard was a killer. But I think he was a good man.”
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