True Detective’s Finn Bennett on Pete’s ‘Biblical’ Sin

“I went to Issa and was like, ‘I think he’s ruined after this.’ She was like, ‘I think you’re being melodramatic.’� Photo: Michele K. Short/HBO

Spoilers ahead for “Part 5� of True Detective: Night Country.

In a town where night lasts for months, where polar bears seem to roam free, and the word corpsicle has become standard English, it’s no wonder the characters on True Detective: Night Country are filled with so much darkness. That’s not just true for Ennis’s grieving chief of police, Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster), or Alaska state trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis). Junior officer Peter Prior (Finn Bennett) comes with his own emotional baggage when the show begins, dealing with an emotionally distant father (John Hawkes) while splitting his attention between the good he can accomplish at work and the obligations to his family at home.

Pete is often a welcome light in the darkness that is Night Country. But he isn’t in a good place during the penultimate episode, even if he, Danvers, and Navarro are getting very close to cracking the case. First, his wife, Kayla (Anna Lambe), kicks him out of the house. Then, in the final minutes of the episode, something far more horrific happens. Not only does Pete become aware of the extent of his father Hank’s corruption — watching him shoot dead the one man who could lead them to the ice caves where Annie Kowtok was killed — but in the end he’s forced to kill his father to save Danvers’s life. It’s a life-changing moment, but Bennett has reason to believe all hope isn’t lost for this good-hearted young man.

The most important dynamic in this episode is the relationship between Peter and Hank. But first I want to touch on Peter’s friendship with Leah (Isabella Star LeBlanc), including that really nice scene when they chat while she’s locked up. What do these two characters offer each other?
That scene kind of mirrors an earlier scene in episode two, when he’s at the ice rink. Those are my favorite scenes in the whole show. It’s nice to see a bit of lightheartedness in a script that’s so dark and heavy. I’m really fucking proud of those scenes. We would do them and be like, “So good, right?� It was this very easy and carefree dynamic, kind of throwing away the lines just to see how comfortable these two are around each other. Around everyone else, whether that be Danvers or Hank or Kayla, Peter is very “yes, ma’am,� “yes, sir.� It’s nice just to see the two of them go back and forth.

It feels very comfortable and familiar between them. Then there’s the relationship between Peter and his dad, which is a lot more strained. Where do their issues stem from?
In the first few weeks of the main-cast rehearsals, we would go around the table and do a backstory for each of the characters. It got to John, who was just fantastic. He had really created this whole world and history in his head. To be honest, because I’m useless at that kind of stuff, I basically just leeched off what he was saying. It was democratic, of course, but he decided that there was a mother. This is implied in the script that she left the two of them. I think those issues do stem a lot from the absence of a female figure in their lives.

Nobody should hit their kids, but I don’t think it’s abusive with Hank. I think in the original draft of the script, he was much more of a villain, and John Hawkes brought something a lot softer and nuanced to that character.

Your role on True Detective is by far your biggest to date. What was it like suddenly working with people like John Hawkes and Jodie Foster?
It was incredibly nerve-racking. You want them to like you, but more important than that, you want them to think you’re a good actor. But both of them — and I also want to say this of Kali and Isabella and Anna — all of them are so kind and patient with somebody who has less experience. When the camera was not on them, and it was my coverage, they gave it 110 percent. All of that fear and tension falls away as soon as you meet those people and see how lovely and warm, understanding, and patient they are.

What’s going through Peter’s head at the moment when he stops to listen to his dad singing?
This might seem quite surface level, but I think he’s fucking exhausted. He’s been having his ass handed to him by Danvers, he’s been kicked out of the house by his wife. He’s quite enjoying listening to a strange and sad song coming from anywhere. Then, when Hank says he’s just doing some work on the truck, Pete knows Hank is lying in that moment. These are two men who would rather just live in a complete lie than ever address anything emotional.

It feels like Hank is a very prideful person and he can’t acknowledge when he’s hurt.
I think the same with Pete. Monkey see, monkey do. He’s emotionally unavailable, certainly, to his wife and even his son. They’re two very emotionally stunted men.

Then Hank tells the story about saving Peter from drowning when he was 9. We’ve just gotten this reveal that Hank is in the mine’s pocket, so it’s like this final moment where he knows his son won’t see him the same way after whatever he does next.
It’s completely that, isn’t it? Hank knows his time is nearly up. Effectively, he’s a dead man walking. Whatever happens is going to be bad. We talked about emotionally available men, but he tells this very heartfelt story. Pete just lets it wash over him. He says he doesn’t really remember much of that day, but I’m sure he remembers something of that day. It’s just never been talked about.

This whole episode leads up to the moment when Peter shoots and kills his own father. Do you think Peter is just acting from pure instinct by shooting him?
Yes. It’s a reflex rather than a decision. People make decisions every day of their life that they would not on a separate day if the weather was different, or if they’d had an extra cup of coffee in the morning. But as John has described it, it’s suicide by cop. Hank knows what’s about to happen, even though he’s appealed to Peter’s rationality. He knows that Pete won’t kill somebody who is unarmed. He’s defending Danvers rather than killing his father. That forms his reflex: seeing a gun raised to his idol.

Liz is never explicitly described as a parental figure to him, necessarily, and doesn’t act very maternal, but throughout the season, Peter has been torn between his dad and Danvers. He stole the file from Hank for Liz, and Hank clearly thinks she poisoned his son against him.
It’s very “kid in a divorce,� isn’t it?

Even if shooting Hank is instinctual, it feels like choosing between parental figures.
John had come up with that backstory about Peter’s mother who had left. You know, my mother didn’t leave my family — she sadly passed away when I was younger — and there is a gap in one’s life when you lose a mother. I’ve been very lucky having incredible women in my life I look to not as mothers but for maternal affection. I think it’s inevitable that even though Danvers treats Peter awfully, he has this hole in his heart. He will look to her to fill it. It’s not like Hank does himself any favors. He hits his kid, he goes through his laptop. She’s the presence that he looks toward for that relief.

How did it feel to shoot those final scenes?
I felt like I was in safe hands. As soon as I knew that I was working with Issa López, I was like, “I could be a terrible actor and forget all my lines and we would still be okay because she’s Issa. She wouldn’t let us fail.� I’m really sad we’ll never get to do a Night Country again, but if Issa called me for any of her projects, I’d absolutely do them. Like I said, there’s women in my life that I’ve — not substituted my mother out for, but I look to for guidance. She’s one of those women.

Did you and John discuss what the characters were going through beforehand?
Working with John is a more solitary experience until you’ve wrapped. We both kind of needed our space. After “that’s a wrap� on that scene was called, he gives you this huge embrace. He’s quite an emotional guy. He really feels things very deeply, and because a lot of those scenes are so horrible and so charged, and he’s so mean to his son — you can see it really affects John. So it was incredibly rewarding, because you have this cathartic hug at the end of it.

You get the sense that this is something Peter will have to live with for the rest of his life. Regardless of what happens in the finale, do you see a path forward for him in working through that?
The only other two people who know are Danvers and Navarro. He can’t tell his wife or anything. He has to live with that. Pete, through the whole series, up until this point, represents a good cop who is doing a lot of legwork for Danvers. One of the saddest things for me is that he becomes a dirty cop. It’s done in the saddest way, with the original sin of patricide. It’s biblical.

Because I was being very melodramatic about it, I went to Issa, and was like, “I think he’s ruined after this. I think he becomes like his father. He becomes lonely. Maybe his wife and kid leave him.� She was like, “Personally, I don’t see it like that. I think you’re being melodramatic.� What I love about Issa’s writing so much is that all the characters go through this mammoth event and they come out on the other side, injured but seeing the light. While Peter will bear this weight, he’ll be okay.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.