“The Kill Point” Countdown: Part 5

I talked with actor Jeremy Davidson on the set of The Kill Point in Pittsburgh. Davidson plays the bank robber known as Mr. Rabbit (the older brother of Mr. Pig, played by Frank Grillo). Davidson’s pictured at right in this action photo from Spike.

His character wears a beard, a suit and tie, and matching combat boots. Davidson looks like a natural with a shotgun, ducking in and out of the bank hallway, blasting at SWAT guys infiltrating the bank in a scene they were shooting that morning. In person, Davidson is a softspoken guy. He tells me that he’s a huge New York Yankees fan, but I notice that he’s wearing a wristwatch with the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo logo on it. What gives? Find out in our interview after the jump.

Is there a political statement being made in The Kill Point?
Jeremy Davidson: My job as an actor is to believe in who this person is and to give this character voice. Our story is a fiction. There are thousands and thousands of people and families who are going through a lot of pain that is very real and very permanent right now. So I’d hesitate to glorify what we’re doing as having some huge political statement. Our country is going to have to deal with a lot of pain in the coming years because of what veterans are going through again, and not having the support back home from the Pentagon and from our government in a lot of cases. They take a group of guys who were very close to each other in Iraq, and they’ve been home for a little while, and they don’t see any real hope of making their way in the world anymore, and they decide to rob a bank. Politically, things like this probably happen on a smaller scale, unfortunately. People get desperate, and when people get desperate, they take desperate measures. Whether you agree with what our characters have to say or not, it’s an individual thing.

I get the sense that there’s a degree of sympathy and support that your characters get from the public.

JD: I think they do in a lot of cases, but not everybody agrees. Several characters in the story fought as well, and are on the law enforcement side and they say, “Well, I’m not robbing a bank.” So there’s support from some people and sympathy from some people.

You’re also in Lifetime’s new series Army Wives, which has some similar themes to The Kill Point.

JD: I think it’s going to be a really good show. We shot the pilot and then we shot the first four episodes. They sent my character away to the war so I was able to come here and shoot for a while. I think that show as well has a really smart perspective. It’s more about the home life of these families that are dealing with the war. It’s about the soldiers, too, but it’s more about how the women — and it’s not always the women, sometimes it’s a man who has a wife in the Army — and how they deal with the war and how their relationships change. The scripts have been really strong. It’s been cool. I play a guy in Delta Force, so I was able to keep my beard for both roles.

You’re a Yankees fan, so what’s with the Cleveland Indians watch?

JD: I just got a text from my buddy — and he’s a big Cleveland Indians fan, and over the years there’s been a lot of banter back and forth about how the Yankees suck, and I’d tell him the Indians suck — and he texted me this morning and said, “Are the Yankees really in last place, dude?” You know, ribbing me. So I was taking a picture on my phone, because my character I decided is going to be a Cleveland Indians fan, so I took a picture of it and sent it to him. So he’ll be very happy.

About Ryan Berenz 2166 Articles
Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.