Theo Rossi looks back on his time as part of ‘Sons of Anarchy’ and why it might be one of the last great series where people would stop whatever they were doing to watch week to week….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
As awards season gets ready to ramp up once again and the Emmys just around the corner, several shows are vying for a shot at a coveted trophy or maybe just a well deserved nomination.
For seven seasons, Kurt Sutter’s outlaw biker opus ‘Sons of Anarchy’ ruled the airwaves and became the most watched show in FX history while spawning an empire built on merchandise, appearances and support from a motorcycle loving community. The show helped to launch the career of Charlie Hunnam, who is poised to become a massive movie star in the next few years, while helping many of the cast members score parts in films, new TV shows and other projects. From show runner to writers to actors and actresses, just about everyone involved with ‘Sons of Anarchy’ has tasted success either during or after the show was on the air, but for as beloved as the series became over the years, the critical acclaim and reward never came.
‘Sons of Anarchy’ has been shut out year after year when it came to the Emmy awards and only the Golden Globes have given the men of mayhem a chance to walk away with a gold statue and even then it was only one statue given to actress Katey Sagal for her standout performance as matriarch Gemma Teller-Morrow.
Emmy nominations will be coming out again soon and one of the top names from the final season of ‘Sons of Anarchy’ to get mentioned for an award is Theo Rossi, who played wayward member Juan Carlos ‘Juice’ Ortiz on the series. His final run on the last 13 episodes played out like a tragedy as a guy who loved his outlaw brothers, but had no right to even try to live in that world.
His performance was outstanding, but even Rossi isn’t sure that the awards committees are going to give ‘Sons of Anarchy’ any acclaim for the final season. He believes that award shows like the Emmys are built on recognizing certain series while numerous others are shut out permanently.
“My favorite shows on television have been shows like ‘The Wire’ and ‘The Shield’, shows that never really got the attention they deserved. Mainly ‘The Wire’. These are some of the greatest shows on television,” Rossi said in a recent interview. “Something happens along the line where–and I believe this with actors as well–I think you’re either just picked or you’re kind of not. I hate to say that like it’s this big thing, but it’s like you see the same actors all the time.”
Whether the award shows give Rossi or any of his cast mates at ‘Sons of Anarchy’ any nominations this year remains to be seen, but he’s not exactly holding his breath.
What he will take away from his experience on ‘Sons of Anarchy’, that many of the series adorned with nominations by the Emmys every year don’t have, is a rabid fan base that lived and died with what their show put on television from week to week. ‘Sons of Anarchy’ was an overwhelming hit with fans and viewers and ultimately that’s always what matters most when it comes to a series’ lasting legacy.
“At the end of the day, what you want in a television show is you want people to watch it, and we had that in spades,” Rossi said.
Another interesting point Rossie brought up during the interview was the era of streaming TV and how it has changed the approach by many of the savviest viewers out there. With Netflix producing more and more top notch series and other outlets such as Hulu and Amazon getting into a similar business of dropping an entire season on viewers instead of doling it out week to week is changing how people like to watch their television shows.
Rossi looks at ‘Sons of Anarchy’ as one of the last great series to have fans camped out on their couches at a certain time every week when a new episode would premier. He’s not sure that will always be the norm with television viewers, especially not now with everything shifting to a ‘right now’ format.
“I believe that we are one of the last appointment television TV shows that will ever be on,” Rossi said. “It’s very hard to make a TV show now that people have to wait every week for, and we were one of them. ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Walking Dead’ are probably the last two.
“After they’re off the air, people are going to want their shows all at once. They want all 13 or all 20 and they want them right now. They’re not going to wait every week. I think we were one of the last to have that.”
As far as his own final run as a member of the ‘Sons of Anarchy’, Rossi looks back with fond memories of a character that he’ll be attached to for the rest of his career. Rossi is moving on to film work and other projects now that ‘Sons of Anarchy’ has wrapped, but there will always be a piece of ‘Juice’ inside of him no matter where he goes.
Rossi played the part with in such a tragic and poetic way that he became one of the most sympathetic figures on the show towards the end.
“He was an innocent in an extremely chaotic world,” Rossi said about his character ‘Juice’. “He was such a sweet soul and he never belonged in the situations he was in. He led with his heart and not his head, and all he searched for his entire existence in that show was a family. He just wanted to be accepted. He wanted people to love him and because of that, he was extremely manipulated.”
Rossi along with the rest of the cast and crew of ‘Sons of Anarchy’ will wait until the nominations are announced before the actual awards show takes place on September 20. Will ‘Sons of Anarchy’ finally earn at least a nod or two for what became one of the most popular cult series in the history of television?
Time will only tell.
H/T: Deadline
