‘The Hunting Party’: Eric McCormack & Son Finnigan on Playing Same Character and Ron’s Future

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Hunting Party Season 2 premiere “Ron Simms.”]

The NBC drama about the worst serial killers who should be dead but were instead kept in a top-secret prison only to escape got off to a chilling start for its second season. Serial killer Ron Simms is seemingly someone for whom The Pit treatments worked, but it quickly becomes evident that isn’t really the case.

Eric McCormack plays the present-day version of the character, and his son, Finnigan McCormack, steps into the role of Ron in the flashbacks. “From a behind-the-scenes perspective, it was one of the most exciting and emotional parts of that episode for us was giving a father and a son a chance to do this really sweet thing of working together, even though the circumstances and the story they’re telling is horrifying,” executive producer Jake Coburn told TV Insider.

And it does sound like it was a sweet experience, based on what Eric and Finnigan McCormack had to say about their guest spots below.

Talk about your approaches to playing Ron Simms. Who filmed first and were there any mannerisms that you two talked about the other one doing?

Eric McCormack: I think the idea of Finn auditioning in the first place was the producers. And I think they had a hunch that there would be just a bunch of natural things as father and son that perhaps we’re not even aware of. And I hope that that’s sort of what materialized. But then we had a few days of great conversation just about, how do we do this when naturally we don’t look — we have similarities, but we don’t look alike at the moment. So, we found some cool ways to, I think, share particularly in the look in the eyes. There’s something that Finn did in his first scene, just the way he looked up at her both at first with a hope like, “Oh, I hope you’ll know my movie reference.” And then the second time with, I’m sure, that creepy look that you remember. I was like, great, I’m going to steal both of those. That’s perfect.

Ralph Bavaro/NBC

Finnigan McCormack: Yeah, I mean, it was honestly just doing a lot of my homework with my dad. We had a couple of days in advance to prep, so we just got to look over the script front and back, get to see — the detectives tend to spend a lot of time speaking about the criminal per episode, so we got to find all the information up and down about what makes Ron Simms tick, why is he the way he is, some of his lower deep insecurities, and then some of the stuff that he puts on top. And I had a lot of fun trying to put that together with my dad.

Finnigan, that opening scene. Talk about filming that, especially once under the bed — what a wild way to kick off the season…

Finnigan: Yeah, it was intense. They had to do this whole extra rig to put the bed a couple of feet above so I could slide under. But I was kind of balancing on this tiny little pillar while also maintaining, trying to get the good shot. And they had these beautiful huge cameras that I was terrified of squirting water onto with the little needle shot. So it was intense in a fictional sense, but it was also pretty intense in person, just making sure I got it right and getting what they needed. But I think as far as I can tell, I think it turned out great. I mean, definitely the freakiest stuff of the episode.

Eric, Ron is alive at the end, so there is the possibility of him coming back. I really like the stuff between Ron and Bex (Melissa Roxburgh). After that chase and everything that went down between them, especially filming the recording, where is his mind when it comes to her? I feel like she could be in trouble if he were to come back…

Eric: Could very well be. At the same time, obviously he’s a man that wants to connect with women. He’s been 20 years away from his particular mode of dating. But the one woman he’s probably seen a lot as he watched, as he got access to that horrific documentary about himself is her. She’s the expert. So, there’s a part of him in that great Silence of the Lambs way, where the serial killer has tremendous respect for the female detective that’s got the goods on him. So I think that there’s definitely a fascination, love-hate thing — or just a spinoff.

Finnigan: Give him a spinoff.

Eric: It’s Bex and Ron. With lots of flashbacks.

Related

'The Hunting Party' Sets 'Manifest' Reunion: Josh Dallas to Guest on Melissa Roxburgh's Drama

What were your favorite scenes of each other’s?

Finnigan: I haven’t had an opportunity to see too many scenes of my dad, but I think one of the freakiest one that I got to see was him showing the documentary to his next victim. Because from his perspective, it doesn’t come off as some grand evil, “Aha, I got you. I got you in my house and now I’m going to show you who I really am.” It was this moment of this really genuine and raw moment of, “I feel like we’ve come far enough that I want you to know about who really I am.” I think he genuinely thinks he’s moved on to a certain point, that in a certain degree, this is OK. And that’s what makes it all the more terrifying is just how rational he is and, if anything, he’s more disappointed than he is angry or maniacal. He’s just kind of like, “Oh, I thought you were going to love the real me, but you don’t. So now we got to do the old process.” It’s scary.

Eric: For me, I was like a stage mom the whole time. I was so excited to see all of it, but I was very excited to see that first moment when he first looks up because it was something I’d seen him do for the audition tape. And I thought, “Just do that. Just know that there’s so much power in your eyes.” But then it was also that last moment where young Ron becomes old Ron, and I knew that the director was going to want to do a shot like that, and Finn sort of rolled over from this sentimental moment with the girl who’s now dead to just rolling over and looking up at the ceiling and it’s such sadness on his face. And that’s what I had to kind of match a week later when I shot the stuff in The Pit.

The Hunting Party, Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC