After playing outlaw biker Filip (Chibs) Telford on Sons of Anarchy for seven seasons, Tommy Flanagan says he welcomed the chance to play someone on the right side of the law.
He got that opportunity in Vancouver when he joined the cast of Motive, the CTV crime drama that resumes its fourth and final season on July 5 at 10 p.m.
In the July 12 episode, Flanagan, 51, will make his debut in the recurring role of Jack Stoker, an Interpol agent who teams up with Det. Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) to investigate the murder of a politician’s son.
Characters in Stoker’s orbit during his three-episode arc include university student Derek Holstadt, a murder victim’s fraternity brother, played by Victoria native Calum Worthy.
“Jack’s this dashing Interpol agent. I think it was his name that attracted me,” said the Scottish actor, whose credits include Braveheart, Gladiator, Face/Off, Sin City and The Game. “He’s a pretty cool cat.”
Flanagan said after dispensing outlaw justice on FX’s hit motorcycle drama with Ron Perlman for so long, behaving like a bona fide law enforcer took some getting used to.
“On the first couple of days on this show the dialogue was very, very strange to me,” he said. “Forensics ... blah, blah, blah. It was just a whole different animal to what I’ve been so used to.”
He credits Motive showrunner Dennis Heaton and his cast and crew for making him feel welcome, just as he and his Sons of Anarchy co-stars did when guest stars entered the picture.
“Working with Kristin is great. She makes it so easy,” Flanagan said. “It’s just such a supportive group, genuinely very good people. It’s been a pleasure and a lot of fun.”
Even before he began shooting Motive, the thickly accented Glaswegian said “exorcising the demon of Chibs” has been a challenge, especially as he’s often recognized publicly.
“We’re just TV tough guys. It ain’t real,” laughed Flanagan, who even shed his beard after Sons of Anarchy went off the air in December of 2014.
“I went: ‘Now they won’t recognize me.’ But, unfortunately, I can’t shave this off,” he added, pointing to his “Glasgow smile,” the facial scar he received after being knifed by thugs outside a nightclub in the city.
Although the Sons of Anarchy brotherhood was fictional, Flanagan said he and his co-stars became “a real brotherhood” after working so closely for seven years.
“There were no egos allowed on our set,” he recalled. “You bring an ego, and there’s the freakin’ door. See ya later!”
He was reminiscing on the fourth day of shooting for a Motive episode at Vancouver’s Ironworks studio where a grisly homicide occurs, prompting a murder investigation.
Flanagan was so animated it was hard to believe him when he said: “I’m exhausted” — the after-effects of filming Sand Castle, Fernando Coimbra’s Iraqi war drama, in Jordan, and squeezing in other projects.
The actor, who has since been cast in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, plays Sgt. McGregor opposite Henry Cavill in Sand Castle, which chronicles an American machine-gunner’s experiences in Iraq.
His hectic schedule was in sharp contrast to his life after Sons of Anarchy wrapped, when he went home to Malibu, where he reconnected with his wife and baby daughter and spent several months researching scripts.
“Basically, I sat around gaining weight and drinking the odd Johnny Walker Blue,” he deadpanned. “I just got wider and wider. My wife said to me: ‘You know what? You’re a fat bastard. You’ve got to get back to work.’ ”
Another bonus to shooting Motive was being closer to Robert Carlyle, the Scottish actor who plays Rumpelstiltskin in Once Upon a Time, ABC’s fairy tale-based series that is filmed in Vancouver.
“Bobby and I have been best friends since I was 18,” he said, recalling how Carlyle encouraged him to try acting after “I was attacked by these five psychopaths for no reason” while working as a DJ at local clubs.
“I went from the worst experience of my life to the best thing I’ve ever done,” said Flanagan, who performed with Carlyle’s Raindog Theatre Company until Mel Gibson cast him in Braveheart in 1995.
Flanagan wants to keep stretching himself as an actor, but hasn’t ruled out playing more bad guys.
“Are you kidding me?” he said, laughing. “Playing bad guys is the best thing you can do. They’re so much fun.”