When the credits rolled for the Sons of Anarchy series finale last December, it was met with differing mixtures of grief, anger and relief from its ever-widening fanbase. (Spoilers for those who haven’t finished the season.) It obviously wasn’t just hard for audiences, though, and the actors also felt a part of their lives get taken from them. Particularly Theo Rossi, who played the constantly put-upon fan favorite Juice, and he feels like this was a once-in-a-career character.
While speaking with Gold Derby, Rossi spoke about all things Sons of Anarchy, calling it the kind of “appointment television” that just doesn’t exist that much anymore. In a nutshell, here’s how he feels about Juice, a tortured soul he embodied for seven years.
I will never, ever play a character like Juice again. He felt every single emotion in a very short amount of time. Like, literally played every emotion. And, as an actor, it’s like a dream job to be put in those situations. Juice was one that literally sat with me. It pushed your mind to a place where you don’t necessarily want to go, to make it believable.
He’s absolutely right about this, as far as I’m concerned. Of all the characters in Sons of Anarchy, even Charlie Hunnam’s Jax and Katey Sagal’s Gemma, Juice went through the most emotionally distraught situations, passing through a rainbow of disasters almost every season. Though he started out as the quiet guy with a weird haircut that mostly did underling duties, Juice quickly became a major force within SAMCRO.
Let’s go down the checklist. He got shanked in prison and was beaten by a rival gang, he freaked out over the MC finding out that he was half-black, he tried to kill himself after serving as a police informant and hiding the fact that he killed a fellow brother, and he got tied up with the dirty deeds of Clay instead of following along with the slightly more virtuous Jax. And that was all before he ratted Jax out to Nero, killed Sheriff Roosevelt, and kept the secret that Gemma murdered Tara. Juice was at the heart of almost all the drama, and no one is tough enough to go through that stone-faced, and his death was all the more tragic because of it.
But for all the insanely enjoyable work that everyone has put forth on the show, Sons of Anarchy is almost always completely absent during awards season. Rossi also had a few words to say about that.
The acting is phenomenal. The story is incredibly gripping…But, why [the snubs]? I don’t know. I mean, what’s the rhyme or reason? I can’t answer that.
Indeed. I have to ask myself that every year. Check out the entire interview with Rossi below for more fun facts about his career and the show.
Theo Rossi is currently filming the horror mystery When the Bough Breaks from director Jon Cassar, and he’s set to star in Ricardo de Montreuil’s drama Low Riders opposite new Supergirl Melissa Benoist.
