And then at rock bottom, there’s just this yearning for some form of stability because his mother passed away. His father can’t be the column that he needs in his life, so the last thing he really can hold onto is Ruby. My favorite moment in the entire show is exactly that moment you pinpointed, where he realizes she’s going to leave, and he can’t make her stay. My scene objective up until that point was, “I need you to stay.” And my character was so embarrassed at that moment that [he thinks], “I’d rather push her away than be hurt one more time.” There’s this one [camera] setup which pushes closer on me, where he suddenly snaps and he has this almost Star Wars moment: “If you’re not my friend, you’re my enemy. You should leave.”
I remember when we shot it, it was much worse [than what was used in the final cut]. The producers and the author were like, “Well, we can’t harm him too much, because if he’s going to really scream at the top of his lungs, people are going to hate him for that.” But when we shot it, I went all the way. The next shooting day, I had no voice left. I remember I was in ADR a couple months later, and the producer came up to me and was like, “Damian, you’re doing this scene really weirdly. What was going on on that set?” I was like, “I didn’t have a voice, because I was screaming the whole day before that.” But they cut [the scream] out, and I think rightfully so, because it would’ve really hurt my character in a way that people may not have forgiven him.
Stephan Rabold/Prime Video
TV: James spends most of the first half of the season trying desperately to convince Ruby to give him a second chance, and he delivers an impassioned speech in front of her at Alice Campbell’s foundation gala in episode 3, knowing full well that his father would disapprove. Why do you think he chooses that moment to reveal what he has been going through and to publicly declare his love for Ruby?
DH: I think something’s moved within him when he meets Scott Granger, the guy that’s supposed to actually speak, because he sees a lot of himself in Scott. I really like that in episode 2 when James poses that question, “What happened to your friends?” Scott just replies, “Well, a lot of them are not my friends anymore,” because he’s not the person anymore that he used to be. I think acknowledging that amount of change was something that brought James over the edge of publicly accepting the love, and it forged the bond between them really beautifully, and it informs a lot of their growth as a couple for the next episodes.
TV: Ruby and James have their first official date in episode 4, which then leads to their horny hook-up at the start of episode 5. They get interrupted by Mortimer returning home —
DH: It never works! The whole season, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, just get a hotel room, guys! Please, you’re rich enough.” Sorry to interrupt, but what the f*ck was up with the waiter? [James is thinking] “I’m buying [out] the entire restaurant, and it’s all for ourselves, and he’s just not letting us have our fun. What’s your deal? Just leave.” I don’t get it. [Laughs.]
TV: What specifically did you want to capture about that blissful yet fleeting moment in their relationship?
DH: I think it’s just important to have that in there, because we’ve been seeing them for two seasons now, and they haven’t gone on one date. [People will think] “What sh*tty love show is this? What are you guys doing?” [Laughs.] So I think it was important to have [their first date] in a James Beaufort-y way as well, where he does still acknowledge his own clichés and asks, “Is this too cliche?” in the beginning. He can kind of reference himself in a sarcastic way, and that’s something that he wouldn’t have been able to do in season 1. It’s definitely something that arose from him going to therapy.
TV: Prime Video released a deleted scene from episode 4, in which James has a very awkward first meeting with Ruby’s parents and sister while Ruby frantically cleans her room upstairs. What was it like for you to shoot that?
DH: It was funny because while shooting, I felt like I was breaking character in a way. It just didn’t feel very James Beaufort-y to me, to be honest.
TV: How so?
DH: I felt like it was a bit too comedic, in a way, [where he’s] losing his self-esteem or his confidence. I get that he’s trying to play nice in front of his parents-in-law, [but] he was not very articulate about it, and I feel like he could have come up with a more interesting response to the situation in that room.
