‘The Night Of’ Postmortem: Star Bill Camp Discusses Det. Box’s Motivations, Being a ‘Subtle Beast,’ and How You’ll Feel About the Series Finale
Bill Camp as Det. Dennis Box in The Night Of. (Photos: HBO)
Warning: This interview contains spoilers for the “A Dark Crate” episode of The Night Of.
We’re three episodes into HBO’s tense limited series crime drama The Night Of… have your original theories about Naz, John Stone, or Det. Dennis Box shifted at all? Any clear-cut good guys or bad guys in the case of brutally murdered Andrea?
Bill Camp, an alum of Boardwalk Empire, Damages, and The Leftovers and recent Tony nominee for The Crucible, plays the mysterious Det. Box. He talked to Yahoo TV about the most recent episode, “A Dark Crate,” which sees Naz (Riz Ahmed) fully processed into Rikers. There, he meets dangerous foes and a powerful, potential new friend in Michael K. Williams’s Freddy. On the outside, Box continues to work the case, and Stone (John Turturro) begins working on Naz’s behalf until high-price attorney Alison Crow (Glenne Headley) sees an opportunity to further her career and convinces Naz’s parents she has only altruistic intentions when she offers to represent him for free.
Camp shares his thoughts on Box’s motivations in his “single-minded” devotion to the case, why Stone is right about Box being a “subtle beast,” and why he thinks The Night Of is such an instant hit with viewers.
Yahoo TV: Congratulations. The Night Of is the TV obsession of the summer.
Bill Camp: Yeah. That’s exactly it. … You get into a loop of it, right? The obsession is, what did I just see, and what did I just hear? Did I really see that, and did I really hear that? Who are these people? It’s very exciting that people are so into it. It’s storytelling at its best.
Why do you think people have become so obsessed with this story?
When a really good story is told well, written well, and the core or the essence of the story is so rich … for some reason, people are really into homicide stories, because it’s a foundation in which then to go, “There’s so much more than just the killing in this story.” It covers such a large landscape, and I think it’s provocative in that way. It makes people really think, and it makes people really think about certain real issues in the world.
You were with the project from the beginning, right, since it began as James Gandolfini’s passion project?
Yeah. I was fortunate enough to do a reading of a play that [The Night Of co-creator] Steve Zaillian had written, a kind of intense workshop environment with him. He had come to see me in a play on Broadway, Death of a Salesman — Scott Rudin put us together — and then Steve and I got on well that day doing the reading, and I got a call asking if I would be interested in going out to Los Angeles and reading some scenes. I read a few of the scenes with Steve there and a couple other actors, and then Jim came in and I read with Jim, and we hung out and talked and that was it.
We shot the pilot maybe a month or two after that. We shot the pilot, and the rest was, well, you know what happened after that. It was on a delay for a little bit, and then John [Turturro] joined. Riz and I were there from the beginning, and we finished it a year ago March. It’s great to have people finally see it. It’s really fulfilling to have something that so much work has gone into and is also such a good piece of, not just good, but a really excellent piece of television storytelling.
When you read the scripts and you saw, for instance, Episode 2, and your character is referred to by John Stone as a “subtle beast,” that promises a lot. How excited did you get when you read that description?
The first time I read that, I got excited insofar as, wow, that’s a challenge. It’s such a mysterious description of a person, of somebody who works in the police department, in homicide. You don’t always think of them as beasts, though they’re not working in a very subtle field. I think I was really excited by it because of just that. It’s the description of a character that I’m able to play over time, how a character unfolds over time, and not in a formulaic way. That is something I can always have as a handle as an actor, because I think it’s an astute characterization by John Stone of Det. Box, so it was something that was always on my mind. I was also constantly being supported and reminded by Steve, who was there as a brilliant director, keeping me in check in terms of that guy, that subtle beast. What’s the other thing John says, he’s a something oppressor, a quiet oppressor or something like that?
A talented oppressor.
Talented oppressor, right. It’s interesting, because it’s the kind of thing you think, well, you can be a talented oppressor in all sorts of different ways. It’s a great handle, it’s great color to have as an actor for somebody to describe your character that way.
I think people still don’t know what to make of him, and that’s not going to change a lot after Episode 3, “A Dark Crate.” Is he a good cop? How manipulative is he being with Naz? My impression of him is that he is less interested in closing a case by whatever means than in finding the person who actually did it. What was your first impression of him?
The same. I think that’s the engine inside of Dennis Box. Wanting to find the killer of another person — that’s his job and his why. I don’t think he’s half-measured in that. I think that that single-mindedness of his … other things around, whether it be relationships to other people or the richness of his life outside of being a policeman, take a back seat. I think that’s his focus, that’s always his focus. That was my take. He has a really good instinct after all the years he’s done on this job. He’s not going to shortcut, he’s not going to do anything half-measured in terms of, “Well, I just want to close this case, because I need to move on to another case, because I have so many other cases.” That’s the thing: They have these backlogs in homicide departments, and it’s a little daunting to think about how, of course, it would be overwhelming as a detective.
I truly believe Dennis Box wants to know the truth. He wants to find out who the killer is, and there’s going to be an itch inside of him or something’s not going to sit right with him until he knows. So, that’s how he’s operating when we see him. There’s a certain level of service in what he thinks and what he does, which all police officers believe when they take the job, especially homicide detectives. How many people choose to do that? There has to be a level of, “Look, I want to do the right thing.” Finding the murderer of some other human being, there’s a certain obvious nobility to that and courage. It takes a lot of mettle. I think he’s driven by the need to find that truth.
Riz Ahmed as Naz
In “A Dark Crate,” if there is a theme in the episode, it’s maybe how predatory people can be throughout the criminal process. Naz is processed into Rikers, and we see right away he has to deal with a lot of predatory people, like Freddy. Alison Crow, the attorney, has a very clear, self-interested agenda with Naz and his parents. She also uses her assistant, Chandra, without showing her much respect. And then there’s Box. Why did he give Naz the inhaler? Why did he give him, specifically, a Harvard T-shirt to wear to Rikers? Were those manipulative choices or simply human ones?
I think, again, he wants to find out the truth, and I think he has his own methods. He knows best, a deliverance, a door in which he can get to that truth. I never thought of him certainly in any kind of predatorial way, or that he’s got a malevolence in him, or that he’s trying to get over on somebody. I don’t think he has a particular axe to grind with anybody; he’s just looking for the truth. There’s a lot of evidence against Naz. I think Box’s need is to be 100 percent sure as to what’s going on behind this story, and all of his evidence is pretty damning. I think he’s got a good internal compass, and yet he has a job where he feels violence and death all the time, and he’s trying to find the truth in these horrible events that occur, that are irrational events. He’s trying to find some logic in them — at least trying to find the sequence of logic — just trying his best to look at the larger picture. I don’t think his methods are predatorial at all.
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When he meets with the two young officers who brought Naz in, he’s acting in a mentor way with them, advises them how to write the report, to make sure they include all the details, even the embarrassing one about one of the officers throwing up at the crime scene. That also seems to support the idea that he is someone who plays by the rules, is a stickler for doing things the right way.
Yeah. Absolutely. It’s a description of the scene. The response of the officer is part of the description of the scene.
When Naz is sent into Rikers, it’s as creepy and scary as a horror movie. Does Dennis Box think about that and the responsibility he has with this young man’s life and the investigation?
I think he’s totally aware of where he’s sending him, sure. Totally, yes. He’s fully aware, again, more aware than most of the people maybe, what it means to be sent to Rikers from Center Street.
There does seem to be something eating at Det. Box about the case. He says several times that the evidence is all there, that it’s overwhelmingly presenting Naz to look like he’s guilty, yet a couple of different characters, John Stone and prosecutor Helen, both tell him he seems a little bit unsure. Do you think that’s true? Are his instincts pushing back against the mountain of evidence?
I think, maybe. I don’t know. He’s got an overwhelming desire to want to be 100 percent sure, and he needs that in order to satisfy that standard that’s in him, because he is aware of all the things you’re saying. He’s perfectly aware, more aware than most, where he’s sending somebody when they’re going off to Rikers. Because he knows that, he’s given Naz every opportunity to defend himself or give some more information as to what he needs for me to know. I think that if that standard and compass of truth is so deep, and that single-mindedness that I was telling you about, if it’s so important, then he’s always going to be questioning, “Did I get everything right?” It’s like somebody who’s writing a story or somebody who’s making a piece of sculpture or somebody who’s writing a grant proposal or whatever it may be, you want to go over it and go over it. I think that he’s that diligent, and I think that’s what separates him from the other detectives. In Episode 2, he’s talking to Naz, talking over his shoulder at him, talking about the other cops hanging out with John Stone downstairs having coffee, right? It’s a club. Box is off somewhere over here on the other side of the street, in a different place, and he’s moving in a different way, and I think he has for a long time. I think there are times where he’s like, “Absolutely, this guy’s guilty,” and then there are times, the next second, he may be like, “I’m not really sure, because this is an odd case. Even though the evidence is so intense, it’s somewhat odd.”
Obviously, no spoilers, but given how obsessed viewers are with the show so far, how do you think they’re going to react to the ending? What is your prediction?
I don’t know what the word would be… This is a great story. Do you know how it ends?
No, I purposely have not read the details of the original series it’s adapted from. I want to watch it play out.
I think people are going to love it. It’s so well-conceived and built and executed that I think, yeah, they’re going to really love it. It’s a fantastic story. I don’t want to say any more than that.
The Night Of airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.