[This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike authorization.]
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Righteous Gemstones Season 3, Episode 6, “For Out of the Heart Comes Evil Thoughts.”]
When it comes to The Righteous Gemstones, no character comes across as pathetic as Judy Gemstone’s (Edi Patterson) husband, BJ (Tim Baltz).
That’s due in part to Baltz’s fabulous performance, but it also relies on some seriously funny writing, which served up a memorable fight in the show’s latest installment, “For Out of the Heart Comes Evil Thoughts.” As viewers who have been tuning into Season 3 know by now, Judy and BJ hit their biggest obstacle yet when she had an extramarital affair while on the road touring with her music for the family church.
The culprit was band member Stephen (Stephen Schneider), who, despite Judy’s request to move on, continued to instigate and agitate her until it became an issue for the church as the man’s wife sought hush money from the Gemstones. Through it all though, Patterson says, “I don’t think she ever loved BJ less when she was embarking on this no-sex affair.”
(Credit: HBO)
The affair raised a lot of problems though, and BJ decides he needs to face them in this episode, getting some training from Jesse (Danny McBride) and the other men at the church before taking on Stephen in a fistfight. When Stephen sends Judy a message for one last meet-up, BJ responds as her and heads over to the man’s home.
Walking into Stephen’s home, he finds the man naked and alone in his bedroom, kicking off a knock-down, drag-out fight. Stephen remains nude through the entire ordeal, making for a unique filming experience, according to Baltz. “It was actually the last thing that we shot,” the actor tells TV Insider, and so, “I wanted us to feel comfortable around each other.”
Baltz explains that whenever Schneider would fly into Charleston for filming, the pair would “just kind of hang out and kind of get used to each other, ’cause any kind of big fight scene is pretty intense. And when you add in nudity, it’s obviously more intense, but once you’re comfortable with each other, you forget about that.”
“It doesn’t enter your mind,” Baltz reiterates. “But for the character itself, it was obviously a rollercoaster to go through that and that’s really fun to play as an actor.”
While BJ struggles to get the upper hand, he eventually defeats Stephen and returns home to Judy who continues to try and make up for her misdeeds. But will she be forgiven? “I think she just needed attention and didn’t have the maturity to know if you do this, you’re hurting someone you love,” Patterson says of her character’s actions. It seems that the decision to forgive Judy is in BJ’s hands.
Stay tuned to see how their relationship continues to evolve as The Righteous Gemstones continues on HBO.
The Righteous Gemstones, Sundays, 10/9c, HBO and Max
