Taylor Kitschnow starring opposite Chris Pratt in Amazon’s The terminal list, then tops a streaming series on the origins of the opioid crisis. Although the premise sounds familiar to Hulu’s Emmy nominee Dopessick, that does not bother the 41-year-old actor.
“We’re fucking pumped and not nervous after that Dopessicknot at all,” Kitsch told The Hollywood Reporter Bee The terminal list premiere. “We’re a very different show and when you have Pete Berg at the helm, you know we’re not on it.”
In the Netflix series, Kitsch again teams up with regular collaborator Berg (with whom he worked) Friday Night Lights, battleship and Sole survivor) to play an addict. The series, which has no release date yet, is based in part on Patrick Radden Keefe’s New Yorker article titled “The Family That Built an Empire of Pain.” Kitsch stars against Uzo Aduba, Matthew Broderick, West Duchovny, Carolina Bartczak and Jack Mulhern.
“Addiction, dude. It’s a conversation I’d like to have because it touched me on a certain level with people I know,” he explains. (Kitsch opened up to Esquire about his close friend’s struggle with his addiction and how he helped the friend seek treatment during the ups and downs of the illness.) “It’s probably the work I’m most proud of. Exploring the truth that comes from [addiction] and the way we did it and how we shot it. It’s very blunt and the story is damn visceral. I can not wait.”
Hollywood can’t either. In addition to Dopessick and Painkillerit was recently reported that Hilary Swank, Jack Reynor, and Olivia Cooke have released the opioid thriller breast milk. Directed by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, the film follows a journalist who forms an alliance with her late son’s pregnant girlfriend to track down those responsible for his murder, only to expose a world of drugs and corruption in upstate New York. to lay. The new projects come amid news from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that overdose deaths in the U.S. are on the rise, up 15 percent in 2021 from 2020 data. According to the figures, the number of deaths from opioid overdoses has risen from an estimated 70,029 in 2020 to 80,816 in 2021.
Back to Kitsch. The veteran, who has worn quite a few films, seems excited about returning to his small screen roots. “I love the slower burn,” he says, noting the way the plot unfolds in The terminal list. “Especially for this kind of show where we can lead and mislead [the viewer] and do this on a slower rollout. I like that as an actor. You have more time to breathe.”
A version of this story first appeared in the July 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.