Part of the brilliance of the Prime Video/Blumhouse Television series The Bondsman is how it balances the humor and the horror. A large part of the humor rests on the shoulders of newcomer Mike Kaye in the role of Tater, the bad-luck bear of a small town henchman. Tater is the first to come face-to-face with Kevin Bacon‘s resurrected Hub Halloran and ends up working with Damon Herriman’s Lucky Callahan. Not too shabby for an actor in his first recurring role.
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Through the magic of Zoom, Geek Girl Authority had the opportunity to chat with Mike about his life at the moment, which is a world away from his initial post-secondary path of academia and medicine. Chasing his dream paid off big time, and The Bondsman is just the beginning for this sweet and funny self-professed nerd.
The following transcript has been edited for clarity.
Mike Kaye on The Bondsman
Diana Keng: What were your first impressions on reading the script for The Bondsman?
Mike Kaye: Once I got the full script, I was like, “This is really cool!” I didn’t get to see all of the scripts, though. I don’t know if that’s because they were being worked on as the season was going on or… [but] I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this, at least that I’ve auditioned for in the last eight years, so it was exciting and fresh and new. It was fun.
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DK: How many days did you spend in the trunk of that car?
MK: It did become a running joke. I would show up to set, and they would be like, “Trunk day?” And I’m like, “No, no. It’s never happening again. I don’t want this to happen again.”
[Fun fact: They made him do it twice! They did it for reshoots!]
Yeah, no, it was great. I loved it in there. [#sarcasm] I overheated during reshoots which is just a whole other thing. So yeah, from Day 1, it’s very interesting because Day 1 was just me and Kev [Bacon]. We were doing 14 hours of me getting dumped into the trunk, dumped into the trunk, learning how to stunt roll into the trunk. Then they were like, “Cool, man. See you Friday. You’re going to be in the trunk.” I think I wanna say five or six days were trunk-forward for my setting. And it’s not the least comfortable thing I think I’ve been in on a set but it’s up there. I’m a fairly, y’know, wider fella, so the trunk of anything is not going to do me… let alone a classic car like that.
Tater’s Tale
DK: How much backstory did you fill in for Tater?
MK: I’ve consistently referred to him as a little chaotic neutral, where he’s not necessarily allegiant, he’s just a little bit of a victim of circumstance. That’s why he gets his fun interactions with Lucky. That’s why Hub doesn’t kill him cause he had every option and right to off the start, right?
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As far as backstory, this is just a guy who’s trying to do any gig he can to save up enough money to get out of this town ’cause he doesn’t want to die there. I feel like he has a food truck. That’s his dream. He’s just kind of lost in the middle of things.
For me, Tater’s just like, I dunno, two degrees from who I actually am like in real life, so let me just switch Tater on. He just has convictions about stuff that I don’t necessarily do. But he wholeheartedly believes in them. He’s definitely matched with the small-town energy and how to get out of it. I feel like a lot of people in that town feel stuck.
DK: Would the food truck be called “Tater’s Taters”?
MK: 100 percent. Yeah. Yup.
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DK: If Tater’s so close to who you are, does he also play Magic: The Gathering?
MK: [laughs] Yeah, he’s a bit of a nerd, too. He’s mostly minding his own business. He’s a bit of an introvert, and he’s forced into places that he doesn’t necessarily want to be just because of the happenings around him. Hey, he’s just going to do a job, to burn the motel down, right? And then all of a sudden, all this other stuff happens around him. I feel like he’s the kind of guy who makes family out of just the people around him, [who aren’t] necessarily always the best people to do that [with], but you fall in with the crowds you surround yourself in.
Working With the Big Guns
DK: Do you have any standout memories of your one-on-one scenes with Kevin Bacon or Damon Herriman?
MK: Those were my audition scenes. The opening of the show – which again got rewritten, and we did reshoots on – and the witch theory scene. Two different directors for that. For the thing with me and Kev, just the fact that I did a little bit of stuntin’. He’s on top of me, we’re in the dirty and grimy. Of course, I’m getting thrown in the trunk. Can’t really forget that cause I just got so intimate with that setting. But I was super, super nervous on Day 1.
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Thankfully, by the time reshoots happened, I was not, but y’know, the first day was the opening scene. It’s just me and him, figuring out how to work with a guy who has that longevity and presence in the industry, and he’s just super giving and collaborative with me, who he just met last week, which was really incredible.
I would say the way that Thor (Freudenthal) directs, there’s such a pacing thing with the witch scene, with Damon. That was just such a blast. Hitting marks, doing the smooth kind of around into the camera, and then Damon, who to me is such a funny guy. We would be able to kind of turn it off in between takes and whatever. For him to go [from] we’re goofin’ around just a second prior, we do a take and … he’s so scary. [laughs]. I was so in it; it was like, “Yeah, man, this is what makes sense to me.” And to have this guy break me out of that by throttling me was … yeah, that was a total blast.
Tater 2.0
DK: You up for a Season 2? Is Tater?
MK: Yeah. I’ll go! I’ll do it, I guess. If I have to. [#nonchalant] I think that the way that it ends leads to open pathways to more story. I can’t imagine the fallout of what happens in the last two episodes going completely unignored. That seems a little much.
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Just for selfish purposes, I love the idea that Tater knows about this mythological world since he talks about witches and stuff. I’d love to see him be a deep dive … Y’know, like in an NCIS when they flash to the people back [in the office] and they’re like, “That’s the guy who does all the research.” I feel like Tater could be that guy. Tech Tater.
All eight episodes of The Bondsman Season 1 are now streaming on Prime Video.
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