While breaking down his approach to playing Euphoria‘s new fan-favorite character, Darrell Britt-Gibson confirmed he saw Bishop as on the autism spectrum.
“I don’t think Black people get to play that enough,” Britt-Gibson, 39, told Variety on Monday, June 1. “I don’t like the way that people who are on the spectrum are spoken about.”
Britt-Gibson wanted to offer accurate representation, adding, “There are a lot of people in my life and my family who are on the spectrum, and they are the most beautiful, deep, soulful people.”
He continued: “I thought, ‘If I get to do this and play him like that, I want to be able to do it justice and make it thoughtful and layered.’ That was something I inherently thought about. I wanted to give it that care.”
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Britt-Gibson, who joined the show in season 3, recalled putting in a lot of thought into the character.
“It wasn’t really described to me in any way, and [that’s] the beauty of it. [Creator] Sam [Levinson] saw an audition of mine for another part, and he wanted to craft Bishop around what I brought to it,” he noted. “Sam is so amazing in that way — he’s a ‘best idea wins’ type of creator. I had this idea of a character who moves more like a samurai in a world of cowboys. Somebody who you can’t really figure out until it’s time to figure him out.”
The actor credited Levinson for wanting to “build the character around what I presented,” saying, “Then he wrote this beautifully intricate, nuanced and layered character. … Sam told me the idea for Bishop’s backstory, which is so incredible, but I don’t even want to say it. I want to let the world make their own opinions.”
After playing Alamo’s (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) fixer throughout the season, Bishop had his hero moment during the Sunday, May 31, episode of the HBO show. The show ended with Ali (Colman Domingo) coming into the Silver Slipper to avenge Rue’s (Zendaya) death. He held Alamo at gunpoint before they agreed to a Western-style showdown.
Alamo’s plan failed because when he drew his gun, it misfired. He realized Bishop secretly unloaded the gun so there wouldn’t be any bullets.
“Bishop didn’t agree with a lot of what Alamo did, but it was a job for him,” Britt-Gibson told Variety. “I think what Alamo did to Rue was the final straw for Bishop.”
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Britt-Gibson explained how Rue’s death affected Bishop, adding, “He’s also having that conversation with Maddy in the car. Rue was a bridge too far, and he’s like, ‘I promise I’m not going to let you get to Maddy.’”
Despite some viewers assuming Bishop didn’t care for Rue, Britt-Gibson thought differently.
“There are a million different ways to look at it, from a character standpoint. It plays like he doesn’t care, but if you look deep enough, there are moments of Bishop being like a big brother who is hard on her,” he explained. “You know those figures in your life who are like, ‘Don’t hang out with those people. Those are not good people. You shouldn’t be here.’ The way [creator] Sam [Levinson] wrote it is up to interpretation. He gives it space for it to be seen however people want to see it.”
He concluded: “He’s been waiting. He’s so calculated. It’s chess. It’s always chess for Bishop.”
Euphoria is currently streaming on HBO Max.
