[Note: This article contains spoilers for Agatha All Along up through its sixth episode, “Familiar By Thy Side.”]
Joe Locke sounds extremely relieved to be out from under at least some of his “don’t blab” duties on Disney+’s current Marvel series Agatha All Along. As revealed in its fifth episode, and then more exhaustively covered in its sixth, Locke’s character—who everyone has awkwardly been having to call “Teen” when talking about the show—finally has a name. (Two of them, in fact, after the most recent episode revealed that Locke was playing both William Kaplan, a young man who ended up having a very bad bar mitzvah, and Billy Maximoff, the body-hopping witch-child who ends up inhabiting his corpse.) Locke gave an interview to The Wrap this week that got into the twist, and while he obviously couldn’t go into everything—there’s three more episodes of the show left, and all—it’s still genuinely fascinating to hear him be able to talk about what he’s doing without having to dunk it in a thick layer of obfuscation.
Like: How much does Billy actually remember about his previous life in sitcom land? “We talked a lot about this. We always said that he doesn’t have any memory of anything to do with William Kaplan’s life, and it’s more like he has a sense of what happened in WandaVision and Billy Maximoff’s life. And in some way he figures out he is Billy, and figures out that Tommy is missing, and has an affinity for Tommy, and has affinity for all of that. I think he senses that there’s a past with Agatha. But until she like, reminds him and stuff, that’s when he starts to piece things together and remember things.” Another question: Is Billy—who’s introduced in his “true” form apparently killing off two of our main characters—arriving in this story as a hero or a villain? “I think that he is a good person who does bad things, is how I’ve always seen him in my head. But I think that any actor should always root for their own character. Whether that means he is a good person or not is to be seen. But I think that leaves a lot of space for if, you know, there’s ever a larger future to the character of Billy, then he could go in many different ways. But I have always seen him as a good, damaged person who makes mistakes.”
And what was up with that strangely sweet moment between Agatha and Billy, when she says, with seeming sincerity, that it was good to see “him” again? “That scene is my favorite scene in the show. It was the scene that me and Kathryn did in our chemistry read, the scene that I think I have the most affinity with, because you see Billy’s dark side, but you also see him care. And you see you see Agatha potentially care as well. I think it’s the first time you see the real complexness of their relationship and how these two people admire each other, but also hate each other, but also have this weird pull to each other. And we don’t really — it’s like an almost maternal relationship, but then he did just try and kill her. So it’s such a push and pull of these two really damaged, complex people, and also just so much fun to play.” It’s always interesting when an actor has to play this coy, for this long, with the story surrounding their character; Locke can’t spill everything, but it’s clear he’s had a lot to say about this arc, and his process that’s a relief to finally get off his chest.
English (US) ·