Creator Danny McBride explains how he scored Bradley Cooper for a shocking guest role in The Righteous Gemstones season 4 premiere. The fourth and final season of the hit HBO comedy began with an unexpected departure from its main cast, instead focusing entirely on Cooper’s character, Elijah Gemstone. Set in 1862 Virginia, the premiere serves as an origin story for the Gemstone family’s evangelist empire, with Elijah establishing himself as a fraudulent yet influential chaplain. Bradley Cooper’s Righteous Gemstones role was kept entirely under wraps, making the appearance of the Oscar-nominated actor a huge surprise.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, McBride explained that Cooper agreed to do the premiere after reading the script, despite never having watched a single episode of The Righteous Gemstones. While the series has featured many guest stars from Macaulay Culkin to Joe Jonas, McBride doubted that they could land the A-lister. However, Cooper “dug the material” and was eager to take on the role of the conniving Civil War-era ancestor of the Gemstone family. Read what McBride had to say below:
I threw it off the cuff to my producing partners … “It needs to be somebody really good, somebody with charisma who everybody likes — someone like Bradley Cooper.” One of the producers was like, “Why don’t we just ask him?” I assumed that Bradley Cooper’s not going to want to come down to Charleston for no money and be in a Civil War period piece, but I was wrong. We sent him the script and he instantly got back to me. He dug the material and was flattered we asked. I never thought we’d get a guy of his stature to wear a period piece wool costume in 90 degree weather for 10 days straight. And for no money. It takes a very dedicated person to commit to that.
McBride continued to say it was “smart” that Cooper never watched an episode of Righteous Gemstones prior to filming, expplaining:
When we cast him in it, he told me he had never seen it before and that he wanted to hold off until we were done shooting. He didn’t want anything to influence his performance or his take on it. Sometimes, when you bring a heavy hitter to be a guest star, they end up doing an impression of the people that are already on the show. They want to score laughs the way that people normally do. So, I thought it was smart of him to identify that watching the show could be a pitfall.
What This Means For The Righteous Gemstones
Elijah Gemstone Is The Perfect Blueprint
Cooper’s portrayal of Elijah in The Righteous Gemstones cleverly reveals the deception and greed that the Gemstones family empire was founded upon. As Eli Gemstone’s (John Goodman) direct ancestor, Elijah establishes a clear lineage between himself and Eli’s children—Jesse (McBride), Kelvin (Adam Devine), and Judy (Edi Patterson). While Elijah is an outright murderer and con artist, the modern-day Gemstones share his tendency to use other people’s religious beliefs for personal gain, proving they are truly cut from the same cloth.
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The Righteous Gemstones Season 4 Episode 1 Ending Explained: What Happened To Elijah’s Gold Bible?
The season 4 premiere of The Righteous Gemstones featured a wildly unexpected origin story of the Gemstone family through the eyes of their ancestor.
As ScreenRant‘s Ben Sherlock wrote in a review of Righteous Gemstones season 4, Cooper “knocks it out of the park” as one of the many missing pieces in Gemstones history to be revealed in the comedy’s final season. The remainder of the series is also set to feature Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) and Seann William Scott (American Pie) as Lori and Corey, characters tied to Eli’s late wife Aimee-Leigh. Whether or not these upcoming guest stars have also stayed away from watching the series, Sherlock nonetheless affirms in their review that Lori and Corey “fit into the dynamic perfectly.“
Our Take On Cooper’s Elijah Gemstone
One Of The Series’ Best Guest Stars Yet
Cooper’s Danny McBride-style delivery is both hilarious and unsettling as he improvises a Sunday sermon and prays for dying soldiers with his usual hypnotic drawl and gravitas. His performance elevated Elijah’s manipulative charm and made the root of the Gemstone patriarch’s religious conviction feel entirely earned. Beyond that, knowing that Cooper agreed to wear a heavy costume in 90-degree weather for over a week—and for “no money“—makes his appearance in The Righteous Gemstones that much more appreciated.
New episodes of The Righteous Gemstones air Sundays on HBO.
Source: THR
The Righteous Gemstones
9/10
- Release Date
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2019 – 2024
- Network
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HBO
- Writers
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Scott MacArthur