‘Outsiders’ Star Ryan Hurst on His Character Little Foster: He’s ‘a Pushover’

“In a way, he’s a lost soul,” Hurst tells TheWrap about the son of Big Foster

ryan hurst outsiders
WGN America

Ryan Hurst, one of the stars of the new WGN America series “Outsiders,” knows that comparisons between his character on this show and his character on “Sons of Anarchy” are inevitable.

But Hurst wants people to know that there are fewer similarities between his new character and Opie Winston than you may think.

“The similarities start and end with the hair and the beard and that I play both characters,” Hurst told TheWrap with a laugh. “They’re vastly different. Opie was a rock between a rock and a hard place. Little Foster is a pushover. He’s very, very soft on the inside. In a way, he’s a lost soul. He doesn’t know who he is away from Big Foster.”

Little Foster is the son of Big Foster (David Morse), a prominent member of the Farrell clan who is plotting to seize control of the family from his aged mother. The family faces another threat from a mining company that wants to drive them off the Kentucky mountain they have called home for 200 years.

Oscar nominated actor Paul Giamatti serves as executive producer on the show, something that Hurst said factored into his decision to sign on.

“I’ve had a short list of actors for the last 10 years or so that I wanted to work with,” he said. “And it’s literally less than 12 actors. Two of them that I’ve wanted to work with are David Morse and Paul Giamatti. So one of the reasons I took the role was because they were attached.”

At the 6 feet 4 inches tall, Hurst said that the opportunity to work with really tall actors has been a blessing too.

“A lot of the people at WGN–over on ‘Underground’ too–there’s a lot of really big guys,” he said. “They’re not short actors, which I like. Hollywood is plagued by short actors who are 5 feet 6 inches, but say they’re 6 feet 1 inch. But there’s some big, hairy guys walking around that network.”

“Outsiders” premieres Tuesday on WGN America at 9 p.m./8c.

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