Theo Rossi Interview On 'Sons Of Anarchy,' Juice, His Tattoos, Mohawk — And Going Nude

Everything. Who I am now and who I was in 2008 is two completely different human beings. That's all because of the experience of the show and how much it's changed my life, mainly because I've gotten to explore so many different sides of myself. I'm really lucky with this character, and this year is no exception. Things are about to start getting really crazy for Juice. I learned a ton about myself because I got to explore all different sides of a human being and really being a character for six years, and I've never done that. It was really interesting.

Everyone's written so well. I guess I'd like to know what's jumping around in Jax's head. I would probably play Jax just for literally a second because I wouldn't want to be in that mind space for too long.

I think a lot of people learned. The only two, besides D.L. [David LaBrava], who plays Happy, who's been riding his whole life, Bobby Elvis [Mark Boone Junior] and Tigg [Kim Coates] have ridden since they were young. Someone like me, I had my license, but I wasn't actively riding. I had to get back on the horse and do that whole thing and same with Charlie [Hunnam], who plays Jax. And now, everyone of us has a minimum of two bikes, and we all ride every day to work, every day for the last six years.

The reason Kurt [Sutter] is one of the best showrunners in the business, if not the best, is that he will meet with actors prior to the season and let them know kind of what the deal is for the year. For example, in Season Four, when I knew that I was hanging myself, giving information to the cops and all that, I knew all that going in because if I was getting those scripts, reading that I was hanging, I'd think, 'Oh my god, what is happening here?' He kind of lets you know, not so much when you're reading the scripts, you would know before the season.

Recently, each script reads like a finale. Usually the first thing is, 'Wow, are we really doing that?' That's usually the first reaction: 'Wow, ok! Wow this is a huge episode!' They're all huge episodes now, so I think it's always, 'Holy crap' the second we turn that last page. Every week we get more and more excited.

He is definitely trying to redeem himself. I think he's just waiting on his orders and while waiting, he's also trying to do his own thing. I think this week coming up, we'll start to see the beginnings of that. I think he's trying to find his place again and I think the big question is, 'Will he ever be able to?' And, 'What kind of things occur, positive and negative, in trying to find his place?'

[Laughs]. Let's start with the last question first. Absolutely not, I would never get tattoos on my head. I think it would kind of limit me to being Bad Guy Number Three in some kind of prison show that's coming out. I think that I have one, two, three... maybe eight now? Eight? The first one I ever got when I was 16 is on my leg, and I then I have one under my chest. To be honest, I think that after the show ends — because we have to keep things the same, because sometimes the season starts the same day as the last season ended — I think that I might actually get rid of them all. I might. There's new technology now that makes it a lot easier than it used to be. If not, I'm thinking about going the opposite way and doing the side of my arms because all of my tattoos are hidden. They're kind of inside, none are on the outside of my arms, none are on the outside of my legs. They're kind of hidden on the inside of my wrist. If I'm going to do a new one it would be covering the bulk insides of my arms and into my chest, on both side, kind of parallel to each other.

You have to understand that that was the third episode of the first season of the entire series, so we were all getting to know each other. We didn't really know if the show would be a hit or not. We didn't know what was going on. We were just filming this TV show, and here I am in downtown Los Angeles, walking around with this diaper on and a mohawk and tattoos on my head. And I remember clearly two or three bystanders watching like, 'What's going on here?' Nobody knew what the show was. The show hadn't aired yet. Now when we shoot, there're hundreds of people watching if we're out on location. But then, these people were looking, they didn't know what we were shooting. They didn't know who I was. I just remember thinking, 'This is a very interesting thing we have going on here.'

[Laughs] You got to keep watching. I tweeted recently that there will be naked Juice. And I got to tell you, there will be naked Juice!

No. When we did the original pilot, I actually had a full head of hair. I didn't have any tattoos and I was much more, for lack of a better word, a computer geek, or a computer hacker-type guy, with a different character name and everything. But then we came back and re-shot the pilot, there were a few new actors, Ron Perlman had joined the cast, we made some changes. Kurt came up with the idea to have these tribal tattoos of some sort and the mohawk, which eventually turned into what they now call the 'Juicehawk.' I cut it myself, and every year it kind of morphs into a different shape. Like now, it's got this kind of point in the back and it's shorter and thinner and much more aerodynamic. Juice's hairstyle became like a car, like how in the 90s, they were larger and then they get sleeker. This is truly the 2013 Juicehawk he has going on.

My favorite thing about him is his innocence and how he just has this constant drive to make everything okay and his loyalty that comes with that. My least favorite part is... I don't really have one. I try not to ever dislike anything about a character that you're playing because, I think that, as a human being, you try not to dislike things about yourself. But for him, I think it would be more his gullibility. His innocence leads to his gullibility, of not really questioning a lot of things that people do to him.

I'd like to say that he would running his colonic clinic and hanging out with a bunch of Crow Eaters, his herbal colonic clinic, sitting around smoking weed and enjoying life. Where would I like to see him? I'd like to see him renting WaveRunners in Turks and Caicos. That's what I'd like to see for him.

[Laughs] That could be, I might try that this week. My method is, this might sound weird, extremely music-based. I have playlists for every kind of different mood. It always brings me in. I've been creating them over the last 10 years. I do a lot of prep work. I do a lot of homework on specific things, whether it be a movie about crystal meth addiction, or I'm doing a character who's innocence is being questioned. I do a lot of research in different areas throughout books, history and documentaries. Like I said, a lot of it's on the day, music-based. I'm a big OCD guy, I have massive OCD. Me and Juice have that in common.