'The English' Star Chaske Spencer on Connecting to Eli: 'I Never Fit In'

When Chaske Spencer joined The English he felt a deep connection with his character, Eli Whipp, a Native American ex-cavalry scout for the U.S. Army who was an "outsider" like him, the actor told Newsweek.

Hugo Blick's tale of love and revenge set against the backdrop of the American West follows Spencer's Eli and Emily Blunt's Lady Cornelia Locke who, by chance or by fate, meet and come to help one another achieve their goals.

For Cornelia it is to avenge her son's death by killing the man who murdered him, for Eli it is to reclaim the land that was taken from him.

'The English' Star Chaske Spencer on Connecting to Eli: 'I Never Fit In'

Spencer felt a kinship with his character, explaining how he was keen to inform his portrayal of Eli by bringing his own experiences and adding them to the role.

"I couldn't help it. How could I not, you know?" Spencer said. "I have my own experiences being a Native American man in this environment and growing up on several Indian reservations, just pulling from a lot of experience and seeing the result of Manifest Destiny, and growing up with that.

"I don't let it bother me too much, I mean if I thought about it every day I wouldn't even be here. I acknowledge the past, I acknowledge it and I honor and respect it, but it's not something I always drag into a production.

"I don't represent all Native America, I'm just an actor [and] they're my experiences, I find that, you know, each Native American has their own different experience and I find that I have my own unique experience."

"I put that into Eli because I feel like I share with him, the character, being an outsider, and that's what I really liked about him," the actor added.

"He's an outsider and I feel that way too. I never really fit in on the reservation, never fit in off the reservation either, so I brought that, and that's just through growing up in my experience what I pulled to Eli."

Eli is from the Pawnee Nation, and showrunner Blick did extensive research on them to bring the character to life and asked Spencer, who hails from the Lakota Sioux tribe, to study the work that he had put together.

Once he'd finished reading Blick's research, the actor "started to look beyond that" and tried to build the character in his own way by drawing on the accounts of veterans he knew who had served in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, because he felt Eli would have had the same experiences with PTSD from his time as a soldier.

But, it also led him to come to an interesting conclusion: "Somewhere along the way I thought it'd be cool if Eli was just a biker."

"He was an ex-Vietnam vet biker, and that's how I kind of went in with him. That's who he is, that's who that guy is and even though he's from the 1800s you can still modernize that, and it helped me out a lot," Spencer reflected.

"So I listened to a lot of music of the time, a lot of Creedence Clearwater Revival, lots of Bruce Springsteen. Before we would go on set I would blast Born in the USA by Springsteen and Gypsy Biker, those two songs I felt really captured what Eli was, and they're just b***** songs. I'm going to play a b***** character, I wanted a b***** song!"

On Working with Hugo Blick and Emily Blunt

While reflecting on the Prime Video series, Spencer shared how he was "very surprised" that Blick wanted the story to be led by a Native American character when, too often, they have been relegated to the sidelines or worse.

"I was very surprised because you don't see this too much, with the Native American character being the lead in a Western genre— It's usually saved for the Paul Newmans and the Clint Eastwoods, and I was very surprised by that," the Twilight star shared. "I welcomed the adventure, the challenge of doing that character and just doing a different spin on it, that was it."

Spencer names Westerns like High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and Once Upon a Time in the West as his favorites of the genre, particularly because it made him come to "really love that hero character."

Speaking of how his series compares, Spencer added: "There's so much in that genre and you can make it fresh, you just want to put a little spin on it, that's all.

"There's nothing much [that's different], it's still a true Western, you have action, adventure, romance, and revenge, it still sticks to the same elements it's just a little tweaked differently, that's all."

Spencer also shared how he felt like he "was in good hands" with his co-star, Blunt, who both stars in the drama and is an executive producer.

The actor called it "a lovely experience" to act with Blunt, adding: "I enjoyed going into the work day, she's just so professional, such a lovely person and one of the most talented actors working right now.

"And I just felt very supported by her, [...] I just felt I was in good hands with her and Hugo, they allowed me to find the character of Eli, they were just massively supportive."

He explained that they rehearsed together extensively before the shoot to "flesh out the characters" and understand each other better as actors which, Spencer said, was "very important because on the day, especially in a Western, you don't know how it's going to turn out, the horse might do something, you gotta be prepared for anything."

"And so by the time we went into filming we had it down and then between takes we laughed and joked around a bit," Spencer added. "We have a lot in common, we were talking about our families and so it was awesome.

"That's what I love about this profession of acting, you get to hang out with people and bond with them for a brief moment, and it's a fun adventure to go on with people who are really, really passionate about the project and are genuinely nice."

The English premiered on Prime Video on Friday, November 11.