Tom Pelphrey and Raúl Castillo in 'Task.' Courtesy HBO Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text [This story contains major spoilers from episode four of Task]. Soon after Raúl Castillo read the first script of Task, he got on a Zoom call with show creator Brad Ingelsby to walk through the narrative beats of the show. It was a standard meeting for an actor deciding whether or not to sign on for a new project - save for the reveal that Castillo's character, Cliff, would be tortured to death by a biker gang in the fourth episode. "I knew that the show was going to take us to some pretty intense places, but it was then that I had to figure out if that was something I could commit to," says the actor. "But it felt inevitable. Like, oh shit, I have to do this thing." Related Stories TV Suspect Identified in Case at the Center of HBO's 'The Yogurt Shop Murders' Documentary TV Dominic Fike Recalls "Drinking Whiskey, Taking Shrooms" Before 'Euphoria' Audition Castillo stars in Task (Ingelsby's follow-up to Mare of Easttown), which follows two longtime friends who launch a drug-house-robbing scheme in order to get back at a local biker gang responsible for the death of a loved one, and the FBI crew assigned to break the string of robberies. In the fourth episode, which aired Sunday evening, Castillo's Cliff and Tom Pelphrey's Robbie are outsmarted by the biker gang while attempting to sell off their stolen haul. Cliff, in a long and harrowing scene, pays the deadly price. Here, Castillo chats with The Hollywood Reporter about creating the character and how they made Cliff's final moments so realistic. How did you first hear about this show? Jeremiah Zagar, one of our producing directors, and I have collaborated a few times. We did We the Animals years back, and I made a small cameo in his feature, and we've been friends for a bunch of years. When he told me he was signing onto the new Brad Ingelsby show, I was sold from the get. I was a big fan of Mare of Easttown. Jeremiah talked to me about a couple of different characters, but he sent me the script - this was quite early, before the strike and before Mark was attached, or at least before he was attached in any way that Jeremiah could tell me about. I read it and Cliff just felt right for me. There was something about his loyalty to Robbie and his tenacity that felt familiar. The first scene that grabbed my attention was when Robbie and Cliff are taking a break from work and are discussing dating life, and I was enamored with Cliff's acerbic quality. Even though he's distrusting of a lot of people, he gravitates to Robbie. It felt really truthful. Let's talk about that loyalty. Obviously, Cliff ends up being the victim in Robbie's scheme - is he a victim of Robbie's grand ideas? How much autonomy does he have here? I definitely never saw him as a victim. I see him as very free-willed, and I think there's some backstory that we as an audience don't learn in words or plot points, but there's a sense that these guys have been there for each other in the past and that they'll continue to be moving forward. There's a shared history by the time we meet them. Brad is a very economical writer; he gives you these little nuggets of information, but there's a lot to mine from that information. So I always felt that Cliff was not strung along or forced into any situation. How did you find this very specific northeastern PA accent? I was a little afraid of accents, to be truthful. I didn't study to be an actor; I studied to be a playwright, so I'd never worked with a dialect coach before. But Suzanne Selby was amazing, and I found that rather than it being a hurdle, it was actually a great way to find my way into Cliff. It took me out of my own rhythm and cadence. She actually took me to a couple of DelCo bars before we started filming. It was before I'd made the physical transformation into Cliff, so I still looked like myself, and was dressed like myself, so I stood out like a sore thumb. I was getting glances. I wasn't treated rudely, but it was enlightening to be in that environment. Can you talk about that transformation into Cliff? Well, Tom came to Pennsylvania with that post-strike look. (Laughs) It was perfect for Robbie - that long ass beard, and the long hair. And then Jeremiah and I talked and agreed that Cliff should look and feel different from that. He should have his own distinct silhouette, and that's where the facial hair came in. I had a moment when it was time to create the prosthetics for Clint in episode four, where I was like, "What have I gotten myself into?" I flew down from Philly to Atlanta, where Bill Johnson, the makeup effects artist, has his studio, so that they could do a cast of my face. You have two little holes to breathe out of, you can't speak and you can barely