The Righteous Gemstones’ Tim Baltz talks fighting a naked man

The Righteous Gemstones The show is dedicated both to be a family program and to also being one of the least-family friendly shows on television. Usually, this means heaps of colorful cussin’ seasoned with a bit of comedic nudity, or an ongoing plot where the Gemstone youth ministry forms a task force called the Smut Busters to raid porn shops and clear out their inventory (trying to put them out of business by giving them lots of business).

Danny McBride takes his jokes as seriously as Tom Cruise does when it comes to Mission: Impossible. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is a great way to extend the Mission: Impossible analogy. Righteous GemstonesSeason 3 features a full-frontal, extended fight with an angry naked man.

The current season is underway Righteous Gemstones BJ Barnes, the shy husband of Judy Gemstone(Edi Patteron), is given his chance to shine. He’s asserting himself more and relishing his new job as a tour guide at the Gemstones’ megachurch campus, and trying to sort out his crumbling marriage to Judy. Judy is in an affair with Stephen Schneider, the musician she has been making out with on her gospel tour.

Jake Giles Netter/HBO

This is, according to Baltz & Patterson, the emotional heart of the human being. Righteous GemstonesIt is important to take everything seriously. This is why BJ’s fight with a naked Stephen can be both hilarious and memorable.

“There’s a lot of emotional turmoil for our two characters,” says Baltz. “And I think BJ has always looked at Judy and understood her flaws or imperfections and loves her despite that, and this pushes it to a point that really tests that love and that commitment, and forces both of them to look at the relationship and understand who they are, you know? And like any couple that goes through that, ask themselves in a very real, kind of naked way: What do we need to do to come back from this?”

“It was ultimately really important and awesome to me that it’s You can never have enough of your own? ever that Judy doesn’t love BJ,” adds Patterson, who also writes on the show. “She’s just Screwed Up.”

This culminates in this week’s confrontation, where BJ, after some coaching and loaner brass knuckles from Jesse (McBride), goes to Stephen’s house to kick his ass. In classic style, however The Gemstones BJ finds Stephen, naked and furious, masturbating in bed. Stephen beats him to a pulp.

Jake Giles Netter/HBO

The fight is both full-blown raunch, making sure that Stephen’s genitals are in frame whenever possible, but also a well-choreographed brawl that Baltz really had to hype himself up for.

“That flight scene was the last two days of work for me this season, so we’re kind of building up to it the entire time,” Baltz says. “I was training, I’d be talking to the director and the stunt coordinator. So I felt really prepared going into it and thankful that it was the last thing, but it’s no less intense.”

Baltz and Schneider were supported by a stunt team, and Baltz — a comic actor who had never really done a fight scene before — was assured that his stuntman would do the hardest stuff.

“But you have to take a lot of those blows as well!” Baltz says. “And they prepare you for it. But you know, everyone’s got a plan until they get hit in the mouth — and I You can rest assured got hit in the mouth.”

And most fortunately for him, he wasn’t the naked one in the fight.

“I wish it had been a little warmer out,” Baltz says. “Not just for me, but for Stephen, too.”