Spoiler Warning: Our exclusive interview with Kurt Fuller includes spoilers for Evil 3×04, as well as teases for the remainder of Evil Season 3.
When we spoke to Kurt Fuller about Evil Season 3, the natural first question was how his character, Dr. Kurt Boggs, is handling his unexpected demon encounter from last season. After all, that kind of experience can turn a person’s world upside down. And after just seeing how well Ben wasn’t dealing with his own new reality, we wondered if Dr. Boggs was having a similar sort of crisis.
Before even diving into his own character’s thoughts, though, Fuller took the time to praise what Evil 3×03 explored with Ben and his state of mind. The actor said he “thought it was great” (um, same), and Ben “was saying what people who watch the show, sometimes, say. There’s no resolution. You can’t figure things out. I wish they’d resolve things. I wish we’d know. And [Ben] was saying the same thing. I thought it was very well done. Because that’s what the show’s about: What you don’t know. There are no easy answers.”
Kurt Fuller on Dr. Boggs’ state of mind, coming into Evil Season 3
In the series’ first season, says Fuller, Dr. Boggs “very sure of himself, knew how the world worked. Knew how to diagnose people.” Back then, if people saw things, “there was a scientific, medical, or psychotropic reason for it.”
But then…Boop!
In the series’ second season, Dr. Boggs “had an encounter with a demon. And he was not on drugs…He had evidence. There was stuff on his nose. But, as we often do, he had, as time passed, sort of come up with a version that let it be absorbed into his worldview that it wasn’t really a demon.”
But, no matter how many lies the character tells himself about brushing a wall to get stuff on his nose, or “the power of suggestion,” as Fuller put it, “the body doesn’t lie. And the body is saying, ‘I give up.'”
So, he calls for Sister Andrea because “he keeps seeing that F-ing demon. And it’s stressing him out, to the point where he’s immobilized. So, clearly, something has to happen.”
On the sessions with Sister Andrea and the heavenly chords
That brings us to Evil 3×04. Dr. Boggs assesses Sister Andrea. “To see if she’s got early dementia or something. Because Leland is trying to get rid of her.” Because, of course, Leland is forever up to no good, on multiple fronts.
During Sister Andrea’s session with Dr. Boggs, “she tells him about her first — the first time she saw a demon.” According to Fuller, it’s a major turning point.
“Dr. Boggs goes from interested, to fascinated and awestruck, in that very short period. Because everything she says, not the particulars but the stuff underneath — her body, her voice, her memories, the movements — completely resonates with his vision. And somewhere, deep down inside, a shell breaks. And undeniable knowledge that he actually saw something he can’t explain starts to take root in him. To the point where he goes home and tries to use the heavenly chords to call a demon.”
Kurt Fuller should probably add “poet” to his resume after that one. Just saying.
Back to the point, this moment truly shows a change. The Dr. Boggs we first met “would be embarrassed” of the version of himself we see in Evil Season 3. “But he does, because it’s taken root.”
Furthermore, “the thing that surprises him, in that moment,” of trying to summon the demon “is that half of him wanted to see something.” He might have even expected it. “And, when he didn’t, I think it threw him back a little bit from…It took a little bit of the ‘ooh! I think there really is something’ away. But that doesn’t last. It does not last. Things show up.”
As of now, says Fuller, “he’s gone from knowledge, to doubt, back to knowledge, to now…real uncertainty. And other people in the show — to name one, Leland — see that in him. And they exploit it, and they rock his world. He goes places that you could never imagine Dr. Boggs going.”
So, while the doctor “actually admires Sister Andrea,” to the point where he “fears her because she’s so…She’s so certain. He wishes he could be that certain. She’s a miracle of a person. She knows what she knows, and she doesn’t deviate from it. He never meets people like that,” all bets might just be off. Because, as Kurt Fuller reminded us: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Good intentions..and being physically crippled by what you can’t explain.
Kurt Fuller teases what’s next for Dr. Boggs in Evil Season 3
For the remainder of Evil Season 3, Kurt Fuller promises we’ll see a lot of Dr. Boggs. And get ready for some surprises. While Fuller can’t spoil anything (and we wouldn’t want to anyway), he told us, in no uncertain terms, that it’s “unbelievable, the range of Dr. Boggs this season, for the rest of the season, has shocked me. And threw me for a loop.”
The actor “didn’t see it coming,” whatever “it” may be. Which pretty much sums up how we feel about nearly everything that happens on this series. Basically, the only predictable thing about Evil is that it’s always unpredictable — and never disappoints.
If you’re wondering, to what extent, Dr. Boggs is a willing participant on this journey, there’s not a lot Fuller could give away. But he did give us this much: “Dr. Boggs embarks on something that he wants to do. He’s having trouble doing it. Leland comes to him and says, ‘you know what? I can help you — I can help you do this. All you have to do these things.”
Of course, doing what Leland wants…works. “All of a sudden, Dr. Boggs starts doing what he wanted to do very, very well.” Fuller compared Dr. Boggs’ whatever-it-is to our worst nightmare: “It’s sort of like having writer’s block,” and Leland “unleashed it.”
Just saying: Even knowing what Leland is, we can’t fault anyone for taking his advice if it means getting rid of anything remotely similar to that…
Whatever happens as the result of Dr. Boggs’ choices, he made them for “completely selfish reasons.” And he “didn’t think he was hurting anybody. He thought it was all good. Until it turned very, very bad.”
Fuller also pointed out a common theme for Evil Season 3: “This is the season of everybody admitting that they don’t know what they thought they knew, really.” So, “the zeitgeist of these people and where they are is so challenging. It challenges you on an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual level. To where you just don’t know who you are, or what you are, or where you are after a while. Because there’s curveballs every day.”
We would tend to agree.
Catch Kurt Fuller in Evil Season 3, now streaming on Paramount+. New episodes release every Sunday.
