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Chambers' Tony Goldwyn Says Directing His Own Death Scene Was 'Surreal and Hilarious'

The actor/director on his unique challenge of an episode

liam-mathews
Liam Mathews

(Warning: This post contains spoilers for Chambers.)

Tony Goldwyn got to do something very special in the second-to-last episode of Chambers' first season: He directed his own death scene.

Or as he put it to TV Guide at the Netflix show's premiere, "I killed myself."

"It was kind of surreal and hilarious," the former Scandal star said of directing his own death, which came when his character, Ben Lefevre, got stabbed in the guts by his wife, Nancy (Uma Thurman), after he admitted that he participated in the Annex cult's plan that put the demon Lilith into their daughter, Becky (Lilliya Reid), which lead to her death, and then tried to take their Becky-possessed prisoner, Sasha (Sivan Alyra Rose), back to the Annex.

It's a bottle episode set mostly in a single location -- and a very tight one at that, as much of the action takes place in a glass-walled pantry in the Lefevres' kitchen. The difficult proposition of directing an interesting episode set in such a confined space was what drew Goldwyn -- an experienced TV director who helmed numerous episodes of Scandal as well as Justified and Grey's Anatomy, among many others -- to the job. "The opportunity just to work with Uma and Sivan primarily in a box, basically, was a really interesting directorial challenge," he said. "They were just superb, I thought."

9 Burning Questions About Chambers Season 1, Answered

He and the show's director of photography, Joe Gallagher, worked together to come up with a concept to keep the box visually fresh for the whole episode, and he praised Gallagher's inventiveness in using reflections, which can be seen in several cool moments in the episode, like when Sasha/Becky is watching her father die while a home movie of her jumping on a trampoline plays across her face.

Directing his death, meanwhile, was "just kind of a mechanical thing we knew was coming," and the cast and crew just laughed through the absurdity of it.

Goldwyn hopes to return as a director should Chambers get picked up for a second season. But his time as an actor on the show is over, obviously.

Tony Goldwyn, Chambers

Tony Goldwyn, Chambers

Ursula Coyote

Chambers is now streaming on Netflix.