Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on Diving Into the Villain’s Past (Exclusive)

Euphoria is finally revealing more about its Season 3 antagonist, Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) as the series delved into the businessman’s backstory in the episode, “Stand Still and See.” Warning: Spoilers for Euphoria Season 3 Episode 6 ahead!

The installment opened with a flashback sequence, which revealed young Alamo’s origins and how his mother, Mama Brown (Danielle Deadwyler), impacted his views on both business and women. As viewers see in the flashback sequence, Mama Brown grows close to Preston (Kwame Patterson), a man who has recently suffered extreme chemical burns on his face.

Young Alamo (played by Ca’Ron Jaden Coleman) observes the courtship over time and clearly grows to respect and love Preston, who ends up coming into money after being compensated by his former workplace for the burns. Just as their lives are turning around for the better, a vacation to the beach and a plan to propose to Mama Brown leave Preston hopeful, until they return home to find everything gone.

HBO

Claiming that there’s nothing to build on without all of their possessions, Mama Brown whisks Alamo away, leaving Preston behind. Arriving at Alamo’s father’s place, the boy recognizes several items that had been stolen out of the home, and realizes that his parents were playing a long con on Preston.

Alamo is particularly crushed to discover that his mother would deceive Preston like that, which explains some of his behavior in the current timeline, as star Akinnuoye-Agbaje shares, “Alamo, he has a real aversion to women, which is why it’s quite unique for Rue (Zendaya) to be employed because she’s the first female to be employed apart from the strippers.”

The same goes for his distaste for Laurie (Martha Kelly), whom Alamo helped in the past, as Akinnuoye-Agbaje adds, “I mean, behind the scenes, he has an aversion to women, and this is a woman that he set up in the business. So there’s a bit of a rivalry and a bit of jealousy that she’s broken free and now challenging him.”

This ultimately explains his roughness with Laurie as Alamo angles to get back the money she and her crew stole from the Silver Slipper. As for digging into Alamo’s past, Akinnuoye-Agbaje says, “I think particularly what drew me as an actor was the opportunity to unfold this character because we do get a chance to delve into his backstory, which you don’t always get with a villain… They’re presented as that, but here we get to see the making of the man.”

“There are layers, there’s texture, there’s nuance, and I thought that was really interesting to be able to unravel who this man is with each episode. Objectively, people see him as the villain or kingpin, but I never look at them like that,” the actor continues. “I always look at them as  humans that are trying to deal with the circumstances that they’ve been given, and there were a lot of interesting circumstances that come along with Alamo Brown, and I was eager to explore them.”

What did you think of Alamo’s backstory? Let us know in the comments section, and stay tuned for more on Euphoria as Season 3 continues to unfold on HBO.

Euphoria, Season 3, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO and HBO Max