‘Task’ Star Tom Pelphrey on Finding Himself in His Devoted Dad Role — and Nearly Playing Professor X

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[This story contains spoilers for Task season one.]

In 2020, Tom Pelphrey made waves on Ozark season three, paving the way for his first Primetime Emmy nomination the following season. The development came as no surprise to fans of his mid-2010s pulpy action series, Banshee. The New Jersey native had likewise joined that low-key critical darling during its third season, and his magnetic turn as Kurt Bunker quickly became a fan favorite — earning him a promotion to series regular ahead of the fourth-and-final season.

Months before he was cast on Banshee, Pelphrey got sober in late 2013, a turning point he detailed in his recent appearance on THR’s Awards Chatter podcast. Shortly thereafter, once Bunker came his way, the opportunity to depict a man who’s drastically turning his life around became a fittingly cathartic parallel to Pelphrey’s own recovery journey.

His sheriff’s deputy character didn’t necessarily struggle with substance abuse; he was a reformed white supremacist desperately trying to atone for his past. But he couldn’t afford to remove the visible tattoos that marked his former affiliation, and Pelphrey intricately captured the inner conflict of confronting one’s greatest regret every time Bunker looked in the mirror.