[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of Hunters.]In the Amazon Studios series Hunters, the world’s most infamous Nazi, Adolf Hitler, is far too much to resist for the team of Nazi hunters that were fighting to rid the world of all surviving Nazis before they had the chance to bring the Fourth Reich to power. Now, they must put their differences aside and reunite to work together again, in order to complete the seemingly impossible task of taking out the villain of villains while he’s in hiding.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Josh Radnor (who plays Lonny Flash, the highest profile Nazi hunters on the team, also being a movie stars) talked about the show’s second and final season, getting back into the groove of the show after a pandemic-forced break, how strange and alarming it was to have Hitler walking around on set, not wanting to know things ahead of time that his character would know, the team dynamic in Season 2, showcasing a movie shoot within the series, his favorite fight sequence, and juggling acting with music.
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Collider: When we talked about the first season and about how this show is completely bonkers, you had said that you got into a groove in it and it became a bit more normalized, as it went on. Did returning to do another season feel easier to get into that groove, or was it more of a challenge to find again? Is it just strange when you have Adolf Hitler on set, as a character?

JOSH RADNOR: Well, that was strange. The first time I saw Udo [Kier] in his makeup, it was so alarming and freaky. I don’t want to speak for everyone, so I’ll just say everyone had this forced vacation because of the pandemic, and by the time we got back together, it was just joyful. It was joyful to reunite. There’s something fun about building on pre-existing things and knowing that it works, on some level. We knew Amazon loved it. We knew people really responded to it. So, we were coming back to something that worked. But also, David [Weil] is a really smart writer, so he amped it up for everyone. Lonny is in a different place, in so many ways, to the Lonny we last saw in Season 1. It was like coming home to something that’s familiar, but also new, all at the same time.

Image via Amazon Studios

How much did you know about the season, going in? Did you know it was the last season? Did you know whether your character would survive? What were you told, going into Season 2?

RADNOR: I’m of two minds about. David and I are friends, so I wanted to shake him down for information. But I also don’t wanna know more than my character knows. I don’t wanna know things that my character shouldn’t know. I think that I should be surprised by what happens because that’s what happens in life. I can’t recall how much I knew. We made certain adjustments. Lonny’s wardrobe is a little more pulled together and a little more expensive, this season. His movie career is doing well, even though his addictions have gotten ahold of him again. Mostly, I just rolled with it as we went.

What did you most enjoy about the evolution of the team dynamic in Season 2? All these characters are a bit of a mess, so what makes that fun?

RADNOR: One of the things that really animated me, and I noticed this in the first season and thought it was so funny, is that Lonny is a recognizable movie star, but the hunters do not care about that, at all. In fact, it’s a ding against him that he’s a movie star. They just think he’s obnoxious and self-absorbed, all of which is true. It’s like that thing where 99 people in a room love you, but one person doesn’t, and you become obsessed with that one person. I think that Lonny is obsessed with the hunters’ opinion of him and he wants them to think well of him, but they don’t. Well, maybe they begrudgingly do. He can tease a smile out of them, every once in a while, but most of the time they just don’t care that he’s a movie star. That’s not the currency in their world that matters, even though it matters in his world. All of that stuff was really fun to play. He also plays cold-blooded killers, but now he’s working alongside some real cold-blooded killers. He’s learned obviously how to fire a gun. He’s a badass, in his own way, but he’s never gonnna have the martial arts skills of Joe or Roxy, and he’s not going to be a munitions expert. He is limited, but he’s in the thick of it with the role of a lifetime, and he loves it.

Image via Amazon Studios

I absolutely loved the movie shoot that you guys shot for episode four, with the spacesuit and the aliens having sex in your trailer while you’re doing coke on the floor. What was it like to read that in the script, and then to actually shoot it? Did you have any idea how you were going to actually pull all of that off?

RADNOR: You have to trust your creators and directors. I trusted David Weil. It’s the 1970s, and who knows what happened in those trailers then. We might have been one of the more low-key things in a trailer on a movie set in the 1970s. I ask myself different questions when I’m writing or directing, but as an actor, you just trust that the people involved know what they’re doing and that it will come together. I knew when we were shooting the scene from the movie that it was hilarious and bad, in a really funny way. Lonny is in his take the money and run phase. As an actor, I always wanna make good things. It’s fun to make fun of making bad things, or to let yourself be bad a little bit. I don’t think Lonny is at the height of his powers, as an actor, this season.

What was your favorite fight scene or action sequence from this season? Do you prefer the more physical combat, or is it more fun to do the big shootouts?

RADNOR: Yeah, those were fun. Just because it was wild, I really liked that fight in the steam room in episode three. That was wild. I’ve obviously never been in one before, but I’d also never seen a scene like that, that’s an actual brawl in a steam room. And I enjoyed some of the big arguments that I have when I’m coked up, like when I lose my temper with Roxy on the street in Argentina. This is the kind of role in the kind of show where you have quiet moments, you have loud moments, you have violent moments, and you have peaceful reconciliation moments. It’s a full meal, and that’s what you’re looking for, as an actor.

I thought that sequence in the steam room was so interesting because he does have that bit of a moment of panic, and you don’t know if he’s going to end up getting everybody killed because he can’t seem to just get himself together.

RADNOR: He’s also high on cocaine and he’s having a panic attack. He doesn’t know how to pull himself together. And thank God, Georges figures it out.

Image via FX Networks

Do you know what you’re going to be doing next? Are you hoping to direct again soon?

RADNOR: I’m on this show, Fleishman is in Trouble, which is out right now and which is a great show. I shot two movies last year. Hopefully, those will find a home. I made a double album in Nashville, that I’m hoping to release and play some songs from that, and get the music out there. And then, I have a bunch of scripts that are newly finished and I’m hoping to find some people to make them with. I just try to stay busy. I don’t like putting all my eggs in the acting basket, just because I like to wake up and have something creative to do. You don’t always wake up with an acting job, even though I’ve been pretty busy. I’m just trying to diversify enough that I stay excited about everything.

Is music something that surprised you, or is that something you’ve always wanted to do that?

RADNOR: No, not really. I’m a huge music fan. I started off singing in musicals. That’s how I started acting. I played the violin, when I was kid. I just started writing songs with Ben Lee, and I found I had both a love for it and a knack for it. We haven’t made music in a couple of years, but I’ve been writing a ton of songs on my own, and co-writing with other people. It’s just a great joy. It’s fun to make a 90-minute or two-hour movie, or tell a 12-hour story, and sometimes it’s fun to tell a three or four minute story in a song. I consider it all storytelling.

Hunters is available to stream at Prime Video.