‘True Detective’ Season 3: Ray Fisher’s Friends Keep Asking for Spoilers

We’ve spent the past 5 weeks speculating over how True Detective Season 3 will end, and clearly we’re not alone. It turns out that even a lead actor on the show like Ray Fisher (Henry Hays) still gets pestered for spoilers, though as far as we can tell he’s keeping HBO’s secrets. For now.

“The big problem that I had is friends and family members who are close to me being like, ‘Awe come on man, you gotta tell me, I’m dying’ or ‘I’ve got bets going on as to who did what and why and where,’” Fisher tells Inverse. “But for me it’s fun to watch.”

The actor, who plays Mahershala Ali’s adult son in Season 3, adds that this sort of fan obsession illustrates exactly what makes True Detective so great, and what drew him to the role in the first place.

“I don’t think we have many TV shows that elicit that kind of response and that kind of vigilance from their audience as True Detective does,” he says.

Ray Fisher is probably best known as Cyborg in the 2017 Justice League movie, but with True Detective, he’s proven that he can play grounded characters just as well as he handles big screen superheroes. Henry Hays is a serious role, a family man who’s also the only one left to deal with an aging father (played to perfection by Ali) who refuses to acknowledge the mental issues that sometimes come with old age. Watching Fisher in the role, it’s easy to forget how recently we saw him onscreen as a super-powered cyborg fused together with alien technology.

For the actor, the transition between roles was also seamless, with the possibility of a spot on the HBO show materializing soon after he finished filming Justice League. The only problem? Fisher had never seen True Detective before, but in the end that wasn’t much of a deterrent considering his faith in the network to make something great.

“I’ve been a huge fan of just about every HBO series I think I’ve ever seen,” he says. Just a big religious watcher of them. And with True Detective, I was aware that it was an extremely popular show that I actually hadn’t seen. So I went back and watched and I was like, ‘Man, I’m gassed to be a part of this.’”

For Fisher, who got his start performing Shakespeare plays, the biggest appeal is the show’s dark tone and ambiance. More than the mystery at the heart of each season, he’s drawn to the intense characters created by showrunner Nic Pizzolatto and the way they develop over the course of eight episodes.

“You know, it’s more of a life study than anything else,” Fisher says. “That’s what really got me fired up and ready to go.”

Of course, working with Ali was also a great opportunity, and Fisher says that just being able to watch the Oscar-winner actor perform in person was an enlightening experience.

“It was nice to see someone who’s so established, someone whose star is on the meteoric rise, comport himself with such grace and such humility and be willing to just be open and playful you know not just with me but with everyone,” Fisher says.

With Episode 5 airing this Sunday and just three more after that, Fisher is excited for fans to see how these characters grow, and, of course, how the mystery resolves. It may not be the most important thing about True Detective for him, but the actor recognizes that’s what the fans want. And he’s optimistic Season 3 will deliver.

“Hopefully with the last few episodes that have yet to air, we will not miss the point.”

True Detective airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.