“Motherland: Fort Salem” Exclusive: Tony Giroux Talks Adil’s Complex Powers & the Emotional Fallout to Come
The latest episode of Freeform’s Motherland: Fort Salem was a big one for everyone. During his mission to take down the Camarilla with Abigail, Adil gave viewers a look at some of the Tarim’s unique powers.
In our previous interview with Tony Giroux (Adil), the actor shared that since the first season, we’ve heard about the Tarim’s powerful tribe, but we’ve never seen the extent of it. He previewed that viewers are “going to start to see the power and the intricacy and complexity of the Tarim’s powers.”
In an exclusive interview with PopWire, Tony discusses episode “Irrevocable,” where of more Adil’s amazing abilities are displayed. He also teases what’s to come, including the feelings of guilt his character will harbor.
From re-animating the dead to creating a blood compass, Adil has continued to surprise us with all of the magic he possesses. And with the series’ latest episode, seeing all of his other powers blew us away. “Not gonna lie, it felt pretty cool,” Giroux tells us on finding out all the cool stuff his character can do.
“At first we started with invisibility, then we go with little tremors, and then they’ve expanded it to show the versatility of his powers. They [also] talked about him being able to split boulders for a while.”
Of all the different powers Adil and the Tarim have, Giroux’s favorite may surprise you. “Tearing and crumbling down a building has got to be pretty powerful and pretty cool,” the Canadian actor says. “I find invisibility is a pretty sweet one that always feels really neat and this concept of being invisible and being able to sneak your way through a military base.”
With Abigial being very military and Adil being diplomatic in wanting to be true to his heritage and honored tradition, violence of any kind is against his Pacifist lifestyle. Giroux finds it ironic how much Adil can use his powers to help the military, while the Tarim are so anti-violence.
“I think it says something really interesting about the responsibility of power that the Tarim has and that he’s now utilizing it in a different way,” he says. “I think he’s playing fire with himself in terms of what that costs him emotionally to go against his tradition, his values of using his powers for military or violence.”
That emotional cost and going against his values is just what takes place in “Irrevocable” when Adil takes someone’s life. The result of that will take a heavy toll him.
“It is the first person he kills,” Giroux shares on Adil taking out a Camarilla member. “There’s a tremendous amount of guilt that is coming up after the fact. In the heat of the moment, he’s pushed himself to the extreme opposite of where he was from. To go from the Pacifist tribe to then killing someone, I think in a lot of ways we consider murder to be the biggest crime there is.
“Part of him definitely feels like it is murder, in a sense. It is taking someone’s life regardless of the reasons, even though he was protecting Abigail. I think there’s huge guilt that he’s going to have to deal with.”
As for the rest of the season of Motherland: Fort Salem, “people are in for a lot of surprises,” Tony Giroux teases. “There’s a lot of unexpected reveals and unexpected turns. All the characters are going to get pushed to their limit.”
Motherland: Fort Salem airs Tuesdays at 10pm on Freeform.