Lee Jones is riding into the spotlight on ‘The Bastard Executioner’

It’s a bit of a jump to go from motorcycle gangs to the violence of medieval Wales, but that’s exactly what Kurt Sutter has done in moving from “Sons of Anarchy” to his new series “The Bastard Executioner.” The show stars newcomer Lee Jones as Wilkin Brattle, a conflicted warrior. Jones is an Australian actor, who confirms that the series is “completely, my first American credit.”

But he’s rolling with it. “It’s a lot to take in, but it’s very exciting,” he admits. He describes Wilkin as “a very spiritual, yet tortured man. He’s a former night of Edward I, who’s searching for a higher calling in life. He gets backed into a corner and has to fight for survival, and that leads him into becoming the executioner.”

The show is clearly quite different from the world of “Sons,” but there are some parallels. “It’s about a very violent world, and family has a huge part in this, and also vengeance.”

Not only was Jones a newcomer to the American TV scene, he was also a newcomer to the work of Sutter. He admits he “hadn’t really” seen any of Sutter’s earlier show, but didn’t try to fake any greater knowledge about it.

“No point in bluffing. I wasn’t going to do that. I have seen bits, and what I’ve seen is amazing. This is very different for Kurt,” he says. “I think people are kind of surprised by it, but thematically it’s very close to what he focuses on its very visceral ideas of dark and light sitting close together.”

That’s certainly very true of Wilkin, who seems to loathe violence, but has, unfortunately a high skill level with it, and can’t stop getting drawn back in to fighting. Jones jokingly calls him “a sensitive badass,” given how much he gets into scrapes but feels conflicted about it. There’s a pretty high level of gore, but Jones says he can “stand a lot. I’ve had to stand a lot already. It gets very gory, but it’s a medieval piece. This is a violent world that we’re in, so nothing’s out of place. It’s very real.”

There was one moment that made him hesitate, however. “I had to deal with a snake the other day. I was surprisingly OK! I was a little worried for a second, but I actually really enjoyed it.”

With all of that fighting, Jones had to learn how to be a warrior. It was a bit of a change for him, though he had done a different form of fight choreography before. “I had [done it] for the stage. It’s very different. It’s my new favorite thing, though — I love it.”

But no medieval warrior would be complete without a noble steed, though. “I’m doing a lot of horse riding in this. That’s also my new favorite thing.”