Aidan Quinn on Bury My Heart

Interview with Aidan QuinnHBO: Do you think you share any personal similarities with your character, Henry Dawes?

Aidan Quinn: Maybe in some ways. There probably is a little bit of a moral crusader in me, and he certainly was seen as that. He was continually calling the railroad and business interests to task for their abuses of Indian people. But, I'm very, very different from him. He saw that their native culture was savage, and he wanted them to become part of us, civilized. So, it's that whole ethnocentric, racist kind of, "I want you to become like me because then you'll be all right."

HBO: Did you immediately know you wanted to play that part?

Aidan Quinn: Yes, when I read the script, that was definitely the part for me. The interesting thing about him was that, from the perspective of history, what he did is obviously crazy. But, he absolutely believed what he was doing was for the betterment of Indians and that if he didn't do what he did, that they would be exterminated by the more radical, racist members of his own government.