Blog: Boardwalk Empire's Arron Shiver on the Bang-Bang HBO Season Finale

The third season of the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire concludes Sunday, Dec. 2. Actor Arron Shiver plays gangster Dean O'Banion and was introduced in the season premiere.  

Shiver is a Silver Lake resident, who also spends time in New York where the series is filmed.

Fans of the show should prepare for a gunslingin' finale.  Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi)  wants to take back his Atlantic City throne, and he's calling in favors from the gangster associates anywhere he can get.  Fans might see 'buckets of blood' throughout the episode.

Michael Shannon's character of Nelson Van Alden moved to Chicago where he has been living on the lam, as a clothing iron salesman, when he stumbles into a on-going heated dispute between Al Capone and Dean O'Banion.  Van Alden becomes indebted to O'Banion, and in a twist of fate, the once government agent in charge of cracking down on liquor becomes forced to work for O'Banion after hours making whisky from his kitchen.

Los Angeles photographer Peter Konerko recently shot a portrait with Shiver and tried to get some spoilers on Boardwalk Empire's shoot-em-up series three finale.

Here are some questions he had for Shiver, in an Echo Park-Silver Lake Patch exclusive:

KONERKO: How does it feel to live in this time period?

SHIVER: The 20's in Chicago were like the wild west. Researching all these characters really activated my imagination. Then, you walk on to these unbelievably detailed sets, dressed in these elaborate and pitch perfect costumes, standing across from some of the best actors working today, and it's almost like the work is already done, and now it's up to us to just live and play in this wonderfully specific and detailed reality.  

KONERKO: Your accent is great. How did you develop that?

SHIVER: Thanks! Yeah, I always get people from Chicago coming up to me and telling me I've nailed it, and that is just the best kind of compliment you can get as an actor. As far as how I've developed it, it sounds funny, but I am a big fan of the film Midnight Run - Dennis Farina plays the main bad guy, a Chicago mafioso. He's from Chicago, of course, so the accent is just effortless, and it's also hilarious. So, I stole a bit from that. Other than that, there is a website called The International Dialects of English archive, and I use that every time I need an accent.  It's really an invaluable resource.

KONERKO: If Dean O'Banion was making dinner for Al Capone, what's on the menu?

SHIVER: Pig's ear stew......haha. That would really get him going. Not that he needs any help, the hothead.