Chris Bauer Channels Randy Savage, Terry Funk & More For ‘Heels’ Character

Heels star Chris Bauer pulled from wrestling history to bring “Wild Bill Hancock” to life.

Bauer (The Wire, True Blood) recently spoke with WrestleZone ahead of the series premiere of Heels on STARZ and talked about some of the influences of his character, Wild Bill Hancock. Bauer was a wrestling fan prior to landing the role, and he said he pulled details and traits from countless wrestling personalities, naming a few in particular that stood out.

“I would say that if you sent it to wrestling [23 and Me], whatever that thing is, you’d have genetic evidence of many different people, and not just men,” Bauer noted. “But the dominant strains, I would say, are the idiosyncrasies of “Macho Man” and the showmanship and the spontaneity, in particular, it’s “Macho Man” Randy Savage’s quickness on talk shows, things like that. He had a charisma that matched that eccentricity for me. I was just saying that I watched about 40 minutes of promos of him just the other day because it always gives me life.

“Jake ‘The Snake’ [Roberts] in terms of appetite and a predatory presence in the ring, and then the devotion, the commitment and loyalty of Terry Funk, where if you showed up to watch a show,” he added, “you were going to get one if it killed him. And I have so much respect for him and all of these people I mentioned, and you and I could talk someday for an hour and 900 other names would come up.”

Heels premieres on STARZ on August 15.

Read More: ‘Heels’ Producers Tease CM Punk & Mick Foley Guest Appearances, Praise Their On-Screen Work