Sons Of Anarchy: Theo Rossi Knew About The Juice Hate (& Had The Perfect Response)

In "Sons of Anarchy," it is useless to impose a grand design of morality. The Hamlet-inspired biker drama features some of the most ruthless criminals who only worsen with time. Even Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), who starts with the best intentions, turns into a cold-blooded murderer. At its heart, "Sons of Anarchy" is a tragedy, and no one gets out unscathed. However, one character seems to get the brunt of hate from the fans. After seasons of missteps including murdering Eli Roosevelt (Rockmond Dunbar), fans have made it clear how they feel about Juice (Theo Rossi). One fan had the chance to ask Rossi about the hate he got during a Reddit AMA, and they got straight to the point.

"How do you feel as Juice, so many people hating you since season 6 because of how much you have changed and messed up? Do you like the change in your character?" the Redditor asked. "Good luck Theo but hope Juice meets Mr. Mayhem very soon!" Juice had been on a runaway train heading toward disaster since Season 4. After being blackmailed into turning against the club, Juice receives little to no redemption. But even though this viewer was looking forward to Juice's end, Rossi wasn't particularly bothered by it.

"People hating my character means you're doing something right and the writing is really good," he replied. Up until the final season, Rossi never wavered from his support of his character choices.

Theo Rossi's commitment to Kurt Sutter's work continued until the series' end when Juice hit his lowest point. After protecting Gemma (Katey Sagal) for her involvement in Tara's (Maggie Siff) death, the biker queen ultimately turns on him. This leads him to offer club secrets to a rival club, the Mayans, so he can flee the country. Rossi spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how this split the fanbase. Trusting Sutter completely, the actor had no problem going down this road. In many ways, it was a badge of honor.

"I remember being with Ron [Perlman] and saying, 'this is so cool that you can invoke this from a character, that you can invoke this much vitriol. You've really done your job,'" Rossi explained. Like Rossi, Perlman earned many conflicting opinions for his portrayal of the ex-club president, Clay Morrow for his villainy. "For me, what I love, and due to the social media age, what I love is everything from the '#SaveJuice' people, who feel he's this innocent, who hasn't done anything wrong, to the 'I want him dead' people. The fact that we're getting both sides to that — I love that." 

Like most of the characters, the "Sons of Anarchy" ending was not kind to Juice. After episodes of abuse, Juice finally dies in prison. Seeing the once kind-hearted, if naive, biker die in such a dark way is hard to watch. But after all, "Sons of Anarchy" is a tragedy.