Antigonus as Leontes's punching bag, emotionally and physically

I have developed a character trait for Antigonus that I really feel is helping build him. His role is often the person who wants to do the right thing, but wants to maintain respectful and correct behavior in the course of doing it as much as possible-- while his wife Paulina is the hothead, who is willing to throw all propriety to the winds in the service of standing up for the right, Antigonus is more moderate, more concerned about the consequences of rash action. Therefore he must be a steady, reliable personality with a kind of inner strength, and I wanted a way to portray that.

I had a gut instinct that in our scenes of confrontation that Leontes should shove me around and rough me up, which I should take without resistance or complaint. I realized I wanted Antigonus, in keeping with his explicit actions in the rest of the play, to be the one who tries to absorbs all Leontes's acting out on his bad feeling, so as to protect other people from having to do it.

Have you ever found moments in your life where you were doing really badly, and you had a person that you seemed to take out all your bad feeling on because they felt safer than anyone else? Like, you want to vent your upset somehow, and if you did it to anyone else, they would resent you and judge you for it, but that one person you knew would bear the mistreatment and be able to forgive you for it? I want my Antigonus to be that person for Leontes. He sort of offers himself to be Leontes's punching bag, both physical and emotional, so that other people who cannot bear it as well will not be victims of it. He feels that if the king has to vent his rage somewhere, he is the safest target for it, and better him than Paulina, or the child.

So when I am in the scene with Leontes's upset, we have been having him manhandle and push me around, because Antigonus will not shove his liege lord back, and will not condemn him for it afterward. Even in the state he is in, he will not just physically hurt a woman, or a baby, so Antigonus becomes the only acceptable target. And Antigonus is willing to bear it to spare the others. I feel like it dovetails nicely with his willingness to sacrifice himself to save the child. He is the sort who puts himself forward as the one to absorb all the strife and suffering so that others do not.

It feels pretty good. It feels like it fills out the character for me.