THR Frontrunners Q&A With Bill Pullman From 'Murdaugh Murders: The Movie'

7 weeks ago

Bill Pullman chats with THR's Stacey Wilson Hunt about taking on the lead role in Lifetime's two-part limited series 'Murdaugh Murders: The Movie' during a THR Frontrunners Lifetime Showcase held at San Vicente Bungalows in Los Angeles.

Transcript

00:00I was just texting with my mom telling her that I was about to speak to Bill, and I think she

00:09speaks for all of us when she said, I love him, but I don't like knowing that he played a murderer.

00:14It's an uncomfortable experience knowing that the nicest person in Hollywood next to Tom Hanks

00:19played such a complex, scary character, but we'll get to that in a moment. I do want to know what

00:26attracted you to this role, because this is not easy material, and emotionally probably very taxing.

00:34Yeah, this is a quick decision that had to be made because it was on a timeline with reality.

00:44I guess that happens. The real case is happening in real time.

00:50Yeah, so they had the verdicts were delivered in March, and then they knew they had to get

00:59the movie in production before the drop-dead date with the strike.

01:05You had a lot of timelines.

01:08Yeah, which was July 1st, right?

01:12Yeah, so we had to get started at the end of May. I had, I think, I guess I think it's

01:19eight days, but the first two days I was saying no.

01:24Why did you say no?

01:25I was having kind of like a physical reaction to, I thought it was a sign that was so repulsive

01:33that I was, I couldn't do it, but I really ended up being, that was the last shred of

01:40my own morality, you know, and embarrassment and shame and all of that.

01:45Embarrassment about what?

01:47What's that?

01:47You were embarrassed about what?

01:49Sympathetic, simultaneous, similar type of thing, like I was being caught, but I was

01:57still in my kind of moral codes and everything, but more, and then by the time, once you start

02:04working on a part like that, then you kind of walk through a membrane, you know, you move,

02:09it's like a permeable membrane, and you can move through that, and then you're free of that

02:16kind of reaction, you know, and, you know, you start investigating what it is to be on drugs,

02:23always a good job.

02:24Because this is, and that's a great point, this is a story as much of a tragedy and murder

02:29as it is about addiction, so tell me what you learned about that and the state of mind

02:33that this person was in.

02:36Well, I think, you know, chasing a high, everybody knows that, but this is, you know, and it's

02:46amazing to me that I didn't know a lot about oxycodone, oxycodone, and the fact that you

02:52could build up an addiction that would cost you $50,000 a month, and that, you know, that

02:58would be a lot of drugs, and because you start out using, it doesn't take very much to get

03:06you going, and then at a certain point, it just builds up more, and more, and more, and

03:12so, but, you know, when you're on that high, you kind of, like, you're in turbulence or

03:18something, and then you get, you're satisfied, and then you live through the clouds, and, you

03:24know, there is some things about that that were interesting to feel, you know, there's

03:31a kind of freedom you get with that, because I didn't want people to go, oh, that was part

03:37of why I didn't want to do it, because I didn't know about him, and I started asking people

03:42that I knew in my life, and...

03:44So you weren't aware very much of the case before this?

03:47Nobody told me about it.

03:50Well, you clearly and wisely don't watch news, because that is where most of us became familiar

03:56with this person, and it's just terrible.

03:58Everything about it is terrible.

03:59See, and then everybody said, oh, Pete, I hate that guy.

04:03I hate him, and I thought, this is the non-starter of this movie.

04:07I walk in, they go, I hate you, and then they, you know, three and a half hours later, they

04:14haven't changed their minds, so I was talking to Greg Beeman, who is the director, who, you

04:22know, you also have to kind of make a marriage pretty quick when you're on that kind of deadline,

04:27so you have to, you know, and I just wanted to hear what he had to say about what he thought

04:32about things, and he said, you know, I said, what do you think about his feelings about

04:39his wife and child?

04:40He said, oh, I think he loved them, loved them very much, and I think that fact that you love

04:47someone, and then you also kill them is a big paradox.

04:52So this isn't essentially like a Ted Bundy story where someone's wantonly committing numerous

04:57crimes and having no regard for human life.

04:59This is someone who completely lost sense of who he is, went probably insane, and did the

05:04most horrible thing a person can do.

05:06Yeah.

05:06So there's that incredible journey in that, that you can explore as an actor that probably

05:11felt, like, scary, but also rewarding.

05:14Well, no, I think there's a little, maybe it's wrong to say it, but there is some kind

05:22of weird, the producer of this movie is a guy who, Tim, who makes a ton of movies in Canada

05:30all the time.

05:31Ding, pow, pow, pow.

05:32This was filmed in B.C., right?

05:34Yeah.

05:35And he said, you know, I never thought that I'd actually, I wouldn't say felt sorry for

05:41the guy, but I empathized with him.

05:45And I think that was, my thought was, it's not like you have to really approve of what

05:52he's doing, but if you feel that some little bit of his, you know, the chase and his circumstances

06:01before you really shut down on him, you know, you suspend that as long as you can so that

06:10the character has some, you know, he's still in play with him and not just in judgment of

06:15him.

06:16And did you research, like, the 911 call and the police documents, did you have access

06:20to those materials?

06:22Finally, I got to see what everybody else saw, you know.

06:27You had a crash course in this terrible event.

06:30I, I'm a junkie for verbatim dialogue, you know.

06:34It's just, I see what, when it's actually printed, the way people talk, it's, it's incredible,

06:41you know, the crazy syntax, you know, throwing, you know, starts with talking about that dog.

06:50He, they always, they come around, you know, where they're changing.

06:54Well, he's Southern, but he's also really intelligent.

06:57He's an attorney.

06:58So he has, like, kind of jargon and sort of local folksiness, but he's also very smart.

07:03Yeah.

07:04Interesting thing.

07:04Yeah.

07:05He's intelligent.

07:07Like a heat-seeking missile, he can start a sentence and he knows what's going to, where

07:12he has to go to kind of get the most rewards.

07:15Kind of like the red-haired, orange-haired guy, you know.

07:20You, you look at that syntax.

07:22I'm sorry, what orange-haired person are you speaking of?

07:24There's an orange-haired guy.

07:26Ronald McDonald?

07:26In our culture, yeah.

07:28But, you know, there was a period where they fixed his grammar.

07:32And then, you know, I think up until 2016, they were, they were fixing that.

07:36And then they said, no, we're not doing that anymore.

07:39And then you go, whoa.

07:40And you can feel the intelligence.

07:42Well, I saw a lot of parallels with that individual in this story.

07:45Yeah.

07:46There's a certain uncanny, and you could call it like a feral intelligence about, you know,

07:53if you're starting some sentence and that's starting to get boring to you, go to a whole

07:58new sentence in the middle of it.

08:00It's an interesting campaign vibe.

08:03It really is.

08:05But Vickerman, Michael Vickerman, wrote the script.

08:07And, you know, he, there, there is the verbatim text from the 911 call and the, you know,

08:14the dash cam and the first deposition that happens in the car with the sled officers.

08:19And there's endless courtroom because South Carolina, you know, allows the TV in the courtroom.

08:25And so there's a lot of data, but, you know, when you, when you hear what he actually was

08:35saying in that 911 call, it's, it's kind of like, some of it's like, ah, there's too much

08:43information.

08:44Yeah.

08:44He doth protesteth too much, I think I said.

08:47Yeah, he doth protesteth, you know, a little bit too, you know, my son, I think, you know,

08:53I'll tell you what, I think somebody's mad about that, you know, and just like.

08:59Tell me about, you have a great, I'm married to a Southerner who's very sensitive about terrible

09:03Southern accent when he, and he hears them.

09:05Yours was very good.

09:06So tell me about how you prepared.

09:08Did you listen to not only this person you're playing, but did you listen to that local dialect?

09:12Like, it's a very specific Southern accent.

09:14It's not Texas.

09:15It's not Florida.

09:16It's very specific to that region.

09:18Yeah.

09:18South Carolina, North Carolina.

09:19I love the South.

09:22I love the sound of those voices.

09:24I used to listen to old Smithsonian folkways records of, you know, Appalachian people talking,

09:31telling jet tales and stuff like that, because I just love that deep, you know, and Piedmont's

09:37one thing.

09:38There's lots of different shades.

09:39There's also where, you know, because Murdoch pitches it pretty high, so back up in here,

09:45you know, it's not down low, it's not in that low part.

09:49So, you know, and there's this range that happens where he's fast talking, you know,

09:54so you got to kind of find the cadence.

09:57It's a lot of theatrics.

09:58Yep.

09:59Yeah.

09:59Yep.

10:00Yeah.

10:00So I'm going to come back to Alex in a minute and this incredible performance, but I do want

10:04to go back a little bit to 1987, Spaceballs, an amazing major film debut on your part.

10:14You've done some smaller parts, but I would say this is your breakup movie.

10:18What do you remember about working with Mel Brooks and how did that movie change your life?

10:22Yeah, that was, you know, I thought they were all going to be like that and I just landed

10:30in heaven, you know, because it was so much a movie movie, you know, it was MGM, the last

10:37MGM movie shot on the MGM lot when it was owned by MGM and, you know, you go into the lot

10:45and the head of makeup was a guy who had a blazer and a tie, you know.

10:53Good old days.

10:53Well, the good old days, yeah.

10:56And there was, you know, the costumer was this flamboyant guy, just one name, Don Feld.

11:06I said, isn't it Don Feld?

11:08Oh, no, Don Feld.

11:10And he was so, you know, wonderful and he took care of me and he, you know, just all

11:19those things that you...

11:20Kind of like classic movie star treatment.

11:22Classic movie, yeah.

11:23He said, you know how you're going to be a movie star?

11:26No, Don Feld, don't you?

11:27And he said, you know, there's a little, when you try on a pair of pants, it's a little extra

11:32fabric and then he took his hand and he gathered it up and goes, get rid of that.

11:38And you'll be a star.

11:43You're like, this is going well.

11:45The wise words of Don Feld.

11:48If you haven't had a chance to see Spaceballs recently, I watched it during COVID.

11:51It is magic.

11:52It's like a gift from the gods, so please watch it.

11:55So after that, of course, Bill perfected the role of the nice guy in Singles, A League

12:01of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping, Independence Day, and so many

12:04other movies.

12:05And I've always wanted to ask you, did you feel like you were sort of trapped in nice

12:09guy jail for a long time?

12:11And I think Tom Hanks and Hugh Grant had similar trajectories where they got so good at playing

12:16these guys we're rooting for, that after a while, did you kind of wish, I just want

12:20to play an asshole.

12:21I want to play someone who isn't good or doing the right thing.

12:24Or were you happy with the work you were getting, because clearly you're a very gracious person?

12:29Well, you know, yeah, because I came out of the theater, so the whole idea wasn't to be

12:34a persona of one thing.

12:38And yeah, so I was really restless about all that.

12:43You know, and sometimes just wouldn't do things and wait for something eccentric and weird,

12:49you know, and then I did a lot of it in the theater and been doing it.

12:53That was kind of your place to exercise your weird demons and then you'd do your film.

12:57Yeah, but then I did some movies that people just don't seem to register, you know, Lost

13:03Highway or, you know, maybe there are people like your mom that go, I don't want to see

13:08that.

13:08She doesn't want to see you in a David Lynch movie.

13:10No.

13:11Or Jennifer Lynch's movie that David produced, Surveillance.

13:15She shouldn't watch that.

13:16That's not good for mom.

13:17That's not good for mom, no.

13:20And, you know, I remember shooting scenes from Surveillance.

13:23We were in Canada and, you know, I liked the Canadian crews a lot.

13:27And they like me.

13:28I think they think I'm Canadian.

13:30You know, I'm a nice guy.

13:31You have a very Canadian vibe.

13:33I grew up close to Canada and Western New York State, but, you know, it's, you know,

13:38around the craft service and everything and talking to them, get to know their names coming

13:42into the, you know, production studio.

13:44You're going to get to, and then we did the nasty scene.

13:49You'll have to see this movie to understand, yes.

13:51It's a big surprise.

13:53And I came out, you know, I'm still in my head and everything, but I came out and I realized

13:59all those Canadian guys are, like, looking away.

14:03Didn't want to see Bill Pullman doing that.

14:05Didn't want to see me that way.

14:07Oh, well.

14:08So even those guys had a hard time with your transitioning to difficult parts.

14:12Because I think we get used to, we get comforted by people like you, sort of good guys.

14:16We want to see that people like you still exist in the world.

14:18At least that's how I feel.

14:20How'd you feel about that scene in The Sinner when she was stepping on my fingers and I enjoyed it?

14:26It was a little uncomfortable.

14:28For me, I feel like The Sinner was a major turning point for seeing you in a different light.

14:32An amazing limited series, which is now, it's actually an anthology on Netflix, but was made

14:36for USA.

14:37And then how did that role in The Sinner prepare you for playing this character in this Lifetime

14:44series?

14:45Were you able to access that darkness a little bit more easily, having done numerous seasons

14:49of that series, which is super dark and super psychologically taxing?

14:54Yeah.

14:54I think that in The Sinner, Derek Simons was the creator and the showrunner and everything,

15:03and he's a Jungian.

15:04And so, you know, there was a lot of shadow self.

15:09And, you know, this Harry Avaros is this detective who, you know, his superpower is empathetic

15:17connection to the criminals, people who killed or done bad things.

15:23So he's also, you know, that membrane between them and him was a little porous.

15:30And, you know, there's, he was kind of a, for four seasons had an arc going through that

15:37more and more and then kind of coming away from it.

15:39But I was always feeling, you know, that I would return to my side of the membrane.

15:45And, but suddenly with Murdoch, I could go to the other side, you know.

15:53It's like a training session.

15:55All those, that prep for those four years to try to, you know, detect, see the tells of

16:02so much behavior and then to actually walk in there and be the one given the tells, you

16:07know.

16:08Yeah, that was it.

16:09That's very interesting.

16:11And in closing, what do you feel is the most valuable part of this series artistically in

16:16terms of what we can take away from this performance?

16:19Because it is sort of the ultimate cautionary tale.

16:22But I think there's also just a lot to mine about it's very American.

16:25It's centered on greed.

16:26It's centered on status.

16:28That's a lot of what I took away.

16:29But tell me what you think is the biggest artistic value of this series.

16:34Well, you know, I think that there is, it is amazing how long it takes to get on to a

16:43good con man.

16:45You know, we know this nationally.

16:49You know, it's really, I don't, I think it's just like you will not allow yourself to

16:57totally, you know, maybe that's a good thing for the human race that you, but there, people

17:03all around him never suspected him of it.

17:07And that was part of the phenomenon of reading about it and everything was, you know, how it

17:13kept on peeling like an onion, you know.

17:16And I said, my friend Connie, who said, you know, old Satan must have taken a look at

17:22Murdoch.

17:23I'm like, whoa, dude, you're bad.

17:27You know, and then I think it's still, you feel that and, you know, maybe that's why

17:33people say, I hate that guy because they suddenly realize how a con man, but they're probably

17:39the most susceptible to con men.

17:41I think those people that say, I hate that guy, I can't watch that guy, they're probably

17:45the most susceptible.

17:46Or maybe they don't like to think that people can exist in plain sight in the way that it

17:51did in this story.

17:53And sort of, this guy was a friend, a neighbor, and a dad, and a colleague, and that's what's

17:56so disturbing is it could be anyone, really.

17:59Yeah, yeah.

18:01And, yeah, we're all the sheep and they're the wolf.

18:04Well, on that note, Bill, amazing performance as always.

18:08You're very gracious and very kind, and we're so honored to have you here tonight.

18:11Congratulations.

18:12Thank you so much.

18:12Thank you all.

18:14Thank you so much.

THR Frontrunners Q&A With Bill Pullman From 'Murdaugh Murders: The Movie' | THR Video

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