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Despite being a 1970s period piece,Mindhunterfeels eminently of the present moment.
Why dont we start with you Jonathan.
Jonathan Groff:Me personally, not at all.
Not a serial-killer person.
I should hope, yes.
What drew me to the show initially was obviously the opportunity to work with David Fincher.
And also, the scenes.
Were any of you true-crime fans?
Holt McCallany:I was a big fan of some of Davids earlier films, likeSeven.
Which obviously, theres a serial killer.Zodiac.
Cameron Britton:Well, Ive always been fascinated with serial killers.
I find it to be an incredible enigma, and [Edmund] Kemper is a great example.
So you have no remorse for human life, but you care about what we think of you.
So therefore, the empathy thing is connected to another person.
And so anything to do with the world is absolutely not important.
But as soon as youre involved in it, then thats what they feed on.
CB:Thats a good point.
I dont need to do it anymore.
HM: Anna makes a great point.
Thats one of the fundamental themes of the show, narcissism.
And this is why you see so many of these serial killers communicating directly with the press.
These guys all wrote letters to the press and they wanted that adulation, they wanted that notoriety.
CB:They wanna feel special.
AT:Or they wanna take credit.
Tell me about the casting process?
How did this go for each of you?
Did you do sides?
What scenes did you do?
What made you wanna actually do the show?
Why dont we start over with Cameron.
You seem very nice.
And Ed says something like, Ive been a regular guy most of my life.
That was the first thing I read.
AT:He was like, I want it.
CB:I just need to know more.
And there were something about the sides that were like …
HM:Im perfect for this.
AT:Who is this guy?
CB:There was something about them, I just could tell it was a real person.
Its what the show feels like.
Its not terrifying to watchMindhunter, necessarily, but its just unsettling.
you could find Aileen Wuornos just talking to a camera.
Its hard to watch.
Her eyeballs, they are just terrifying.
I was up past midnight working on that self tape.
I can do it better, I can get it, I can get the eyes right.
HM:And boy, did he nail it.
Anna, how about you?
What was your audition process like?
AT:It was pretty smooth and simple, actually.
I, again, got the pages.
And often, you go in for an audition and youre lucky if you get two pages.
And its like, Hey.
And it was a good 15.
And the character that Im playing isnt in the book, and I worked out who she was.
But shes a completely different person to the one that weve created in the show, to Wendy.
And then I went in and tested with beautiful Laray, who casts the show.
HM:A round of applause for Laray Mayfield.
AT:Then I think I met with David and did them again.
And then got the call.
And I was beyond ecstatic, like beyond.
HM:I had worked with David a couple of times previously.
Because in a certain way, it felt like I was getting a promotion.
JG:I had met Laray eight years ago when I auditioned and did not getTheSocial data pipe.
She said dont move your forehead.
Dont move your forehead?
JG:Dont act with your forehead.
Dont blink, dont up at the end like this, which I do all the time.
HM:Dont segment the lines, no segmentation.
JG:Yes, and dont be …
HM:Get to the end of the thought.
JG:Yeah, dont be musical.
And so I applied that.
HM:And be prepared to do a lot of takes.
JG:Be prepared to do a lot of takes, yeah.
Where this is too good to be true, I dont believe this is happening.
Im in a room with David Fincher, hes talking about this TV show.
HM:Hes probably gonna hire Justin Timberlake.
Tell me about your early interactions with David Fincher and Joe Penhall?
What did they say they wanted the show to be and what did they want your performance to be?
And he said he wasnt looking for the genius Hannibal Lecter serial killer because its not all too accurate.
The cinematic one, the sexy one.
He couldnt have got the sexy one out of me.
JG:That is so not true.
Theyre watching this showMindhunterand theyre like, Yeah, this is …
I agreed with him, my focus was more on making him a human being.
I think that should be the takeaway from these people.
My aunt doesnt want her daughter to see it because shes only 14.
But at the same time, one of Kempers victims was 14.
Theres something to be said … Of course, we dont do hitchhiking much anymore.
You certainly dont here anyway.
But there were no overall notes.
I need Ed to be more this or that.
He just let me play, which its whats so impressive about him.
That hes so in charge and yet you still feel so free.
I want the story and the people, I wanna be able to see that.
And it changes the way, we would say, its changed the way I watch things.
HM:And thats what watching David direct is really like.
Its like watching the director of a symphony orchestra.
Hes literally making adjustments to every department simultaneously.
And he likes to move at a fast pace.
And be able to make very small adjustments because well do many, many takes.
And sometimes, hell give a piece of direction which is very precise.
And he wants to see the same thing he did last time, except with this precise adjustment.
So it does require a lot of concentration.
Its a portrait every time.
And giving him the kind of freedom to create his vision.
This is one filmmakers vision.
And its a very different way of working.
And of course, most television is writer-producer-driven.
And this is television that is director-driven.
And that is also fundamental difference that cant be ignored.
Jonathan, Im curious, what were the conversations that you had with David about Holden?
What did he say he wanted it to be and where did you then take it from there?
HM:No smiling.
AT:We need to get back into this.
JG:Yeah, thats wet over there.
And we find the way together.
And you have that needy thing that we all have for people to love us.
And Holden doesnt have that, hes nerdy.
He said, You smile.
Even when you dont think youre smiling, youre smiling.
And I was like, What?
Am I smiling right now?
And so it took a long time, but he does this with all of us.
He finds these little technical things.
And Jonathan stop smiling, and youre still smiling, and youre still smiling, and okay, action.
And then I would eventually get there.
But when I watch the show back, I did not recognize myself.
And ultimately, its him whos picking the coverage, and who were watching, and whatever.
Youre gotta see this, someone put together the editing ofMindhunter, this cool link.
And it covered how they edited it and what story youre telling by cutting to this person.
And the person narrating said every time that Kemper mentions his mother, his mouth tightens.
CB:It was something else.
Tell me about shooting the interview scenes with Ed.
How were you approaching it?
We do a lot of it, and we did a lot of it before we ever began filming.
We would do private rehearsals with David in which we just go through the scripts.
So this is something thats a lot more rare than it should be in television.
Normally, in TV, they just dont give you any rehearsal.
Not simply an insufficient amount of rehearsal, they dont even put it into the schedule.
Everything is about shoot time, and sadly, mostly directors arent really empowered on TV sets.
And so to have somebody who says, No, were gonna take our time here.
CB:And I doubt I will ever see a quicker turnaround between cut and action.
You are in it all day.
And especially in a scene where youre just sitting in a chair.
And then dive out of the way of the shot.
And my character smokes in the show.
Even the time to reset the cigarette.
It has to be the same length as in the previous take because we move really, really fast.
Some of them are 10-, 12-page scenes or longer.
And hell let them run all the way through.
And then itll be another setup, a new angle, and maybe takes.
So you get so comfortable in them, you do them so many times you start to make discoveries.
Jonathan, how did you approach doing the interview scenes?
JG:It was different with every one.
And in most TV shows, it would happen in halfway through the first episode.
And then from there, each interview is slightly different.
So Jerry Brudos, hes a total asshole and wont talk to us.
And thats how we get him to open up.
And then youve got Richard Speck, whos surly and crazy.
And so then suddenly Im talking to him about words that I promised I wouldnt say on this panel.
But I remember in the sides, because the ten scripts were written, basically.
They changed a lot, but they were written before we started.
Being tough on him is actually the thing that gets him to open up because he fights back.
Cameron, I heard that you used to be a preschool teacher.
CB:Yeah, for eight years, I taught special-needs preschool for 18 months to 3-year-olds.
I probably did it as long as anyone.
Ive seen a lot of teachers come and go and you do three or four years and its exhausting.
I can tell you something very strange.
Part of teaching preschool helped me with Ed, to be honest.
And everyones looking to you as the teacher.
You cant break or you lose the room.
Some days were pretty wild, but everyone had to look to you.
And now, theyre flooding out because theyve been blocked.
And that started becoming a mechanism, almost a physical thing to be able to cut your emotions out.
So when it came to playing Ed, it was actually really helpful.
I would never have thought that those two things would complement the other.
Have you heard from any parents of kids that have seen the show?
They do not believe it, they go, I actually dont believe you.
I dont see how that works.
Theres one girl who I was still babysitting while we were working on Kemper.
So that mom was an industry bang out, so she wasnt creeped out or anything.
That was your babysitter.
That was your preschool teacher.
And I had no idea.
I was like, I thought I was playing an everyman.
I was playing a sociopath.
And it was one of the things about the serial killers sitting there and waxing philosophical about theyd done.
And that need to have credit, and be in the press, and all of that.
And that starts to find its way into us at the FBI.
Who invented this, whos taking credit for what?
I was the one that did this, and I was the one that brought that.
Or maybe Im just a sociopath and I have no idea.
Thats exactly what a sociopath would say.
it’s possible for you to still have the personality bias.
Wow, you really did a lot of reading up for the part.
Its hard to live with, though.
AT:This is really weird because I read that after the show, after I finished filming.
When I did it, there was this disconnect weve talked about.
I felt it was too much.
I remember getting cast and then having a bit of panic, going, What is this?
Do I wanna look at this?
And then I looked up some of the real people, and it was truly …
I get sweaty palms even thinking about, if Im honest.
And then I went, Im not gonna think about this when Im not on set.
And sets a different thing because you do it so much that theres a desensitization that comes to it.
And I readTheSociopath Next Door.
I readThe Puzzling Mind of a Psychopath, which is really, really interesting.
HM:Theres always a lot of research to do also because its a period piece.
So were set in the late 1970s, its a different political context.
And then each of the killers is very different and theyre each fascinating in different ways.
And it never stops.
Every new episode, we have new characters and we use the real killers.
We use the real stories of the real killers, and the real crimes.
So its a lot of research.
Im curious, why do you think Tench sticks with Holden?
Holdens such a difficult person to work with.
Its just fascinating to watch their dynamic.
Why do you think he sticks with him?
He didnt want to engage in any of that and so he had run away.
And then he gets assigned a new partner.
Jonathan, Im curious, there was more sex in the show than I was expecting.
And we see a lot of Holdens love life.
Im not saying this to be prurient or anything, but Im curious.
How did you think about Holdens approach to sex, and intimacy and relationships?
And the sexual component of their murders is such a huge part of it.
Its actually really great.
While at the same time, talking to these men who do these horrible things to get off.
And so hes having this sexual excitement while hes talking to this girl.
So that dynamic was really interesting to me and the development of that.
And that dynamic of sexual play between a man and women was really interesting to me.
And she surprises me by wearing these shoes.
And its the first time, the character has been so good at compartmentalizing everything and whatever.
And that is the first time, suddenly Jerry Brudos has been brought into his personal sex life.
And thats the first moment it starts to wear on him.
And I was really excited to explore those things.
I wanna turn it over to the audience for some Q&A.
Audience member 1:When is season two happening?
HM:I dont think that season two will be on until sometime in 2019.
Were actually in the process of shooting it right now, but were still in episode one.
Audience member 2:What did you think of the cold opens with the mysterious man?
HM:Are you talking about the scenes with BTK?
And he decided to add that.
And the actor who plays Dennis Rader, Sonny Valicenti.
I think we may see more of him.
And its like this twilight zone between buddy and enemy.
And Im just wondering how you get to that place?
HM:Weve seen in a lot of movies, this older cop, younger cop dynamic.
You saw Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt.
And even though Jonathan and I are very different, we found that we had tremendous chemistry as actors.
And hes a superbly talented actor, so we played off each other in a wonderful way.
And what we found was humor.
So we looked for those moments.
Even if its just a secret of ommission, and how that relates to her attachment to her work?
AT:I think completely and then also not all.
At the same time because thats just the way of life, thats how it was.
And shes like, What?
And she said, Of course I havent told.
Its not even a discussion.
But its that and theres little moments of it which she reacts quite strongly to the Brudos stuff.
But theres one little thing where theyre talking about cross-dressing and Holdens gone in with the shoe.
And shes like, That is not an antecedent to criminal behavior.
We need to absolutely have a distinction.
Audience member 4:Theres a lot of [true] crime shows [right now].
HM:Stephen Paddock, right?
Killed all those people in Las Vegas.
And I dont think they ever have figured out why, with him in particular, the motivation.
Why did that person do that?
Something that were all striving for.
And he had some interesting things to say.
He said first of all, why did he choose those people?
What did that group of people represent to him?
Usually theres a trigger.
Theres something specific that happened that set him off.
It mightve been a fight with his wife, maybe he got fired from work.
But generally, there is a triggering event.
And I think thats why audiences find it so fascinating.
Its because they wanna know, too.
Those people are so different than us, how did they become the way they are.
JG:And I think the bleak message of the show is that well never really know.
This conversation has been edited for clarity.
