#Zodiac Killler | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

jgroffdaily · 7 years ago

Photo

From Charlize Theron and David Fincher, 'Mindhunter' delves into the darker corners of the criminal mind

To meet Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany, stars of the Netflix series “Mindhunter,” you’d never suspect they recently spent 10 long months consumed with the darkest reaches of the human psyche.

Groff, a charmer known for playing the lead in HBO’s “Looking” and King George in the original Broadway version of “Hamilton,” laughs generously as McCallany, a seasoned character actor and gabby raconteur with a booming voice, shares a story about training to throw out the first pitch at a Mets game.

Yet given their obvious rapport, it’s easy to see why they were cast as the leads in “Mindhunter,” which debuts Friday. The psychological drama, executive produced by David Fincher and Charlize Theron, follows a pair of trailblazing FBI agents as they interrogate notorious real-life murderers in an effort to understand — and maybe prevent — the senseless urge to kill.

Groff stars as Holden Ford, a clean-cut but open-minded young agent intent on shaking up the hidebound agency, while McCallany plays Bill Tench, a cynical veteran who asks what might be the series’ central question: “How do we get ahead of crazy if we don’t know how crazy thinks?”

In 2017, when criminal profiling has long since become standard practice — and spawned an entire pop culture subgenre in the process — the need to understand the origins of violent behavior seems obvious.

But “Mindhunter” is set in the 1970s, an era when the starchy culture of the FBI still reflected the narrow worldview of longtime director J. Edgar Hoover, says McCallany.

“The FBI was one of the most conservative law enforcement agencies in the world, so empathizing with killers to try to understand the traumas they experienced in their childhoods and how that gives us insight into their behavior was not something Hoover was interested in.”

Yet the nature of crime itself seemed to be changing radically at the time. The social turmoil of the ’60s and ’70s also brought with it what appeared to be a terrifying new breed of criminal — brutal murderers like David Berkowitz (a.k.a. “Son of Sam”), Ted Bundy and Richard Speck who killed repeatedly and without apparent motive other than bloodlust. Establishing “means, motive and opportunity,” as law enforcement officers had been trained to do, was no longer enough.

The series is based on the book “Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit,” a nonfiction account written by John E. Douglas, a pioneering FBI profiler who interviewed and studied some of the country’s most notorious violent offenders over the course of a 25-year career. (Groff plays a fictionalized version of Douglas, who’s also said to have inspired characters in “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Criminal Minds.” McCallany is a fictionalized version of FBI agent Robert Ressler, believed to have coined the term “serial killer.” )

Theron became familiar with Douglas’ writing when she was researching serial killer Aileen Wuornos for her Oscar-winning role in Patty Jenkins’ 2003 film “Monster.”

A few years later, she optioned “Mind Hunter,” envisioning it from the beginning as a five-season television series, one that would take a more unsettling view of criminality and human nature than your standard catch-the-bad-guy-in-an-hour procedural.

Douglas and his colleagues were “really climbing an uphill battle with the FBI at that time, which just really did not function on any kind of empathy or understanding of these people,” Theron says by telephone. “I think a huge part of where we are in understanding aberrant behavior is because of his work.”

The “Mad Max: Fury Road” star, who says she’s fascinated by “any kind of severe behavior,” was drawn to the material despite its disturbing nature.

“I always want to know why. Why is it that somebody has the need to control in the ultimate way like Berkowitz did or [so-called ‘Co-ed Killer’] Ed Kemper did? A lot of people think it’s really strange, my mother included, but I think it’s healthy to want to turn the light on and want to understand something that’s scary.”

She immediately brought the project to Fincher, a storyteller known for delving into the homicidal mind in such films as “Se7en” and “Zodiac.”

“I just thought he must be somewhat obsessed with serial killers the way that I am, and I was happy to find out that he was,” she says with a note of self-deprecation.

Theron and Fincher spent several years developing the project with writers Joe Penhall and Jennifer Haley, putting together 10 scripts and a series bible and formulating an approach that blends fact and fiction. The decision was made to take creative license with Groff and McCallany’s characters, while adhering scrupulously to the real-life biographies of the killers portrayed in the series, such as Kemper.

Eventually they brought the project to Netflix, which had successfully partnered with Fincher on “House of Cards.” Fincher directed four episodes of “Mindhunter” and is, by all accounts, very much its creative leader.

“One of the amazing things about this experience is that finally a TV show that is director-friendly,” says McCallany, who was eager to work with Fincher again after small parts in “Fight Club” and “Alien 3.” “When a director is empowered on a television set the same way he would be on a film set, it's an incredible thing.”

Groff, a Fincher newbie, says the director has “no blind spots.” “Some directors are good with writers, and some directors are good with cameras, and some are good with actors. The sort of chilling thing about David is he can do everybody's job better than they can do it, so there's this immediate level of respect and hard work.”

Unlike some of his collaborators, Groff says he was “not a serial killer person. When I first picked up the book, it took me a long time to get through it because I found it so disturbing.”

Groff recalls that, from the outset, Fincher “wanted to blow up the comic-book villain idea of a serial killer” — the notion of an urbane evil genius à la Hannibal Lecter who drinks fine wine and listens to classical music.

“One of the things that is so chilling about ‘Mindhunter’ is that it humanizes the serial killlers, these sad, [messed-up] guys with damaged pasts and mental problems. It's so much scarier to look at them as human beings,” he adds.

For a show about serial killers, “Mindhunter” is a psychological deep-dive that features a lot more talking than gore — as Theron puts it, “there is nothing about this that is fast-burning.” One of its most riveting early scenes features two men conversing over egg-salad sandwiches in a prison cafeteria.

“We'll be the only two FBI agents in TV history to go multiple seasons without pulling out our guns and going ‘Stop!’” jokes McCallany. “People looking for gunfights and car chases gotta look elsewhere.”

But for anyone interested in psychology rather than splatter, “Mindhunter” may prove to be highly binge-able.

“Selfishly, I just really forced David to make me my own TV show that I, as a viewer, would want to watch,” says Theron, who is nevertheless confident there are many out there like her. “I can’t be the only freak.”

‘MINDHUNTER’

Where: Netflix When: Anytime, starting Friday Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17)

#mindhunter #jonathan groff #holt mccallany #david fincher #charlize theron #interview #press #!

57 notes · View notes

itishebihime-samaforyou · 7 years ago

Note

Sanji, Kaya, Nami, Chopper, Franky, Carue, Enel, Rob Lucci, Hattori, Caimie, Inazuma, Jozu, Big Mom, Basil Hawkins, Scratchmen Apoo, Jewellry Bonney, Killler, Monet (sorry for the spam but these are great 😅)

It’s alright! I love answering these! (๑>ᴗ

Sanji - What fictional food from any anime/cartoon/book/tv series do you want to try the most?

Oh man, oh man, OH MAN, I’m sucker for Spirited Away food, like WHOA can you imagine all that food in front of you?? Yep, food from Spirited Away wins it on a long line.

Kaya - What is your favourite anime and anime characters?

There are too many to choose and at first I wanted to go with Nana, but that one left me an emotional mess, I love it, I do, but just...oh god that anime and manga is just...such a torture for my heart, yet I always watch it when I feel depressed just so I can make myself more sad. I binge watched it last year. Spent days in bed and cried while watching it.

But I’ll have to go with One Piece. Though it’s not the first anime I watched, but it was the first that got me hooked up on anime in general. And of course my favourite characters are: Boa, Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, Lucci, Ace, Marco, Thatch, Sabo, Cavendish and I’m sooo going to hell cause I can’t remember all of them asdfghjkl

Nami - What is your dream?

To travel around the world and learn languages.

Tony Tony Chopper - What subjects do you like/do well at in school?

Since I’m not in school anymore, I really loved Art in elementary school and English in high school.

Franky - What are some of the SUPER awesome blogs that you like?

All blogs I follow are awesome in their own way and I can’t really choose it asdfghjkl

Carue - What is your favourite animal?

No, no, why you doing this?? I can’t just CHOOSE. TOO MANY. Okay I lied this time, but I really can’t choose between a cat and a dog, so I’ll go with a goldfish.

Enel - What superpowers do you want to have?

Not really sure, but maybe the one with a fire, so I don’t have to feel heat in summer. I hate heat..

Rob Lucci - Would you consider yourself evil, good, or neutral?

Neutral all the way. I may look evil, but whenever someone asks me something, I’m just like that neutral. Hell even when a fight breaks, I never take sides, which is both good and not good. It happened few times already and some of my friends said that while it’s a good thing on some occassions, it isn’t good either.

Hattori - Tell us about your OTP/s?

I know I have a lot of them, but for some reason I can only remember three dammet but these three are:

NaruHina: Has been my OTP since that video Bad Boy by Cascada that shipped SasuSaku and was also the reason why I started watching Naruto in general. But NaruHina is just...like a child to me. I cried when Hinata fought Pein right in front of Naruto and I cried when they got married. It’s like watching your own children grow up and live their lives.

NijiNash: Oh god, where should I begin with this one. This one was totaly unexpected. Completely. I sent a request to Kai, who wrote it as a threesome and ever since I keep rereading that request. Which also led me to commissioning them because NijiNash aaand I’m even writing a fic with Nash x OC that later turns into Nash x OC x Nijimura. I’m going to hell I know

Densi or Deeks x Kensi: This ship...is just beautiful. Beautiful to a point that I curse myself for not catching up with NCIS:LA. But just...all those moments they had together whenever one of them was in trouble and after finding it. When Deeks fell asleep on Kensi’s shoulder after having trouble sleeping and Kensi finding comfort in Deeks after she was rescued in Afganistan and just... /tears up and chokes/ I’m fine.

Caimie - Who is your favourite character from any folklore/myth?

Loki ...... basically.

Inazuma - Can you post a selfie?

Of course I can! It’s under the “read more” below Monet so it wouldn’t be all over the dash

Jozu - What is your favourite number?

8 asdfghjkl

Charlotte Linlin (Big mom) - Do you like sweets?

YES! Always had.

Basil Hawkins - What is your zodiac sign?

Sagittarius (^ v ^)

Scratchmen Apoo - What is your favourite band/music?

I’ll go with music this time. It’s kpop and indie/folk/pop/rock all in one. There are these playlists on YT that are like one hour and half long and it’s just perfect for me.

Jewellry Bonney - What is your favourite food?

Pancakes and rolled dumplings . I added link as I’m not really sure if it’s called rolled dumplings in English, but it’s “štruklji” in Slovenian.

Killer - Look around you and pick one item you will use as a weapon in war. What is your reason for picking it?

Scissors; as for why, you can learn to throw it and sharpen it with stones when the edges get rough, not to mention if you get caught you can hide them.

Monet - If you can be any fictional character, who will you be?

Oh boy.. oh boy..I know I wanted to cosplay Hinata, but I honestly don’t know. I think I want to be my OC in KnB and Haikyuu world lolol

I took this one before the concert I went to last week after being on feet for eleven hours and being tired as hell and sleepy, to which I almost DID fall asleep during concert, but yes. This was taking in a library (of course when it was closed already) and before I went on the balcony. I like making faces and this is the one I truly do like....I rarely take selfies as I often look hideous.

#One Piece meme #Anonymous #le me face

2 notes · View notes