Name: Jason Clarke Talks ‘Murdaugh: Death in the Family,’ Michael Mann, Nolan, Bigelow & More
Uploaded: 2025-11-22T17:13:57.000Z
Duration: 24 min 20 s
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The Murdaughs are a South Carolina legal dynasty.

I wanted to start with this list because it's kind of impressive when I really think about it.

You've portrayed like real life people more than a few times.

So in the man from the Ironheart, you played Ed White, also Jerry west in Winning Time.

But I'm curious for you, what is it like taking on somebody in this show, I'm sorry, where it's just so despicable and you have to add humanity to them.

So like, how do you sort of balance that out?

You decide to do it or not is the first thing you know, is this, is this a story that I feel like is worth telling?

Is this a story that's going to bring something new to this, you know, incredibly well known and followed story where people, you know, it's obsessed by this and have been, you know, right from just your ordinary punter and viewer and magazine writer and newspaper to, you know, the online world, ex homicide detectives posted all this stuff with regards to breaking down his depositions, breaking down his, you know, his interviews in the car.

And I think so there's that I thought we could with this, you know, and

then the, you know, there was great fear.

A lot of times this fear, like, am I going to be able to get there?

This is a 265 pound man with red hair from South Carolina, you know, the lowlands there.

And you know, well, maybe I can, I don't know.

And then with regards to what he does, some of those scenes, you know, you know, they're not going to be fun to shoot.

They're not going to be enjoyable nights, you know, because a lot of them were night scenes.

Part of the reason for doing it was that I thought by humanizing this person, by seeing that he is a loving father and a loving husband even, you know, that's part of it.

But to 360 the person, I think there's value and point to telling this story and showing it rather than it just being a, you know, being gratitude and so that's part of it.

Some of my favorite performances, like, you know, F.

Murray Abrams as Salieri in Amadeus, like the man that played Hitler in Downfall, Bruno Gantz, you know, the last week in the, in the bunker, you know, it's not going to be easy, you know, it's going to be draining to put on.

I wore a fantastic wig, but a very tight wig.

You know, I had contact lenses on, you know.

And then, you know, you know, where it ultimately ends.

And with Patricia and the boys and everybody in it with this insane cast we had, you know, you're showing.

You shown how a man like this can pull the wool over everybody's eyes.

He's disgusting and he's this, you know, that's hindsight.

One of the things that I was struck by the couple of people they met from the time was just how deceived they were.

You know, the cup's half full, and this man was not.

And that was one of the heartbreaking things.

Again, you know, I mean, I found out that Mark Tinsley, they, you know, two days after.

It was two days after, you know, that Maggie and Paul had been killed, they rang up with the Beaches and dropped the charges against it because thought it was just, you know, in light of what he was suffering, it was unfair.

And you go, that breaks my heart, you know, so I'm gonna commit to playing this man as strongly as I can to.

To get across the brutality and the simplicity and the complete horror of the decisions he made.

And the one thing I want to say, too, it's like, again, I meant to say, going from, like, the most beloved man in baseball.

I mean, beloved man in basketball, Jerry west, to playing, which is a villain in so many stories that.

That takes a lot of, I think, range for an actor to do.

But is there a difference playing historical figures versus when you're just cast alongside someone in a normal feature?

Is there difference to the approach, or is it really just finding the character the same way you would with any script?

A lot of them are, you know, a deep internal is like, you know, you have to, you know, also did Rob hall and Everest.

You know, there's a couple of things there, particularly in these stories, which are, you know, incredibly well known.

You know, you have to be able to get in the ballpark to then zero it in and hope the text and the script and everything else is there.

And, you know, and I haven't used prosthetics in any of them.

You know, it's been wigs, bitter things and it's like.

This is my version of this person, you know what I mean?

It's my people, but accept me and move on.

And I think if you can get that right, you can bring the audience into a closer rather than the distance that you get from, wow, he looks exactly like him because he's got all that stuff on and you know enough to do it.

It has to be tangible for me, you know, and then I think it's a good.

Because the hardest thing is when you're taking stabs at well known moments.

Like I remember in Rob hall on the mountain, there was a moment where why didn't he turn around with Doug Hanson who was the postman?

And because he didn't turn around, Doug who was failing, which he should have.

They went for the summit and then died on the way down.

And you know, I'd met, you know, his wife at the time and his young daughter who was unborn but in his wife's belly.

And so you feel like, oh my God, I don't want to, I don't.

I'm taking a stab at a real moment, which is critical here.

And it was the same thing with the murder here, you know, it was the same thing with the walk saying Ted Kennedy back from the bridge.

You know, it's those, it's those key moments where you want to bring everything to it, reality and presence.

I don't want to take too much of a stab because you end up, if you're too untruthful there, destroying the credibility for the rest of it, you know, And

I got to say, I love say with the murder in this, there was a simplicity and a coldness to it.

You know, I go down there, I say the thing because, you know, we had the, the kennel talk.

You can hear him in the background, you could hear his tone and the voice there, you know what I mean?

It demystifies any murderous, homicidal lunacy there.

And I think tells Paul Porter, give the dog whatever he wants to eat, comes around the corner and locks and loads and you go, that's all it is.

And when you put in everything else, the 360 of the humanity, the empathy and the fun, and

you've seen a father who has a son and then you see what he does to this son and just Catch that glimpse of his eye before he does it.

And then you understand a man that's able to rip off and destroy so many lives.

And I was just gonna say that's the reaction that most people have when they first hear this story is oh my.

Did the project come to you before you found out the story?

Because I know not everybody is me where I watch these girls.

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Jason Clarke Talks ‘Murdaugh: Death in the Family,’ Michael Mann, Nolan, Bigelow & More

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