How The Staircase Brings Kathleen Peterson’s Story To Life

The Museum of Modern Art in New York was transformed into a red carpet premiere on Tuesday night. StairsWith Colin Firth and Tony Colette.

HBO Max’s upcoming series is based on the true story of the suspicious death of novelist Michael Peterson (fifth), his North Carolina family, and his wife, Kathleen Peterson (Colette), after he was found dead at the foot of a staircase in Saint Louis. His house.

Jean-Xavier de Lestrada’s documentary series of the same name made the case against Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife in 2001 and aired on the Sundance Channel in 2005. Footage from the documentary is included on HBO. Stairs, With Vincent Verminion de Lestrade.

Verminion says he could have spent time with a French director who came in to produce the series, which helped him prepare for the role. He also spoke with director Antonio Campos about finding a balance between playing a real person in a fictional story.

Participating in the HBO storyline helped Verminion better understand who Kathleen was, as the original documentary series was filmed after her death.

“It helped me understand what dynamic was,” he said. “If you ask me whether Michael Peterson did it or not, you can’t say. I’m even more confused than before. But now I feel that the victim was Kathleen Peterson and I understand that she is a fantastic woman.

Rosemary DeWitt, who plays Kathleen’s sister Candice, echoes that sentiment and is excited to relive Kathleen’s story. He was also drawn to the role of Candace because he felt her character was a villain in the original documentary series and wanted to change that.

“I wanted to bring a little more humanity to him so that people would understand why he fought so hard,” Devit said. hollywood reporter. “For the people watching him, I hope they look at him with more sympathy because he was really a victim in this story and I felt like he was being used as a criminal.”

Stairs It explores the question of whether Michael Peterson killed his wife and complicates the answer for many, including the actors, who thought they knew.

“I mean, I was convinced he did it,” said Judge Leakey, who plays Tom Maher, a lawyer on Michael’s defense team. “I was pretty sure I did when I started, but when we get up and leave, and you start to see how all of our individual stories are difficult and complicated, and if you look at it from someone else’s perspective, it can easily look guilty or ‘innocent,’ depending on where you come from”.

Lick added that one of the interesting things about the series is that it reflects what the American justice system is like today and how all aspects of the case are playing out on the world stage.

“This is really about the American justice system, which He does “You told the best story and we see it more than ever in our world,” he said.

Several cast members could have consulted with real colleagues before filming and watched various docu-series to help them play their individual roles fairly. It also helped that Campo and his co-showmaker Maggie Conn had “a lot of knowledge about the weather. [of the story]”Different people, families, how they got along,” said Patrick Schwarzenegger, who plays Todd Peterson.

Campos first watched the original documentary series in 2008 and has been interested in the story ever since. He found it interesting that French filmmakers were involved in the life of the Peterson family and felt there was a corner for them in this story.

„და [with] “The central character, as mysterious as the mystery itself, I had a feeling I had never seen before,” Campos explained. “I had the feeling that if I continued it would be more and more interesting what happened.”

The screenwriter-director said he hopes that if the audience comes Stairs On the question of whether Michael killed Kathleen, they go deeper.

“At the end of the day, even though I have a hunch about what happened, I’m really okay with gray now and I hope everyone is okay with gray in the end.”

Stairs The premiere on HBO Max will take place on May 5.