The Staircase follows the life of novelist, Michael Peterson, and the mysterious death of his wife, Kathleen, at the bottom of the stairs. Despite maintaining his innocence, suspicions of foul play arise, prompting an an exhaustive legal battle against Michael, which piques the interest of French documentarians. Based on the infamous case that swept the world, this eight-part HBO series explores a side to the Peterson household previously unseen.
In this Goggler exclusive, we speak to Rosemarie DeWitt and Olivia DeJonge on the frustrations of never knowing the truth, and what drew them to their roles on The Staircase.
Umpagan Ampikaipakan: A quick side note, Olivia, every time that ELVIS trailer comes on my hair stands on end. I’m so excited for that. You have no idea.
Olivia DeJonge: Thank you!
UA: But moving on. My question to you both is regarding the truth of the matter. In playing these characters, in being so close to it, did the fact that we’re never going to get a definitive answer to what happened to Kathleen bother you in any way. I think as viewers, it bothers us. But we’re even more removed from it than you are.
Olivia Dejonge: Obviously as human beings, we’re all nosey and we want to know the truth. But I think as I’ve gotten older – I mean, I’m 23, so I still have a little while to go – I’ve learned that the truth is constructed and there’s a big gray area in life. Just as there’s a big gray area in this case and a gray area in these people’s lives. It’s not black and white.
Of course, I would love to know an answer, but I think, maybe selfishly as an actor, it’s almost more interesting to play in that gray area. And the strengths that Antonio and Maggie bring to the story is the way that they play within that gray area with such definitiveness that you are still enthralled no matter what.
Rosemarie DeWitt: I guess the only thing I would add is as much as we debated “what happened?”, we also fantasized if Michael Peterson would make a deathbed confession?
UA: I do that all the time.
RD: I think we’re probably going to always track it. You know what I mean? Like, we’re always going to be, every couple of years, doing an Internet dive to see if any of the kids came out and said anything new. It’s just going to be one of those things.
UA: When you first approached The Staircase, what was the thing that really got you thinking that you wanted to be a part of it?
OD: For me it was working with Antonio, working with Maggie, and being in the company of Colin, and Toni, and Rosemary, and Sophia, and Odessa, and Michael. The cast is incredible. That is obviously an insane opportunity as an actor. But the way that they wanted to tell the story, it was very evident to me that they wanted to honor Kathleen in a way that she wasn’t in the documentary, and that really stuck out to me and was another huge draw for me.
RD: From a more ethical standpoint, the fact that Kathleen would be in it and her story would be told, helped a lot of us. For me, the draw was that I knew Antonio would have a vision for it. And it’s very exciting as an artist to step inside something that is going to be about something, that he’s going to maybe reimagine something, or ask us to grapple with something.
A lot of us get jobs that we could pretty much shoot the first rehearsal. Where you’re like, “Oh, I know what this is. I’ve read this script before.” It’s thrilling and scary to read something and be like, “I don’t know what this is. I don’t know if we can pull this off. I don’t know if I can play this character.”
UA: Going back to what Rosemary just said about “not knowing what this is.” How did that affect your process as actors?
OD: Obviously with our characters, the stance is that they obviously believe that Michael Peterson did do it. And so I think when you are in that mindset, it’s easy to go that way about it. But I mean, Rosemarie will be much better at answering this question than I am.
UA: I love how she just passed the buck.
RD: I will say that I started out very curious about all the theories. And then the more you spend time with your character, you end up becoming a lawyer for your character. And I was like, “Get real.”
I’ll be honest, it even devastates me that it exists. That we’re even telling it and knowing that all these people are alive. Because once you step into their shoes and look at things from their perspective, you go, I don’t think I could get out of bed anymore.
And for me, the most moving part of it is to see Toni Collette in it, and to see Kathleen brought to life, because she was always the person that I never had. It’s like everybody gets drawn into Michael Peterson. You can’t help it for whatever reason. And Toni is such a vital talent, that to see her embody Kathleen just brings a lot more dimension to the whole thing.
Follow Us