See how Mindhunter actor compares to the real Charles Manson in creepy side-by-side video
Talk about an uncanny resemblance.
A fan on YouTube took the time to splice scenes from season 2 of Netflix’s serial killer drama Mindhunter involving Charles Manson and place them alongside an interview with the real Manson, and the results are eerie, to say the least.
On one side of the video, above, actor Damon Herriman (who also played the cult leader in this summer’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) gets interviewed by FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany). On the other side is a 1981 60 Minutes Australia interview with Manson — his first television interview since the notorious Manson family murders of 1969. From the mannerisms to the laugh to his tone and clothes, Herriman is a dead ringer for the infamous inmate.
Speaking with EW about the role recently, Herriman revealed that watching such interviews with Manson deeply informed his decisions as an actor. “I would watch him move in a scene and then I would get up in my living room and try to emulate that. He has a particular way of this slippery, snaky way of moving,” he said. “Any room he walked into, when you saw any of those jail interviews, he thought he was the king and he just arrived. I don’t naturally have that feeling walking into a room, so I really had to work on feeling as confidant in my own skin as I possibly could.”
For all of his preparation, Herriman said he doesn’t feel like he understands Manson. “For me, I can see why people were mesmerized by him. He was never short of thought or a philosophy on anything,” he said. “But what he actually believes and what was the kernel of the guy, I really don’t know even know.”
For more uncanny dramatizations of real-life killers, catch Mindhunter season 2, which is currently streaming on Netflix.
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