New Netflix series Mindhunter, from David Fincher, cuts to the crazy heart of 1970s serial killers
Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany star as FBI agents trying to understand a new wave of serial killers in this slow-burning crime drama produced by David Fincher and Charlize Theron
Working on a show about serial killers, it is only natural that you might get a bit paranoid.
While shooting Netflix’s Mindhunter in Pittsburgh, actor Jonathan Groff says wide-eyed that he would “go running by the river before the sun came up, and it would cross my mind, ‘Wow, someone could just pull over right now and kill me.’ It forced me to turn on my location settings on my phone,” and later, “call my brother and tell him that he needs security cameras on his house.”
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In Mindhunter, a slow-burning 1970s crime drama that starts streaming today, Groff co-stars with Holt McCallany as FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench who work in the agency’s behavioural science unit. Faced with a new wave of serial killers who rape, murder and mutilate victims, seemingly at random, the unauthorised detectives take it upon themselves to visit prisons and interview criminals, in an effort to better understand them.
Mindhunter is based in part on former FBI agent John Douglas and Mark Olshaker’s 1996 nonfiction book of the same name. The series is executive produced by Charlize Theron and Gone Girl filmmaker David Fincher, who directed four episodes and worked with McCallany on Fight Club and Alien 3.
Having played minor roles in those movies, “what was so exciting [about reuniting with Fincher] was coming back as a major character,” says McCallany, 54. “Bill [Tench] is a really complex, sometimes troubled guy,” although his wry partnership with Holden echoes The Odd Couple and Laurel and Hardy, he says.
“There’s a sense of humour and a brotherhood that gets more complicated as the season goes along,” adds Groff, 32, who starred in Broadway hit Hamilton and voiced Kristoff in Disney’s Frozen. “They both learn a lot from each other and need each other, and are put in the most extraordinary experiences together.”