‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ Charles Manson Actor Is Also Playing Manson In ‘Mindhunter’ Season 2
Damon Herrimanis about to carve out a niche for himself playing Charles Manson. TheJustifiedactor was just announced for the part of the notorious cult leader in Quentin Tarantino’sOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood. Now comes word that Herriman will play Mansonagainin Netflix’s serial killer seriesMindhunter. Some actors might worry about typecasting, but Herriman probably knows a good thing when he sees it.Collideris reporting that Damon Herriman, who has appeared onJustifiedandTop of the Lake, has landed the role of Charles Manson on Netflix and David Fincher’sMindhunter. Herriman certainly looks the part, which probably explains why he’salsoplaying Manson in Quentin Tarantino’sOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood. While by no means unprecedented, this double casting is still surprising.
Herriman will now have the chance to play Manson in two different eras.Once Upon a Time in Hollywoodis set in 1969, when Manson was about 35. Per Collider’s report, the Manson scenes inMindhunterare set in the 1980s, when Manson was in his late 40s. Early plot details ofMindhunterseason 2 have mentioned the Atlanta Child Murders, which took place at the end of the ’70s and the beginning of the ’80s.
According to Collider’s sources, Herriman was cast as Manson inMindhunterfirst, and already filmed his scenes over the summer. They’ll feature Herriman’s Manson already behind bars, likely being interviewed byMindhuntermain characters Holden Ford and Bill Tench (played by Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany, respectively). The Manson inOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodwill still be a free man, roaming around and setting his “Family” on a path of murder and mayhem. However, it’s worth noting that we still don’t know how big a part Herriman will have in either of these projects.
This sort of double-casting isn’t unheard of. Michael Keaton played the same character in bothJackie Brown(another Tarantino film) andOut of Sight. Of course, those films are both based on books by Elmore Leonard, so the casting made sense, and was done intentionally. Michael Sheen played former British Prime Minster Tony Blair in three separate projects – the TV movieThe Dealin 2003, the feature filmThe Queenin 2006 and the HBO movieThe Special Relationshipin 2010. Again, though, there was a correlating factor – all three of those titles were written by Peter Morgan. Perhaps the most famous example is Jerry Haleva, an actor who played Saddam Hussein in six different films, includingHot ShotsandThe Big Lebowski. And of course Richard Belzer, who has played Detective Munch in approximately 10,000 different things.
Some actors might hesitate to play the same part twice back-to-back like this. But Herriman isn’t exactly a household name who can pick and choose his projects as he pleases. And if playing the same role enables him to work with both Quentin Tarantino and David Fincher, the decision to take both Manson parts was probably a no-brainer.
There’s no premiere date forMindhunterseason 2 set yet, but there’s a good chance it might debut in 2019, which is the same yearOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodhits theaters.
