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GETHIN ANTHONY
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I listened to. I focused
on Manson before 1967.
Obviously there have been
a lot of interviews with him
since he has been in prison
but it was important to
concentrate on who he was
at the time that the show was
set in. I found a clip of him
speaking to an engineer at a
music studio. He spoke about
all kinds of things and it was
really helpful to listen to that
every morning and then recite
it. That was a big part of my
preparation.
During your research, did anything
in particular surprise you about
Manson?
When I came into the show, I
probably knew as much about him
as a lot of people on the high street,
certainly about his infamous crimes
and the media attention around his
crimes both in the 1970s and up until
the present day. What I didn’t know
about his backstory, though, was that
he spent most of his life in prison.
From a very young age, since basically
he was a child, he was housed in
prison-like institutions and then he was
incarcerated for different crimes. I guess
in my mind he was just a young guitar
player in California in the 1960s and it
was useful to think about him as having
gone from being incarcerated for much
of his life to then being out in the very
liberated atmosphere of the sixties.
Did you think about contacting the
real Charles Manson during your
preparation?
I considered it for quite a long time
and some experienced actors gave
me some very good advice about it.
In the end, that particular route wasn’t
something that we pursued. Instead, I
spent my time investigating Manson in
a different way and I think that was the
right decision for this particular job.
Charles Manson has been portrayed