Cast of 'The Staircase' talks HBO Max adaptation of Michael Peterson murder case

Everyone has an opinion on “The Staircase.”

Did Michael Peterson brutally kill his wife, Kathleen, at the bottom of the stairs of their Durham home in 2001? Was it an unfortunate but simple misstep that left her in a pool of blood? Or did an owl do it?

Often called North Carolina’s “trial of the century,” the death of Kathleen and the subsequent conviction of Michael for her murder had all the makings of a story that would take on a life of its own – a big family with dark secrets, a salacious trial scrutinized for maximum dramatic effect and the unnerving realization this kind of brutality could happen in anyone’s neighborhood.

But this wasn’t just a crime. It was a living, breathing and constantly unraveling animal of speculation that was re-investigated in real time when a French documentary crew followed Michael and his convoluted family dynamic through the 2002-03 proceedings that would put him behind bars – at least for a while.

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“The Staircase,” the resulting 2004 documentary series, garnered infamy and acclaim as an early entry in the now-booming true crime docuseries genre. Netflix even produced new episodes in recent years. But whose story was it telling?

That’s the question at the heart of HBO Max’s “The Staircase,” a limited series that premiered May 5 from creator Antonio Campos, who has been working to adapt the story for a decade, having even sat in the courtroom for one of Michael’s trials.

With more than 20 years of hindsight, Campos and his cast dramatize not only the tragic story of the Petersons (now played by Colin Firth and Toni Collette) but also the documentary filmmaking process that became increasingly intertwined with the Petersons.

“Everything I watched or read, you could hear a bias and a slant,” Rosemarie DeWitt said of her research process to play Candace Zamperini, Kathleen’s sister. “It’s illuminating on one hand to hear peoples’ take, but you realize it is their take whether it was an author or podcaster or an interviewer. I think the really cool thing Antonio is playing with here is all of those vantage points and the genres themselves. The documentary, the true crime genre, the Court TV perspective, the reenactment perspective – they are also characters in our story.”

That is saying something because “The Staircase” was never short on characters.

The Petersons were a blended family of five children – Todd and Clayton, Michael’s two biological sons from a previous marriage; Caitlin, Kathleen’s biological daughter from a previous marriage; and Margaret and Martha, two sisters Michael had taken in while living in Germany.

For every cast member, the documentary was an obvious choice for homework. But not everyone’s prep work was the same.

Dane DeHaan, who plays the troubled-but-working-on-it Clayton, had seen the documentary when it was released on Sundance Channel in 2004. But he also had experience just down the highway from where the actual crime took place, having attended the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.

While his time in the state came well after the trial, he brought to the role the knowledge of the Carolina way of life – including his own familial ties to the Tar Heel State.

“I definitely had some experience with the state having lived there, and my wife is from Mount Airy, so I have a lot of North Carolinians on that side of the family,” he said. “I understand what it means to live in North Carolina."

His co-stars had to use other means of getting to know the location, their characters and the story.

Like DeWitt, Olivia DeJonge, who plays Kathleen’s daughter Caitlin, watched the documentary numerous times, listened to podcasts and thumbed through the many books written after the fact by those involved. They were even paid a visit by a few real players in the story, including David S. Rudolph, a famous North Carolina defense attorney who represented Michael.

But both DeWitt and DeJonge were in different positions than other cast members because their characters – both related directly to Kathleen – broke away from the Peterson family early in the trial as Michael’s secrets were unearthed, including his secret relationships with men.

Having separated herself from her step-siblings, Caitlin is largely absent from the original documentary, leaving DeJonge and DeWitt room to offer a bigger presence for two women pushed to the fringes of their own family’s story.

“There was a little bit of wiggle room for interpretation because, in the documentary, there just isn’t much information on Caitlin,” DeJonge said, adding, “But I don’t want to speak on behalf of her. I don’t know 100 percent what brought her to that decision (to break away from Michael and his children), but I can certainly empathize. That’s one of the things we get to explore as actors – deep empathy for somebody. These were extraordinary circumstances she was under.”

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On the other side of the family tree, DeHaan found his character, Clayton, sticking much closer to his father through the trial and Michael’s imprisonment (a 2011 retrial would see his charge reduced from murder to manslaughter, allowing his release from prison for timed served).

“There is no doubt in Clayton's mind that his father is innocent and he will do anything he can to protect him and make sure he is found not guilty,” DeHaan said. “That is Clayton’s perspective and it's fairly clear to him.”

While true crime aficionados and even some casual observers likely know where all the players stand, the cast of “The Staircase” is hoping the new adaptation gives new insight into one person not often given much screen time – Kathleen.

“Antonio was adamant that he wanted Kathleen to be vital in this,” DeWitt said, noting that was particularly important for her as well.

In fact, it was the days the cast got to celebrate the better memories of Kathleen’s story that resonated with them more deeply. DeWitt, who also played Collette’s sister in Showtime’s “The United States of Tara,” remembered one day when nearly the whole cast shot scenes for Michael and Kathleen’s wedding day. Even though most of the footage is only used in the background, DeWitt said it gave the woman at the center of this story the chance to be more than a footnote.

“For 12 hours, we got to be part of the happiest day of her life, not just the worst,” she said. “Even if we didn’t use it, we had the memories of throwing our arms around each other and making impromptu toasts on her behalf.”

The first three episodes of “The Staircase” are now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes will debut Thursday, May 13.

Twitter: @hunter_wesley

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: The Staircase cast talks HBO Max adaptation of Michael Peterson case