Wilmington actors play key roles in high-profile HBO Max series 'The Staircase'

In terms of television mini-series, things don't get much more high-profile than "The Staircase," the new "limited series" from HBO that dropped its first three episodes, of eight, on May 5.

Not only is "The Staircase" about the famous, and notorious, case of Durham writer Michael Peterson, who was convicted in 2003 of killing his wife, Kathleen, but two A-list actors are starring in the lead roles.

Michael Peterson is being played by Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth ("The English Patient," Mamma Mia!") and Kathleen is being portrayed by Oscar-nominated actress Toni Collette ("The Sixth Sense," "Hereditary").

Sharing scenes with the stars in "The Staircase" are a half-dozen actors who either live in Wilmington or who've spent years living here in the past.

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

More: Carolina, Kure beaches go 'Along for the Ride' as Netflix film prepares to debut

Cullen Moss plays the drawling Durham County District Attorney Jim Hardin, who prosecuted the case against Peterson.

Moss lived in Wilmington from the late '90s through the mid-2010s, doing theater, starring in and writing for the Changing Channels sketch comedy troupe and waiting the occasional table while also racking up many a film credit on shows including HBO's "Eastbound and Down" and AMC's "The Walking Dead."

Moss moved to Charleston, S.C., several years ago, but came to back to Wilmington to co-star in the musical "La Cage Aux Folles" for Opera House Theatre Co. in 2019.

His star has risen even further since then thanks to his role as Deputy Shoupe on the mega-popular Netflix series "Outer Banks."

Moss, who's a gifted comic and mimic, does some of his strongest screen work to date in "The Staircase," albeit as the no-nonsense, mostly humorless D.A. Hardin. He shares scenes not only with Firth, but also with the well-known actress Parker Posey ("Waiting for Guffman"), who plays Hardin's super-Southern assistant D.A., Freda Black. (Posey gave Moss a big shout-out in a profile just published in The New Yorker, saying, "I really look up to him. I wanted to do a good job for him.")

Moss also shares scenes with an old friend from Wilmington, Jason Davis, who lived here in the late '90s and early 2000s.

Even though they've known each other for two decades, "I'd never gotten to work with Jason" on anything besides small-scale indie projects, Moss said, and even then it'd been years. "To get to work with all of these guys (he knows from Wilmington) was just great."

As for Davis, among many other credits, he plays a memorable character in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" (that he said was inspired by Moss) and he was the Bud Light "dude" in a series of prime-time beer commercials in the 2000s. In "The Staircase," Davis plays Fred Atwater, the mild-mannered ex-husband of Kathleen Peterson and the father of Caitlin (Olivia DeJonge), Peterson's stepdaughter who comes to doubt Peterson's innocence.

Also showing up in the first three episodes is Myke Holmes, a University of North Carolina Wilmington theater professor who's almost unrecognizable as bald-headed SBI agent and forensic crime scene analyst Duane Deaver.

You might've seen Holmes at the grocery store recently as "Bill" in the Harris Teeter "Fill Like Bill" ad campaign. But he's in a different world here, playing an intense Deaver, who tries to recreate what prosecutors see as a bloody crime.

More: He's not only a Bill: Meet the UNC Wilmington professor behind a Harris Teeter ad campaign

In January, Holmes told the StarNews that one of the best things about doing "The Staircase," which was shot in Atlanta, was getting to work with friends from Wilmington, including Moss.

"That's one of the things I've always said would be awesome," Holmes said. "To do a scene with one of my old acting buddies from Wilmington. Not one of our own projects, but to get randomly paired up in a scene out in the wild."

That's exactly what happened to Holmes and Moss, and to Moss and Davis.

Moss and Davis share an emotionally brutal scene in which Moss, as Hardin, shows Davis and DeJonge, the actress playing Davis' daughter, autopsy photos of Kathleen, their on-screen ex-wife and mother, respectively.

And Moss shares courtroom scenes with Holmes as Deaver. After having spent hours viewing the documentary and the Court TV videos "The Staircase" is based on, Moss said, being in an "immersive" environment recreating what he'd seen was "absolutely surreal," he said.

Also getting screen time in "The Staircase" is longtime Wilmington theater actor Paul Teal, who just finished starring in musical "The Last Five Years" for Opera House Theatre Co. Teal plays the well-endowed Brent Wolgamott, aka "Brad from Raleigh," one of the men Peterson has been secretly trying to have a liaison with, and he shares a crackling scene with Posey in episode three.

Representing the Port City as well is former Wilmington actress Katelyn Farrugia, who plays Christina Tomasetti, a friend of the Petersons' son Todd (Patrick Schwarzenegger), who arrives with him on the shocking scene of Kathleen's death.

Wilmington actors Justin Smith (as a jailhouse psychologist) and Nick Basta have small roles in "The Staircase." Their episodes have not yet aired, but Basta, Farrugia, Holmes and Moss did get to form a Wilmington contingent on May 3 in New York City, during the premiere for the show at The Modern Museum of Art.

Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington NC actors play key roles in HBO Max series 'The Staircase'