Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne in 'The Good Nurse'. Image Source: The Playlist
Jessica Chastain has a few thoughts to share about true crime drama and what convinced her to accept the role.
At the press conference for Tobias Lindholm’s "The Good Nurse" at the Toronto International Film Festival, actress Jessica Chastain spoke about how she is not a fan of serial killer dramas.
The Good Nurse is based on the real-life murderer Charles "Charlie" Cullen, who is thought to have murdered 400 patients throughout his 16-year career. Amy Loughren risked her life to expose the truth and catch the serial killer who also happened to be her friend and coworker. Novel titled, The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber was the source material for the screenplay written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns.
Jessica said that people frequently see serial murderers or tales that are fetishized and observe them injecting the bags, and that whenever she watches any serial-killer show, she always feels a bit unclean. She stated that she wanted to honor humanity and did not want the media to exalt what had happened to another person. She also noted that real crime tales occasionally devolved into gossip or something sleazy, making one feel a bit unclean while watching such programs. The actress said she was eager to investigate it after speaking with Tobias and coming to grasp his humanity and knowing the filmmaker he is.
Jessica Chastain portrays the character of Amy Loughren in The Good Nurse. Amy is a trauma nurse hiding her own little secret that she suffers from a disease that needs heart transplant but unless she spends six months working she won't be able to afford it. The serial killer also befriends Amy and it is she who solves the case of the patient murderer. While going through that experience was surely stressful, Amy Loughren claimed that seeing Jessica Chastain gave her the confidence to declare that she didn't know she was nice since she is such a badass.
Jessica went on to say that while often in the media one would see violence put an end to violence, in their narrative it is the compassion that puts an end to the violence. It involves taking the time to stop, listen, and reach out to the other person rather than treating them like a monster. And being a part of it excites her a great deal.
On the other hand, Eddie Redmayne, who portrays the real-life serial killer Charles Cullen, stated that he attempted to allow one of his eyes to appear detached and adrift during his preparation for the part, as it did with the real-life serial killer when he was trying to murder a patient, but after ten minutes, he realized that it was not going to happen with him.
Eddie Redmayne found the chance to explore the darker side of human nature to be very exhilarating and horrifying, but the actual benefit of exploring Cullen as a character was that he was anything but a one-dimensional antagonist. In comparison to the typical real crime tale, there was a sense of camaraderie and compassion there, according to Eddie Redmayne.
The actor said that when they spoke to the genuine Amy, one of the things that struck him as remarkable was how sweet, compassionate, and self-deprecating this guy was adding that he had a remarkable knack for self-mockery, which was frequently how people became close to him. Because of his weakness, he was nearly skinless.
"The Good Nurse" doesn't intend to be a standard true crime movie, according to director Tobias Lindholm, who also said that they came to the realization that the narrative wasn't just about a serial murderer but also about a friendship which also goes onto serve as evidence of humanity.
Netflix is releasing The Good Nurse on October 19. The Toronto Film Festival continues through Sept. 18.
