David Dastmalchian Talks Challenge of Playing Real-Life Serial Killer in Boston Strangler Movie

By Jamie Jirak

David Dastmalchian is known for an array of roles, including playing Kurt and Veb in the Ant-Man films as well as Polka-Dot man in The Suicide Squad. After taking on comic book roles and playing parts like Piter de Vries in Dune, the actor is now playing a real-life serial killer in Hulu's Boston Strangler alongside Carrie Coon and Keira Knightley. The film was directed by Matt Ruskin and follows Loretta McLaughlin (Knightley), a reporter for the Record-American newspaper, who becomes the first journalist to connect the Boston Strangler murders. ComicBook.com's Chris Killian recently had the chance to chat with Dastmalchian about the new film, and the actor opened up about his role. 

"It's a tough movie," Dastmalchian explained. "It's really, you know, it's really intense. It's really dark. It was a hard place to go to, but I'm so grateful that we did because I feel like Matt really achieved something, not only, you know, engaging and thrilling and an incredible thing to watch as an audience member, but it tells an important story. I feel like no one before this movie was made really knew how hard these women were trying to tell this story."

He continued, "You know, I have not had the opportunity to bring many real people to life in performance a handful of times. And when it happens to me, I take a great deal of responsibility as I think anybody should, as Matt did in making this film as all of the other actors did in, you know, in portraying the roles that they did in this film. Because you're playing people who actually walked the earth. And for me to play a man who caused so much harm, who inflicted so much pain upon so many people, to know that the relatives of those victims still walk the earth. There are grandchildren and nephews and nieces and children and neighbors and friends, and some spouses of people who were just destroyed by this man. That's so, that's such a responsibility to make sure that I'm not manufacturing anything that feels anything other than authentic ... I tried my best."

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Who Stars in Boston Strangler?

Boston Strangler stars two-time Oscar nominee Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game, Pride & Prejudice), Emmy nominee Carrie Coon (Fargo, The Gilded Age), Alessandro Nivola (Amsterdam), David Dastmalchian (Dune), Morgan Spector (Homeland), Bill Camp (Joker), and Academy Award winner Chris Cooper (Adaptation). Written and directed by Matt Ruskin (Crown Heights), the film is produced by Ridley Scott (The Martian), Kevin J. Walsh (House of Gucci), Michael Pruss (American Woman), Josey McNamara (Promising Young Woman), and Tom Ackerley (I, Tonya), with Michael Fottrell (The Fate of the Furious) and Sam Roston serving as executive producers. Sam Roston is overseeing for Scott Free and Bronte Payne for LuckyChap.

Boston Strangler is now streaming on Hulu. 

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