Thanks in large part to streaming services delivering audiences a number of documentaries focused on some of the worst criminals in history, true-crime fans have been able to explore some of the most horrible killings in history, giving unsettling insight into the murderers who committed such acts. With Ted Bundy being one of the most infamous serial killers in history, the more a viewer learns about him, the more they’ll be disturbed, which leads one to wonder about the impact of playing Bundy in a film. For No Man of God star Luke Kirby, he was relieved that the story being told in the film wasn’t about his heinous crimes, but more about his desperation as he knew he was facing his upcoming demise. No Man of God makes its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 11th at 8 p.m. ET.
“I was grateful that that wasn’t an aspect of the story that we were telling, for a multitude of reasons,” Kirby shared with ComicBook.com about having to emotionally capture the figure without depicting his violence. “But I was compelled by his need to survive by way of rejecting culpability or responsibility to his actions. That spoke to me in a larger context. Culturally, I have seen that behavior present itself, especially in like high seats of power, men who fancy themselves rugged individuals, present themselves as having it all figured out by virtue of their birthright. And the minute that they have been caught in an infraction, they turn tail and immediately reject their responsibility and determine that the world, writ large, is to blame. And that was a compelling aspect.”
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He continued, “So it wasn’t especially draining. Although I will say that I, in playing the game of imagination, I did find the internal life that I imagined this guy lived with, especially as having been caught and having it be the last thing that he would have wanted, he did resemble kind of an ashtray by the end of his life, and that would have taken a toll. He was just a trapped individual by the end, so that was kind of taxing.”
In 1980, Ted Bundy was sentenced to death by electrocution. In the years that followed, he agreed to disclose the details of his crimes, but only to one man. No Man of God is based on the true story of the strange and complicated relationship that developed between FBI agent Bill Hagmaier (Elijah Wood) and an incarcerated Ted Bundy (Kirby) in the years leading to Bundy’s execution.
While Kirby’s co-star Wood was able to speak with the real-life Hagmaier, Bundy was executed in 1989. Kirby noted that, were he playing Bundy in a different context and Bundy hadn’t already been dead, he would have been open to meeting with him to get a better sense of who he was.
“I don’t think I would have had an issue with it. I probably would have been a bit dubious about how much it would have helped, but I don’t think I would have had too much reluctance,” the actor admitted of a hypothetical meeting. “But I didn’t feel the responsibility of upholding his legacy, because it’s all so based, at this point, in mythology and monster stories. And really what I, in some ways, I think the only way you can kill that monster is by bringing a human thread back into the story, which I feel like with Amber’s [Sealey] direction, we were able to achieve of it.”
No Man of God makes its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 11th at 8 p.m. ET.
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