‘It’s like the fact is madder than fiction’
◆ True-crime thriller Manhunt follows what happens after the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865. Rachael Davis finds out more from the cast
When American president Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head during a production of the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC on April 14 1865 it was the start of a momentous, historic chain of events.
President Lincoln died from his injuries the following day at 7:22am, marking the first time an American president had been assassinated.
It’s a story many of us, regardless of which side of the pond we’re from, have at least heard of, but less well known is what happened in the aftermath: The relentless manhunt that followed for Lincoln’s killer, an actor by the name of John Wilkes Booth.
In the new Apple TV+ series, the search for Booth – who escaped on horseback after fatally wounding the president – is told on screen as a true-crime conspiracy thriller.
Manhunt, starring Northern Irish actor Anthony Boyle as Booth, Hamish Linklater as Lincoln, and The Crown’s Tobias Menzies as Edwin Stanton – the president’s secretary of war and friend, and the man who led the hunt for the killer – tells the thrilling tale of the search for the president’s assassin in the wake of the American Civil War.
“It’s not a period of history I knew a huge amount about,” says Menzies, 49, best known for playing Prince Philip in series three and four of Netflix’s The Crown.
“I knew that Lincoln had been killed in a theatre, that’s probably about all I knew, and there’s obviously so much more to the story.
“From the fact that Lincoln was killed within days of the end of the Civil War, and it threw that whole result into question…
“It’s an amazingly important, pivotal moment in the story of the formation of the United States – it’s a young country at the time – and all that felt very, very lithe material to draw out within the structure of this true crime thriller.”
Booth was a national celebrity, a famous actor, and an outspoken Confederate sympathiser. He lamented the recent abolition of slavery and decried Lincoln, planning the president’s assassination as part of a larger conspiracy to revive the Confederate cause.
“I think it’s crazy, it’s like the fact is madder than fiction,” says Boyle, 29, who recently starred in Apple TV+’S Masters Of The Air.
“It’s so insane to realise that one of the most famous actors of his day murdered the president. People on the streets didn’t believe it, people thought it was a joke, people couldn’t believe that this had happened.
“And I think, (in) going back to that time period, the show really throws us into (the idea) that America was in such two parts, and it was a pressure cooker. And this murder sparked a whole series of American history,” he says.
While most of the series, as the title suggests, follows the manhunt for Booth by Stanton, the first episode features the pivotal scene of Lincoln’s murder. It’s an impressive set-piece, with the tension palpable and the gravity of the situation searingly apparent, and the actors involved say it was an evocative scene to play.
“We shot it in this theatre in Philadelphia, there was an old theatre of that time period,” Boyle explains. “I jumped on stage and whipped out a knife and shouted ‘sic semper tyrannis!’, there’s two thousand extras staring at you screaming – it felt as close to what it would have felt like for Booth as possible.”
“One of the lovely discoveries (I had) in making the (series) was that Lincoln died laughing,” adds Linklater, 47, who plays the president.
“Booth has timed the assassination for the biggest laugh in the play.”
One of the fascinating things about telling a historical story on screen is the parallels naturally drawn between history and the present.
“I think it was a big part of why Apple were interested in making it, and it certainly was at the heart of the story that Monica (Beletsky, showrunner) wanted to tell is that it could be helpful sometimes to look back in history to find lessons for the present time,” says Menzies.
“I mean, I’m not a historian, so sometimes you can overstate these things. But what does feel true is that it was clear, in the story that we tell, that there was a deep fragility in this fledgling country and this democracy which was really thrown into huge jeopardy through the killing of Lincoln. And it could have been very different.
“And I guess that’s what may also be true to now, is that there’s a very important election in the US coming up in November, and I guess it’s as true then, as it is now, that democracy needs defending.
“Stanton understood that, and I think that that feels certainly very relevant, and modern, and to our time.”
All of this history is, of course, wrapped up in a tantalising conspiracy thriller dripping with true-crime entertainment. Far from being just a history lesson, Manhunt brings a relatively little-known story to the screen with exhilarating thrills from start to finish.
“This is an actionpacked, edge-of-your-seat, propulsive telling of one of the most significant events in American history,” says Linklater.
“I had no idea about the conspiracy to decapitate the federal government that was behind all of this, I just thought it was a disgruntled actor who wanted more stage time!”
Manhunt starring Anthony Boyle is on Apple TV+