I guess it’s as true then, as it is now, that democracy needs defending
As true-crime thriller Manhunt comes to Apple TV+, RACHAEL DAVIS learns more from its stars Tobias Menzies, Anthony Boyle and Hamish Linklater
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 a new series coming to Apple TV+, the search for Booth – who escaped on horseback after fatally wounding the president – is being told on screen as a true-crime conspiracy thriller.
Manhunt, starring Northern Irish actor Anthony Boyle as Booth, Hamish Linklater as Lincoln, and 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 Tobias, 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 Anthony, 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. It was a pressure cooker. And this murder sparked a whole series of American history.”
While most of the series, as the title suggests, follows Stanton’s manhunt for Booth, 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,” Anthony explains.
“The stairs, as I was coming up to shoot Lincoln, were rickety... very evocative, all the set and sounds.
“I jumped on stage and whipped out a knife and shouted ‘sic semper tyrannis!’ [thus always to tyrants – the Latin phrase Booth spoke as he shot Lincoln] there are 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 Hamish, 47, who plays the president.
“Booth has timed the assassination for the biggest laugh in the play, and that was probably the biggest laugh Lincoln had had of that night.”
One of the fascinating things about telling a historical story on screen is the parallels naturally drawn between history and the present. We can often look to history for lessons about things happening in modern life.
This sentiment struck Tobias, as he – a British actor – explored this slice of American history for the series.
“I think it was a big part of why Apple were interested in making it, and certainly 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 the star.
“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, 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 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 truecrime entertainment.
Far from being just a history lesson, Manhunt brings this story to the screen with exhilarating thrills from start to finish.
“This is an action-packed, edgeof-your-seat, propulsive telling of one of the most significant events in American history,” says Hamish.
“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!
“So it’s an eye-opener for people who think they know the story. And it’s a ride that couldn’t be wilder.”
I think it’s crazy, it’s like the fact is madder than fiction Anthony Boyle
There is a touching moment in Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s intricately layered drama when an elementary school headmistress (Yuko Tanaka), still raw with grief over the death of her grandchild, tells a sensitive 11-year-old student (Soya Kurokawa) to cling on to the hope that he can barely see through the darkness of his suffering.
“Happiness is something anyone can have,” she counsels sweetly, speaking as much to herself as the boy.
Those words resonate throughout Monster, an intimate story of the boy’s cruel mistreatment at the hands of his class teacher (Eita Nagayama), which shapeshifts unexpectedly as screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto meticulously replays events through the eyes of the student’s enraged single mother (Sakura Ando), the accused teacher and then the pre-teen victim.
Regret, compassion and redemption are rarely sketched in black and white, and Kore-eda’s exquisitely delicate picture operates across the full spectrum of clashing colours, enriched by late Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final melancholic score.
Heartbreaking, naturalistic performances from gifted child actors shoulder the film’s emotional weight, nimbly traversing difficult subject matter with disarming ease.
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