The Big Picture
Cameron Britton used method acting to portray the serial killer Ed Kemper, leading him to have dark thoughts about killing his own mother.
Britton’s performance as Kemper is terrifying as he effortlessly switches between a regular guy and a dead-eyed killer.
Mindhunter
explores criminal psychology and nature vs. nurture, with Britton’s portrayal of Kemper being eerily perfect.
Cameron Britton had dark thoughts about killing his mother after preparing for the role of notorious serial killer Ed Kemper for David Fincher’s Netflix series Mindhunter, according to an interview with Vulture. Britton owes the disturbing thoughts to his use of method acting when preparing for the role of Kemper, an American serial killer convicted of murdering seven women and one girl between May 1972 and April 1973. Method acting, also known as The Method, is a style of rehearsal that seeks to encourage sincere and expressive performances through identifying with, understanding, and experiencing a character’s inner motivation and emotions. Britton is terrifying as Kemper, who switches effortlessly between a friendly regular guy and a dead-eyed killer, effectively confusing Johnathan Groff’s character, Holden, who has a hard time squaring Kemper’s crimes with his personality.
Mindhunter
In the late 1970s, two FBI agents broaden the realm of criminal science by investigating the psychology behind murder and end up getting too close to real-life monsters.
Release Date October 13, 2017
Main Genre Drama
Seasons 2
Who Is the Serial Killer Ed Kemper?
Edmund Emil Kemper was a notorious American serial killer. Between May 1972 and April 1973, the 6’9” (and still very much alive) monster murdered seven women and one girl. But those were not his only victims. At the tender age of 15, he murdered his maternal grandmother by shooting her in the head at the kitchen table. Kemper’s actions were considered by the court to be so incomprehensible that they attributed his actions to the psychiatric disorder of Paranoid Schizophrenia. He was sentenced to a psychiatric hospital where he would undergo treatment.
But here is the terrifying part. While housed at the California Youth Authority, the doctors disagreed with the court’s conclusions that young Ed was a person diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, according to Peter Vronsky in his book Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters. Psychiatrists and social workers both agreed that Kemper had “no flight of ideas, no interference with thought, no expression of delusions or hallucinations, and no evidence of bizarre thinking.” Instead, they saw him as a thoughtful and intelligent young man. Regarding his work ethic, he was considered a diligent worker and someone who took pride in his work, atypical of people diagnosed with his condition. Kemper aged out of the system at 21 and was released back into the world, where he would go on to commit more heinous murders, a diabolic work that he took great pride in.
Cameron Britton Is the Perfect Ed Kemper in ‘Mindhunter’.
Director David Fincher’s Mindhunter is a unique show that explores the early days of the FBI’s Behavioral Sciences Unit. In those days, as Holden points out, criminals of all types were considered born that way. Holden and Holt think differently, believing that nurture, or perhaps a lack thereof, produces criminality rather than nature. This causes the pair to clash with the FBI’s top brass, leading them to Ed Kemper, portrayed by Cameron Britton. The pair want to study Kemper, to learn what makes him tick and what produced him. If they can figure that out, they unlock the key to catching a growing class of criminals who seem to kill without motive.
Cameron Britton is as terrifying as Kemper. His vast frame can really fill out a shot, making him an imposing sight that dwarfs Holden’s stature at their first meeting. Britton is straight-up eerie with his gentle and friendly demeanor. He’s polite, he’s measured. He moves around the shot effortlessly, making small talk and sharing stories. He’s the person someone might want to have a beer with or watch the game with. But his dark duality emerges when Holden presses him on the issue of his mother; his eyes dilate, and he exudes reptilian coldness. A detached, villainous gaze that peers into his inner void of debauched madness. He speaks candidly about his crimes, enjoying them in agonizing self-awareness. Britton is everything that a predacious, murderous serial killer should be. He is utterly perfect as Kemper, and that is scary in its own right.
Cameron Britton Got in Touch With His Dark Side To Play Ed Kemper in ‘Mindhunter’.
Britton does exceptionally well in the role of Kemper by employing the real-life affability that Kemper showed towards his social workers and psychiatrists, as he tells Holden that the guards like him because he is polite. As a result, Kemper has the guards running around, getting him sandwiches and bringing him coffee. What is so terrifying is that if Kemper is not suffering from a psychiatric disorder, then he may be just some kind of apex predator, like a wolf among sheep. Britton uses this to significant effect, and, to do this, the actor uses the infamous Method, where the actor has to experience the internal dialogue that Kemoer keeps with himself.
Britton describes the process of taking on the psychology of Kemper in an interview with Vulture as linking his dark and murderous thoughts with dopaminergic releases in his brain, which sent him down a sort of evil rabbit hole that essentially made him feel good about thinking and wanting to do something so wrong. The actor describes one visit by his mother as particularly harrowing as he cannot shake the feeling of wanting to murder her, effectively blurring the lines between the character of Kemper and the actor himself. This would not be the first time the Method has corrupted the psychology of an actor. The Method is notorious for being used by actors who inevitably take things too far. Notable examples includeDaniel Day-Lewis, Heath Ledger, Jared Leto, Jeremy Strong, and many others
Cameron Britton’s performance in Mindhunter as the horrifyingly endearing Ed Kemper is perhaps one of those once-in-a-lifetime performances where the actor commits so profoundly to the role that they become entwined with that character forever. For Britton, that character just happens to be a real-life serial killer. The scariest thing about all this is that Britton may just be the only person who can genuinely understand Ed Kemper, given that he needed to descend so deeply into the cavernous and perilous void that is the hellish mind of a prolific murderer.
Mindhunter is streaming on Netflix in the U.S.
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