NEED TO KNOW
- In Murdaugh: Dying within the Household, Patricia Arquette performs Maggie Murdaugh, the matriarch of the South Carolina household who was murdered, alongside her 22-year-old son Paul, in 2021
- Arquette tells ipromiseyoumedia how her expertise rising up with a father who struggled with alcoholism knowledgeable her portrayal of Maggie within the collection, as Maggie’s husband, Alex Murdaugh, was an addict as properly
- Alex was discovered responsible of murdering Maggie and Paul in 2023 and obtained two life sentences
Patricia Arquette’s newest function hit near house.
The actress performs Maggie Murdaugh in Hulu’s new restricted collection, Murdaugh: Dying within the Household, which relies on the shockingly true story of a South Carolina household and its patriarch, Alex Murdaugh, who was convicted of killing his spouse Maggie and their son Paul.
Throughout Alex’s trial, he admitted to having a lifelong dependancy to opioids — his lawyer claimed his shopper spent $50,000 every week on medicine — and his son, Buster, stated that the household was conscious of Alex’s dependancy as properly. One other declare made by Alex in the course of the trial was that he took greater than 2,000 milligrams of painkillers a day within the months main as much as Maggie and Paul’s 2021 deaths.
To play Maggie, who was married to Alex for years earlier than her dying, Arquette tells ipromiseyoumedia how her personal childhood experiences witnessing the devastating results of dependancy knowledgeable her portrayal.
“I grew up in a household the place there have been substance abuse points with my dad and alcoholism and betrayals,” she says. “And my dad was charming, and I beloved my dad.”
Given her father’s struggles — she’s the youngest daughter of actor Lewis Arquette and Brenda Denaut, who shared 5 children — Patricia says she “undoubtedly obtained modeled” conduct that parallels that of the Murdaugh patriarch, who was secretive about his demons all through his life.
Patricia, 57, additionally “noticed how laborious [her dad’s addiction] was for my mother” to take care of, which additionally knowledgeable how she interpreted Maggie’s story.
As she ready to tackle the function — alongside Jason Clarke as Alex — Patricia says she “checked out alcoholism” and the way it influences everybody round it.
“There’s type of regular patterns in a dysfunctional household, even simply with alcoholism or dependancy,” she says.
Within the case of the Murdaugh household, each Alex and his spouse had been doing issues they weren’t imagined to be doing in an effort to facilitate Alex’s restoration. “There is a motive they are saying these items are a household illness, as a result of all the pieces will get distorted. And when you’ve lies and pathological manipulation and all of this sort of stuff — and betrayal — it is simply layer after layer of issues which might be hidden, and he is hiding so many issues.”
Patricia provides of how she understands Maggie, “I actually wished to honor her as a mom of this household, who’d been with [Alex] since faculty and obtained very normalized to his loopy conduct … and his household’s entry and capability and privilege to have the ability to get away with all the pieces, and the way that might steamroll and steamroll.”
“They had been coping with so many various issues — addictions and alcohol and medicines and all of those various things, betrayals,” she says of the household.
“What was actually attention-grabbing to me about this story was this charming, charismatic persona who’s the pinnacle of the household, but additionally a pathological liar, betrayer, manipulator. And for this lady, for her to start out realizing, ‘I’ve no clue who I am married to’ — the place does it finish? All of those layers of layers of deception and gaslighting and manipulation and who’re you?”
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New episodes of Murdaugh: Dying within the Household drop Wednesdays on Hulu.