Netflix's haunting new limited series Devil in Ohio, which premieres on September 2, is based off showrunner Daria Polatin's 2017 novel of the same name. Beyond that, it's inspired by real events, which makes its story of cults and obsession all the more terrifying. Starring Emily Deschanel (Bones) and Madeleine Arthur (To All the Boys I've Loved Before), the series follows a young woman who escapes from a cult and the psychiatrist she latches onto for better or worse.
When Suzanne (Deschanel) brings Mae (Arthur) home for a temporary stay, her family is none too pleased with the turn of events. But they're even less happy when the police begin uncovering that Mae's connection to the cult is much more sinister than they thought. Meanwhile, Mae is much more attached to Suzanne than seems healthy.
Screen Rant spoke to Deschanel and Arthur about what drew them to Devil in Ohio, whether they hung out off the set, and how much they like true crime stories.
Screen Rant: I love the show, because I'm such a true-crime and horror fan. Emily, what interested you most about this story?
Emily Deschanel: I just found it fascinating. Especially this character, Suzanne, who I'm playing? Why she does what she does, I found that fascinating. And the fact that it's based on an actual story that it's inspired by—there's lots of differences, but the basic elements of the story actually happened. That's fascinating to me. Cults are really interesting to me, and I enjoy being scared a little bit. That's fascinating.
Especially diving into the character of Suzanne and her psychology; why she's doing what she does. I found that just fascinating. I wanted to understand it and get in there and play the part.
Madeleine Arthur: Yeah, the fascination with cults. [That] it's true and loosely based off true events was immediately something that piqued my interest. And then reading the scripts and knowing that Mae was such a complex and dynamic character is always something that, as an actor, I feel like I look for in a role. Getting to dive into that and play with her was just something that was really exciting to me.
There was a lot of prep involved with it, and I love a challenge. Mae was a challenge, and that was the best.
What does the prep entail? How do you get into the culty mindset?
Madeleine Arthur: The culty mindset! [Laughs] Well, you learn about them; you read about them, and then you just get it on its feet. I did some sensory and movement work, and I watched movies based on cults. Just anything that I could draw upon to make Mae feel as fully realized as possible. That's kind of what I did.
You two spend a lot of time together. What did you do to bond and create the relationship that you have onscreen?
Emily Deschanel: We've been joking, because we were so terrified to hang out with each other. The whole cast, we were so scared because of COVID. We were told not to do anything. I talked to another friend who's doing another Netflix thing, and he was like, "Yeah, we had a cast dinner." I was like, "What? Cast dinners? No fair!"
We didn't get to hang out much. But we'd had rehearsals before, and then on Zoom, and a little bit in person. When we started filming, we had time when we were off-camera and we got to speak. I think we mostly did a lot of our work on our own, and then came together for the scenes. We weren't spending a lot of bonding time. That didn't happen until we were done filming, basically.
Madeleine Arthur: Yeah. It all happened after the fact.
Emily Deschanel: We went out to dinner once at the end and had a brunch with the cast, then we went on a walk. But that happened at the end, after we'd already filmed everything.
We just came together to, actually, in a way explore Suzanne and me. Because they meet each other at the beginning of this, and we're meeting each other and getting to know each other. Our characters got to know each other in the scenes, and so we did that.
Madeleine Arthur: We kind of complemented it in a way, right?
Among the two of you, who is the bigger true crime fan?
Madeleine Arthur: You know, we didn't really talk about that. Maybe Emily—you said you've watched a lot of documentaries on true crime. I've watched a few, but not a lot.
Emily Deschanel: I've listened to a lot of true crime podcasts, and I've watched some shows. I used to watch even more, honestly, but then having kids makes me more sensitive to certain things; too uncomfortable. I love it, though. I don't know, I'm not trying to compete in any way.
Madeleine Arthur: I might be able to give you that medal.
Emily Deschanel: If you're gonna forfeit, I'll take it. I don't know how much you're into it.
Madeleine Arthur: I do love it. I enjoy it. I just need to take the time to listen to True Crime podcasts.
I was gonna ask what's your favorite.
Emily Deschanel: S-Town. I would still consider that a crime podcast. To Live and Die in LA. These are the favorites. Over My Dead Body, which was the first [one]—that was before the Tiger King documentary on Netflix, which of course I watched as well. They had a whole season on that before the documentary.
I was telling a friend about them, and I kept sending her text after text. Like, "Oh, wait! I forget about this one." There's more, but I'll remember them after we're done, I'm sure.
Devil in Ohio Synopsis
When hospital psychiatrist Dr. Suzanne Mathis shelters a mysterious cult escapee, her world is turned upside down as the strange girl’s arrival threatens to tear her own family apart.
All episodes of Devil in Ohio will be available to stream September 2 on Netflix.