Under the Banner of Heaven, FX's haunting new series based on Jon Krakauer's investigative nonfiction book, depicts the true story of the 1984 Lafferty murders. It was a crime so shocking that it rocked many fundamental Mormons to their core, not only because of the lives tragically lost but the position of those who took them.
The true crime drama premiered April 28 on Hulu and consists of 7 hour-long episodes, through which viewers meet and understand the Lafferty clan. Their personalities and motives are filtered through the perspectives of Detectives Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield, Tick, Tick... Boom!) and Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham, Yellowstone) as they attempt to unmask the killer and help the community around them come to grips with the horrors.
Wyatt Russell (The Falcon and The Winter Soldier), who plays the infamous Dan Lafferty, spoke to Screen Rant about what made Under the Banner of Heaven easier to film despite all the darkness surrounding it, and he shared his own take on true crime stories.
Screen Rant: I was like, "Oh, he kept his beard," but you always kind of have a majestic beard going on.
Wyatt Russell: Most of the time, it's out of laziness.
Dan Lafferty has quite the haircut journey in this show. And I always think when people are filming something, they have to then go to Starbucks and confidently pull off their haircuts. Did you have that moment filming this?
Wyatt Russell: The hair and makeup team was really great. We had different styles of hair, but I could do my hair normal when they weren't shooting, and I didn't have too much of a crazy experience going to Starbucks and having weird looks.
When you read the script, read the book, what stuck out to you the most?
Wyatt Russell: What stuck out to me the most was just the dichotomy of love and joy and togetherness and family, and then death and destruction.
They went very hand in hand, and how those pieces of yourself - pieces of history that you want to bury and subtract from your life - will eventually come back to haunt you. And they'll come back for things to play out the way that they'll play out. It was very skillfully written, skillfully done ,and skillfully adapted.
How do you describe who Dan Lafferty is?
Wyatt Russell: Dan's a magnetic person. He was someone that you that you'd like at a party; someone you'd want to be with. He'd make you laugh, and you'd have a nice time with him. And some people might find themselves following down a path that they didn't intend to, because he was able to make people feel so good about themselves.
He was so sure of himself, all while being doubtful of things. He would always refer back to the text and go deeper and deeper and deeper. That depth of wanting to understand himself and wanting to learn more - wanting to please his father and wanting to be more of a family man - led him down this rabbit hole of fundamentalism and extremism that obviously ended up in a lot of death and destruction.
With something so dark, knowing it's real, how do you bring levity to the set when you're not filming? Is there anything you guys did that was just super fun?
Wyatt Russell: Yeah. Like I've said before, you have to be able to enjoy your life while you're living at it. You spend a lot of time on set, and spend a lot of time with the people you're working with. Being able to make that an enjoyable experience, no matter what the subject matter is, to me has always been important. Because otherwise, I'd just be too miserable spending that amount of time doing that away from my family.
I was very lucky in this situation to have people who were consummate professionals, so they can really go in and go out. They were adept; they were able to maneuver quite easily. And when time came to leave set, it was time to go enjoy ourselves; enjoy our company and have great conversations and get togethers.
That was a wonderful aspect of being able to shoot with this specific group of people that we got to shoot with.
What a wonderful cast and wonderful team. You and Andrew Garfield have that MCU connection. When you were filming, did you have any idea that he was coming back in as Spider-Man?
Wyatt Russell: I didn't. I did not. I don't think he said anything about it, or we didn't talk about it at all. But no, I didn't. I didn't know.
What do you think John Walker is up to at the moment? So much has been going on. Is he just taking a vacation? What do you think he's doing?
Wyatt Russell: Yeah, you'll know better than me.
I remember when you took that role, you were worried about playing someone that people hate. Did you feel that way at all taking on this role? This real person who, to this day, has no have remorse?
Wyatt Russell: No, because it wasn't about the hate and the gruesome qualities, or just the negativity of it. There was a lot of positivity to it. It was a "why he done it" story. It was important that the character be portrayed the way the character is in certain ways. It was a challenge, but it wasn't ever something that...
I mean, of course, there's times where you're doing and you're like, "Oh, this is awful, and I hate it. It makes me feel sick." But I never questioned the ability of the filmmakers to portray it in a way that was anything other than oddly respectful to the deceased. It's important to remember that there are real people and this really happened.
Are you a true crime junkie? Do you have a favorite podcast, docuseries, or drama that you've seen?
Wyatt Russell: I'm really not. I don't need to see more death, destruction and devastation; the negativity and negative side of human nature. It's there, it's always going to be there. I don't love watching it, to be honest. I just don't. Just the true crime aspect doesn't interest me like it interests other people.
This interested me, because it was a real question to me. How did this person who should have been helping people with spinal bifida in third world countries, or back problems, and spreading love end up here? How did that happen? That was the interesting thing to me that drew me in. Just the true crime, or the actual steps of how something happens - sometimes it's grisly to me. I just don't love watching it.
Under the Banner of Heaven Synopsis
FX’s Under the Banner of Heaven, the original limited series inspired by the true crime bestseller by Jon Krakauer, follows the events that led to the 1984 murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her baby daughter in a suburb in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah.
As Detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) investigates events which transpired within the Lafferty family, he uncovers buried truths about the origins of the LDS religion and the violent consequences of unyielding faith. What Pyre, a devout Mormon, unearths leads him to question his own faith.
Check out our interviews with stars Andrew Garfield & Gil Birmingham, Sam Worthington, and with screenwriter Dustin Lance Black as well.
The first 2 episodes of Under the Banner of Heaven are available to stream on Hulu, with new episodes dropping every Thursday.