David Fincher Had A Crazy Method For Pulling Ed Kemper Out Of Cameron Britton For MINDHUNTER

Cameron Cuffe's portrayal of real-life serial killer Ed Kemper was one of the shining moments in an already glowing season of Mindhunter, and now David Fincher is explaining how the show managed to pull such an impressive performance out of the actor. Fincher told Indiewire he instructed the cast and crew to not fraternize with Cuffe on set and to practically leave him in isolation until it was time for him to do his thing:

“One of the things that was critical [came to me] when we did a read-through of the first three episodes, It became really obvious coming out of the first read-through that: ‘Make sure Cameron doesn’t talk to anyone. He can’t fraternize [with anyone]. I don’t want this to be a social thing. He has to literally come from Pluto and be in the show.’ He can’t be indoctrinated into what anyone else is up to. It has to be that this guy shows up, he’s got all the time in the world — 13 life sentences — and he’s going to tell you what you want to know. During the read-through, it was [clear] that if we can get that on film, we’re going to be fine.”

Wow, that had to be a shitty experience, although I'm sure Cuffe is grateful that his performance has helped elevate his career. It's always wild to hear about directors and their methods on set, as I would never think that isolating someone would make them a better performer. If anything, I would think that would weaken things! I wonder who he's currently isolating during Season 2? Speaking of which, are you excited for the upcoming season of the Netflix series?