‘The Staircase’ Showrunner Reflects on Adapting the Petersons’ Story to TV | Entertainment
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Season 1, Episodes 1-8 of The Staircase.]
The staircase is a true-crime story that has been dissected repeatedly in the years since Kathleen Peterson’s death, and it’s thanks to the story’s many twists and turns that Antonio Campos was able to deliver a gripping eight-episode scripted adaptation on HBO Max, which is now also streaming on Netflix.
The writer, director and executive producer was first introduced to The Case of Michael and Kathleen when it was being considered for a film adaptation. “I was immediately hooked,” Campos says. “I hadn’t heard of this case. I hadn’t heard of the film or the documentary series. And so, I was just fascinated.” And who wouldn’t be when a woman is discovered bleeding at the foot of a staircase by her husband, who is then accused of her murder.
It was the multiple facets of the affair that fascinated him, as well as the figure of Michael Peterson himself, played brilliantly by Colin Firth in the series. “I was immediately drawn to the character of Michael Peterson and the idea that these filmmakers had embedded themselves in this family for two years to cover this story,” Campos said.
(Credit: HBO Max)
But there was more to the Petersons’ story than what initially appeared on the surface: “The director and producer of the documentary disagree on what they think happened that night, and their feelings toward Michael Peterson are very different,” Campos shares. “And the editor of the documentary fell in love with Michael Peterson while editing from Paris.”
It was because of these “fascinating” details that Campos was convinced to translate the story for viewers. What followed was a deeply complex story that looked not only at the lives of the Petersons, but also at those of others involved in the case.
The show also presented several possible death scenarios, explaining Kathleen’s (Toni Collette) disappearance. “The center of our story is this staircase, and we worked very hard to replicate the staircase, its size, its dimensions. We measured the actual staircase at 1810 Cedar. Our art department made and built three versions of it,” Campos says.
(Credit: HBO Max)
“We built one that was clean, one with blood on the walls and on the steps, and then another one that was a green screen staircase. And the green screen staircase was specifically to be used when we were exploring the night she died and how she could have died,” Campos says.
As viewers saw on the series, there were variations of Kathleen’s death, including her tripping and falling down the stairs, Michael killing her, and an owl attack that left her bloodied and panicked as she rushed for towels and slipped. It was a fine-tuned process as Campos reveals the reasoning behind creating a green staircase. “We had to have as much control over where the blood landed, and the staircase had to be padded in order to allow the stuntmen to perform the stunts on it. So it was a very elaborate experiment in a way.”
“The staircase is the space that we keep returning to, and it’s a haunted space, and it plays out that way throughout the series,” Campos continues. “It’s a very cramped and uncomfortable space.” And it mirrors that story in many ways, as the family at the center of it all is forced to endure this trauma over the years. “It’s just a big puzzle,” Campos shares, and thanks to him, all these little pieces came together in the series.
For a complete look at the Petersons’ story, stream the limited series now.
The staircaseStreaming now, HBO Max and Netflix
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