MASTERING THE ART OF 'DISAPPEARING'

Jason Clarke admittedly enjoyed going to a dark place as Alex Murdaugh in Hulu's true crime drama, which ended this week

- KAITLYN HUAMANI

RICK WENNER For The Times. "ALL OF A sudden, you become the reflection you see," Jason Clarke says about playing Alex Murdaugh in Hulu's "Death in the Family."

Jason Clarke insists he's not a Method actor, but to take on the role of Alex Murdaugh, he became so immersed in the world of the disgraced lawyer and convicted killer that he often dreamed about him.

The role of Alex in Hulu's "Murdaugh: Death in the Family" demanded a lot of Clarke - mastery of a South Carolinian accent, adoption of Southern charm, significant weight gain and the emotional stamina to tap into the psyche of a man who killed his wife and child.

Clarke reveled in the challenge. "Like a Sherlock Holmes sleuth," he said, "you've got to crack it."

That meant Clarke spent hours thinking about Alex's perspective on the crumbling of his family's legal dynasty, the investigations into his finances, the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son Paul, and his eventual trial.

"It just started to sit inside me," he said on a Zoom call from New York in October. As Clarke was developing his version of Alex, his extensive work led him "to dream about it, to think about it, to justify him, to listen to that court case, to argue his way out of it, to find the mistakes or the injustices that he suffered in the trial that I thought I heard or saw."

His dreams primarily revolved around the trial - arguments between Alex and his legal team, evidence that was contested and Alex's fixation on justification for his actions.

"Murdaugh: Death in the Family," which released its finale Wednesday, dramatizes the years-long mysteries surrounding the family, including a deadly boat crash, the sudden death of the family's housekeeper, serious financial crimes and the murders of Maggie and Paul. Costarring with Clarke are Patricia Arquette as Maggie, Johnny Berchtold as Paul and Will Harrison as Alex's eldest son, Buster.