This article contains spoilers for the Under the Banner of Heaven finale.
Wyatt Russell has made a career of portraying chill, affable, heavily bearded guys. In Under the Banner of Heaven, he’s got the beard again—but otherwise playing way against type.
The series, based on the book of the same name by Jon Krakauer, tells the story of a brutal 1984 murder case that shocked a Mormon community in Utah. Brenda Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her infant daughter are found dead at home. As detective and fellow Mormon Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) and his Indigenous partner Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham) investigate, they discover that her husband Allen Lafferty’s (Billy Howle) family, once esteemed within their community, had backslid into frightening zealotry. Brothers Ron (Sam Worthington) and Dan Lafferty (Russell) were both excommunicated from the Church of Latter-day Saints and joined a fundamentalist sect that espoused polygamy and excluding Black members of the faith. In the final episode, the two are revealed to have committed the unspeakable crime, because Ron believed he had received a revelation from God instructing him to do so.
Part of what makes Russell’s depiction of Dan so sinister is that he still has a folksy, benign way of interacting with the world even when he’s doing and saying some of the most horrible things imaginable. We caught up with the actor about the grim Under the Banner of Heaven finale and what his research into the mind of Dan Lafferty revealed.
GQ: So do you only take roles where you have to grow a giant beard?
Wyatt Russell: The short answer is no, but if I could, I probably would. When I was first starting out, going in on auditions in LA, everybody had an idea of what you’re supposed to be. Especially for me because my dad and my mom [Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn], and because I look like my dad.
It’s so hard to tell one person from the other when you’re seeing 50 people. Finally I was like, “Everywhere I go, everybody looks the same. I’m just going to grow out my beard.” Because I usually had a beard when I was playing hockey. People were like, “No, don’t do that.” I’m like, “Fuck it. I don’t care. It’s not really working anyway.” But I kept my beard and I legitimately started getting jobs.
What was the scope of your preparation to plan Dan Lafferty?
I read the book about 10 years ago when it first came out. There was a blurb somewhere that they were going to make it into a movie and at the time it was Ron Howard directing it. I thought I could be good at it, but I was in no position to be in it in my career.
I met with Ron for [the part of Brenda’s husband] Allen. It wasn’t happening and I wouldn’t have gotten it anyway. About five years later, I met with Ron again, same kind of thing. Two to three years after that, FX was doing it in long form. Met with people over at FX, but I was at a point in my career then where it made more sense.
So the preparation was long. There is YouTube stuff of Dan speaking. I got a lot of audio recordings of him being recorded in prison, so it wasn’t an interview setting and I was able to get a more candid version of him.
He’s still in prison in Utah, serving two consecutive life sentences. Did you ever try to get in touch with him?
I did, but what happened was you have to give them your phone number and, like an idiot, I was like, “Yeah, sure.” Then I was like, “Why would I do that? He murdered people.” I think they had taken my number down wrong, so when I didn’t get the phone call, they said, “Dude, I think he tried to call.” But it was like, “Yeah. I think I’m good. I don’t need to talk to him.” I felt like I had a lot of information and I didn’t know how reliable of a narrator he would be in person and if that would change things.
What was the most surprising thing you learned about Dan over the course of your research?
How affable he was. When did this guy go evil? When do you see it? When is it overt? And in a lot of ways, it was never overt.
All he wanted to be was to be loved by his dad and loved by his family. He was so scared of losing all of that that the only way he could feel more connected was down this rabbit hole.
That continued to surprise me, because at some point you feel like, well, “where’s the anger?” There was anger deep-seated in him, but it was never really apparent. I kept asking these questions: “How the fuck did this happen? How did this go down this way? How did it jump from zero to a hundred?”
My personal opinion—this is just a personal opinion after spending time with it—is I don’t think he really knew what he was doing. I think he was just trying to maintain control and his manipulative power over his family. As long as he was in control, he was succeeding and that’s what he cared about. And the best way to keep control over situations is when people come in with their ideas or crazy insane thoughts, he’d just go, “Yeah. Okay. Well, if that’s how you feel.” It was everybody else going, “I feel like this,” and he’d just support their crazy thoughts instead of saying, “Well, I don’t know about that.” When you challenge somebody, then you risk losing their faith or their trust and he never did that.
And the murder scene is intercut with earlier footage of him so that you really get a sense of how far gone he is. What do you think drove his decline?
This idea of salvation was so important because he was so scared of losing his family. He really loved his family and he was so scared, I think, that he was not going to see them in heaven. He believed so much that if they were not atoned, that he would not see them in heaven. And it also justified this polygamous aspect that he so desperately wanted. He was a sex addict. That’s what he wanted to do. He wanted to have sex with everybody and have it be okay and not a sin. All of these desires just drove him.
Anytime he could make logical sense of it by using the original text, he would do it because he was going back and honoring the original text. What’s scary about fundamentalism is that it’s fundamental. He really believes that what he was doing was right, and he’d do anything to make sure it happened. And he’s a narcissist of the first order.
One twist is that Ron ends up turning on Dan after they’ve committed the murder and are on the run. It’s not completely surprising, but what did you make of it?
I always thought, “Well, of course, Ron’s going to turn on Dan, because Ron’s unstable.” Ron wasn’t as convicted as Dan. His conviction wavers even after they were in prison. Ron had real personality issues and it was supporting this mental instability, Dan going, “Your anger is justified.” But then Ron would come out of it and be like, “Why did I fucking do that? Why did you make me do that?” And instead of Dan helping or being a reasonable person that could make logical sense, he’d just try to again manipulate Ron. I think there was probably resentment from Ron where he’s just feeding his mental health issue.
Did Dan ever apologize to Allen or to Brenda’s family from prison?
No, no, no. To this day, it’s not even no remorse. He believed that wholeheartedly. He has not ever wavered. He views prison as his monastery. It’s not a punishment. And that whatever God’s plan was, he accepted all of the earthly consequences very readily and understandingly and there was no apology. He believes he deserves thanks.
Do you know what happened to his wife Matilda and her children?
Oh, I don’t. I know that they left. I think his daughter had a bit of a relationship with him in prison for a while and then finally said, “I just can’t do this anymore.” I think she felt manipulated.
What was the most difficult scene to film in a whole series of difficult scenes?
There were two. Definitely the end, the murder, just because it’s horrible. It makes you feel sick when you’re doing it. And one of the most difficult ones was in episode five when I had to tell my wife that I wanted to marry our daughter. You’re doing the scene, but in the back of your head, it literally makes you want to throw up. So those days were two really hard, horrible days that you had to shake off.
How would you unwind from playing someone so dark?
It sort of became a little ritual. You go into your trailer and your room is set up for the day and you change into your wardrobe and then go to work. After I was done, I would take off my wardrobe, hang it up, and just make sure that the room looks exactly like it did when I came in. Throw all this stuff away, all your food and all that. Just make it look exactly like you walked in and then when you close the trailer door, that day’s over. It’s done. You’re not going back to do it again. I’m not revisiting that moment.
That moment’s now left up to the editors and the creators to use how they want. And I go home and watch hockey or football and I just leave it there. I do not bring work home.
This interview has been edited and condensed.