Posted in: Hulu, TV | Tagged: Murdaugh: Death in the Family

Murdaugh: Death in the Family: Matney & Snow on Family Investigation

Murdaugh Murders podcast host Mandy Matney and Murdaugh: Death in the Family star Brittany Snow discuss the Hulu true crime series.

It's the dedicated work of Mandy Matney, who helped bring attention to one of the powerful families in South Carolina, the Murdaughs, and their tragic fall from grace, which is chronicled in her true crime podcast, Murdaugh Murders Podcast. Dramatized by Michael D Fuller and Erin Lee Carr in Hulu's Murdaugh: Death in the Family, the true crime miniseries follows the story on multiple fronts from the Murdaugh family, led by Alex (Jason Clarke) and his spouse, Maggie (Patricia Arquette), to Matney's (Brittany Snow) investigation. The podcast host and journalist, alongside The Hunting Wives star, spoke to Bleeding Cool about how years of Matney's hard work became adapted for television, how Snow captured her journalist counterpart, and having the personal space and scenes away from the other major cast to observe from afar and help bring an authentic perspective and performance.

Mandy Matney and Brittany Snow on Bringing the Investigation Side of Murdaugh: Death in the Family

Mandy, what was the biggest challenge of adapting your work from the podcast, and how did Michael and Erin make the series a reality?

Matney: The hardest part was the years of reporting, research, and getting people to talk about the Murdaughs. That happened years ago. I started this adventure almost seven years ago, investigating the Murdaugh family, and by the time we met with Michael and Erin, it was a lot easier to bring to life, because we had so much reporting to go off of Michael and Erin. Thankfully, we wanted the right partners to go with whom we trusted and were very victim-focused. Thankfully, I was able to leave the creative decisions to them, and they've done a wonderful job.

Brittany, what intrigued you about the Murdaugh story, and what went into your approach in portraying Mandy on screen?

Snow: I am a true crime person. I was familiar with the Murdaugh case, and I was also very familiar with Mandy. I listened to the podcast before I was even approached to meet with Erin and Michael, so I was shocked that I would be a part of this story or given any opportunity to give my two cents about what happened. What drew me in is how complex the story is and what it says about the justice system, the patriarchy, the people's dynasties, what they uphold, and getting to play Mandy was such a huge honor, because she really spearheaded so much in getting this case what it deserved, and getting it to the screen. It was a big honor and a big job for me.

What did you like about working with this ensemble cast, and what did they bring?

Snow: I don't know, because I don't really work with a lot of them with my storyline. Mandy's storyline is obviously reporting on the case a lot of times; she's investigating, researching, and I'm not necessarily in the scenes that are happening with them. I did see them as we're working together, everyone was so lovely, and I liked that I was a little removed from them, because I almost felt like Mandy in a way, where I had like a macro view of what was going on.

The first three episodes of Murdaugh: Death in the Family, which also stars Johnny Berchtold, Will Harrison, and Gerald McRaney, are available on Hulu. New episodes stream on Wednesdays.

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