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Feb 19,2006 - Feb 26,2006 |
Haunted by the portrayal of Paul Bernardo
Misha Collins talks about playing Canada's most hated person
By Angela Baldassarre
Originally Published: 2006-01-29
He's not a particularly well-known actor, having played supporting roles in movies such as Finding Home and Girl, Interrupted, but these days Misha Collins is hounded by local media for his role in one of the most contested movies in Canadian history. Though a U.S. production, Joel Bender's Karla tells the horrific true tale of Paul Bernardo (Collins) and his wife Karla Homolka (Laura Prepon) who were responsible for the sex slayings of at least three young women in Ontario over a decade ago.
The film, which has been boycotted and has had ads pulled from television stations, has made Massachusetts-born Collins a sudden celebrity when he was in Toronto recently doing publicity for the movie.
Tandem talked to Misha Collins about Karla.
What concerns had you portraying Paul Bernardo?
"I wanted to make sure that when I was playing the character of Paul I wanted to have it feel as real as possible and therefore I wanted to try and find as many human qualities as possible so I wasn't just playing another blanket stereotype of a horrible human being. Because even horrible human beings are human beings. I saw Downfall this past year, and Adolph Hitler was portrayed as a compelling and in his times compassionate character which I think made the horror of Adolph Hitler that much more horrific because if you can begin to emphasize with Adolph Hitler in some way, I think it makes the story much more frightening."
Did you know about the Bernardo case before taking it on?
"No. I had heard of it, it was sort of echoes in the faint annals in my mind, but I had no real recollection of the story. I probably heard of it a decade ago. I read the script and I knew it was a true story and I found it unsettling to say the least. Then I went online and pulled up old news archives and I was really struck by it. I think seeing it in print and see it written as a true news story made it much more vivid than the screenplay did. I read a lot of screenplays and used to them being fantastic and otherworldly, and this was certainly not like that reading it, but when you see it as a true story and when you're working on this knowing that it's all based on truth, it made it much more difficult for me."
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