Michael Sheen Reveals How He Prepared For His Role As A Serial Killer In Prodigal Son

Actor Michael Sheen went through several documentaries to understand the psychology of a serial killer, and says the experience was interesting.

Sheen is seen playing the serial killer Martin Whitly, known as “The Surgeon”, in TV series “The Prodigal Son”.

“I think over the last couple years, there’s just sort of been an explosion of content around these sort of issues. So there’s no lack of being able to read or watch stuff. I think one of the most useful things for me is I spent a few years working on a script that I wrote myself about what became known as the “Green River Killer” case, so I spent quite a long time looking into the psychology of that particular serial killer, which even though it’s not the same as the character I play, it was very useful in giving me a kind of broad background on these personality traits and that kind of stuff,” Sheen said.

“I also watched a couple things that were particularly useful, there was a documentary about the British doctor Harold Shipman, (which concerned) the idea of how a doctor, someone very trusted in the community, very loved, very respected, very admired, could also be doing these terrible things. And also, there was one that was useful about watching someone who, whilst being in prison, then kind of tried to reclaim a relationship with a daughter and grandchildren, and that was interesting as well. Very useful,” he added.

“The Prodigal Son” narrates story of psychologist Malcolm Bright (essayed by Tom Payne) who is forced to confront his serial killer father Martin Whitly to solve a case while working with New York Police Department. The show is aired in India on Colors Infinity.

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