Director Amber Sealey on making a different kind of Ted Bundy movie

Brut America

There’s no shortage of films about serial killer Ted Bundy – but this feminist filmmaker wanted to tell a different story: how pathetic he really was.

Transcript

00:00As a woman, and as a filmmaker, I was really interested in, like,

00:05okay, so why are we as a society fascinated by these people

00:10that do such horrible things to women's bodies?

00:17And I felt like I wanted to portray Bundy as I really thought he was,

00:22which was, like I said, a deeply insecure, narcissistic person.

00:26Do you think you could kill somebody?

00:30I think you could.

00:33Well, I'm an FBI agent.

00:35I just was sort of projecting the, like, portrayal of him as this model,

00:40charismatic, you know, constantly charming guy.

00:43That's just not who I thought he was.

00:51I haven't seen every Bundy movie.

00:53You know, there are quite a lot of them, but I had seen most of them,

00:57and I felt like a lot of them really mythologized him in a way

01:02that I was very uncomfortable with.

01:04I felt like there was a lot of making him out to be this, like,

01:08model, rock star, you know, so intelligent, so charismatic.

01:12And when I looked at the real interviews of him, you know,

01:15the actual news footage, videos, and when I listened to the audio recordings,

01:21I really saw a guy who was really insecure, deeply narcissistic,

01:26very desperate to be liked, to be the center of attention,

01:29to have everyone, you know, feel like he was so smart and so interesting.

01:33And, you know, but when I looked at him, I didn't see.

01:35I mean, he's sure he's fine.

01:37He's smart enough, but he's not a genius.

01:39Could you kill somebody?

02:06Yeah, I could.

02:09Well, I could get away with it, too.

02:12I felt like we know a lot about Bundy.

02:15People have looked into his psychology, his childhood,

02:18talked to people who knew him, but we hadn't ever seen this story of Bill,

02:21you know, really learning about who Bill was.

02:23And it was a perspective on Bundy and his relationship with Bill

02:27that I hadn't seen before.

02:29And I, you know, I also, you know, I had the thought where I was like,

02:33oh God, you know, another Bundy movie.

02:35Does the world really need another Bundy movie?

02:37And then when I read it, I felt like I had a perspective,

02:41you know, I had a take on it.

02:50And so it was that perspective that I really wanted to bring to the script,

02:53like this other layer of like me as a woman, me as a feminist filmmaker,

02:58like there's an angle here that I can add.

03:02And so that was just always important to me, you know,

03:05was kind of bringing in the female voice a little bit.

03:12We're all always fascinated with our own humanity, you know, our own mortality.

03:18And I also think that particularly with Bundy, you know,

03:21the fascination with him, it's complicated compared to other serial killers.

03:26Bundy was really like a master of disguise, you know?

03:30I mean, he, again, not to say, I don't think he's smart,

03:32but he appeared like a normal looking guy.

03:35You know, some of the, you know, Ramirez, you know,

03:39was definitely kind of creepy looking, right?

03:43Whereas if you looked at Bundy, he just looked like an average Joe,

03:46you know, a moderately attractive average Joe.

03:49And I think because he was able to pull off this normal life,

03:52you know, have girlfriends or jobs or go to law school or whatever,

03:58that people became fascinated with that concept of like,

04:02oh, he's just a normal guy.

04:04He's just like one of us, you know, could be my friend or my neighbor.

04:12You know, I mean, there's certain gruesome things that you hear,

04:15you know, that don't really warrant repeating,

04:18because I just think it doesn't help anyone to hear that stuff.

04:22I really don't think there's much more to learn about Bundy,

04:24you know, other than, like I said,

04:27that I don't think he had been portrayed

04:30as the insecure kind of pathetic person that he is.

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