Matt Smith is Charles Manson in trailer for Mary Harron’s Charlie Says

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

2019 is shaping up to be the year of Charles Manson; not only will the notorious murderer be popping up in Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD and the second season of David Fincher's Mindhunter, but he's also set to appear in CHARLIE SAYS, a drama which primarily focuses on Leslie Van Houten (Hannah Murray), Patricia Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon), and Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendón), three women who killed for Manson and remain under his spell. Merritt Wever (Godless) plays a graduate student who visits the three women in prison in order to help break down the psychological barriers erected by Manson.

Matt Smith (Doctor Who) plays Charles Manson in the new film from AMERICAN PSYCHO director Mary Harron, and judging by the recently released trailer, is absolutely haunting in the role. Although it certainly seems as though he has that Manson vibe, Matt Smith admitted to The LA Times that he wasn't the most obvious choice to play the killer. "I’m too tall, I’m not American. I don’t look like him. I mean, it’s terrible casting in many respects," Smith said. "But I did it because I sort of had to. I really like Mary, but I did it because of the real people that I’ve played, like Robert Mapplethorpe or Prince Philip or Christopher Isherwood. I’ve come away from those people having a sense of who they are. But with Charlie Manson, I had no idea. I have no idea where the truth begins and the bull ends."

The official synopsis for CHARLIE SAYS:

Years after the shocking murders that made the name Charles Manson synonymous with pure evil, the three women who killed for him—Leslie Van Houten (Hannah Murray), Patricia Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon), and Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendón)—remain under the spell of the infamous cult leader (Matt Smith). Confined to an isolated cellblock in a California penitentiary, the trio seem destined to live out the rest of their lives under the delusion that their crimes were part of a cosmic plan—until empathetic graduate student Karlene Faith (Merritt Wever) is enlisted to rehabilitate them. Convinced the prisoners are not the inhuman monsters the world believes them to be, Karlene begins the arduous process of breaking down the psychological barriers erected by Manson. But are the women ready to confront the horror of what they did?

CHARLIE SAYS will hit select-theaters and VOD on May 10, 2019.