Damon Herriman on being cast as Charles Manson by Tarantino and Fincher

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

There aren't many circumstances of an actor playing the same role in two completely different projects, let alone in the same year, but that's exactly the situation which Damon Herriman (Justified) found himself in. The actor is slated to play Charles Manson in the second season of David Fincher's Mindhunter as well as Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. While recently speaking with Collider, Herriman explained how it all went down.

According to the actor, he was first cast as Charles Manson for Mindhunter near the end of 2017, which he admits is quite the long lead-up for a TV guest role. Someone on Quentin Tarantino's crew heard of Herriman's casting as Manson for Mindhunter, and, knowing that the role hadn't yet been filled in ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, suggested that Herriman audition. "I didn’t mention I was already playing the role in David Fincher’s show, which I think was a good thing; he probably wouldn’t have wanted to see that guy," Herriman said. "Then I auditioned and ended up getting both and shooting two different things within two weeks of each other." When Herriman first got the word that he had also won the role for Quentin Tarantino's film, he assumed that he'd have to turn it down as he was already committed to playing the role on Mindhunter.

The day I landed in America to do the makeup test for Mindhunter, the day after that I got the call saying I got the role in the Tarantino movie, which was immediately the best and worst news I ever got in my life because I thought I’m definitely now not going to get this because we have to tell him now that I’m already doing it. The reason I auditioned was because I thought I might get something else in it, possibly. I thought I can’t not audition, but there’s no way he’s going to cast the same guy. But anyway they called back and said, “No, he’s cool. He doesn’t care.” And then when I met him was like, ‘Yeah, it’s like a cool little bookend thing because one is 1969 and one is 1980,’ and he kind of dug it.

The second season of Mindhunter is expected to debut on Netflix sometime this year, while ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD will hit theaters on July 26, 2019. Should be interesting to see the similarities and differences in both of Damon Herriman's portrayals of Charles Manson.