An American actor believes everyone has the ability to display a specific trait of a serial killer, an exclusive quote revealed.
The exclusive quote from actor Dennis Quaid was shared via JustWatch, about his role in the new Paramount+ series Happy Face.
Quaid, who is known for his charismatic performances in The Substance and The Parent Trap, assumed the role of a manipulative and emotionless killer in a series which analysed the gray area between nature and nurture.
He said: “Serial killers in a way are very easy to play because they don’t really have any empathy and feelings.
“We all have that capability maybe inside of us… so the question becomes really about ourselves.
“Or we suspect we do, so it gets down to human nature and the question becomes really about ourselves.”
The Netflix series Adolescence, which was released on 13 March, tells the story of how the character Jamie murdered a girl and how this affected the day-to-day life of his family.
Quaid’s view that all have the capability to lack empathy or feelings means everyone should question themselves.
This was evident in Adolescene, where Jamie reached the point of lacking empathy and feelings, leading to him being able to murder.
Actors and writers have analysed whether Quaid’s quote rings true, and, if so, what anyone being able to lack empathy and feelings could lead to.
Actor and musician Ayomikun Omiteru, 22, said: “In a way, I do agree with the statement as many can commit such acts, they’ve just got to be pushed to their limits really and truly.
“I don’t feel like people are killers, it may just be the circumstances that are made, that may force them to do it.
“Dennis is very right with that, it does bottle down to human nature.
“Empathy and feelings are all that needs to be taken away, and some of the harder roles are when I do have to put a lot more empathy and feelings into it.
“It is scary to see that all that really needs to be removed to commit a wrongdoing is empathy and feelings because all a person needs to convince themselves of, is that they are doing the action for the right reason, even if they were not raised that way.”
Adolescence portrays Jamie as a boy who was raised in a lovingly family home, but what he believed to be ill-treatment from a fellow student was, in his mind, enough to warrant death.
Omiteru said: “I feel like what happened with Jamie can happen with people who do not know themselves and are looking for an agenda to adopt.
“Some people may fall for this agenda, maybe because of how they have been hurt in the past so now they want to get their revenge.
“There’s a lot of ideas of toxic masculinity out there and to me, that doesn’t make you a man, that makes you a weak man.”
People in the industry agreed that it may be a matter of human nature as, everyone has the ability to display emotions which may lead to actions.
In the case of Adolescence, it is was one murder, while in the case of Happy Face it was becoming a serial killer.
Actor and writer Temisanren Uwawah, 28 said: “What I gather from the human nature reference, is analysing how do you get from point A to point B?
“I think if the action is, for example, in the case of Jamie, murder then murder is the outcome, it is the final thing someone does.
“And if the final product is murder, then would it have started off with anger, jealousy, disappointment, hurt or revenge.
“All of those things feed into the final outcome. I guess when Dennis says it’s down to human nature, I imagine he means the build-up of human emotions that lead you to such outcomes.”
Uwawah’s sold out play, Ifunay (meaning love), was recently performed at Theatre Peckham, where it was chosen to be performed out of 150 submissions and had around 590 people in attendance.
He said: “I think the biggest thing that comes into play in acting, is empathy.
“Although, you may be acting in a role that you disagree with, your job as an actor is to get to a point where you can resonate with the element of why the character does what they do.
“Once you understand their why, it becomes easier to portray that character.
“Being a serial killer would not come naturally but it’s understanding the why.
“If it is just loving their daughter, then we can all relate to love in some way and how far, would we be willing to go to protect someone.”
Featured image: Unsplash
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