If it were up to Michael Peterson, Brad Pitt would've played him in HBO Max's The Staircase.
Instead, Colin Firth played the author in Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn's adaptation of the true-crime documentary. "I will forever be known as Colin Firth," Michael told Variety June 15. "It could be worse, I suppose. He's not my favorite actor. Get Brad Pitt!"
Michael, who hasn't seen the series, continued, "To me, Colin's a great actor but I can't think of any roles that weren't dull as dirt that he's ever played and that's fine."
Michael has previously spoken out against the adaptation, in which Colin plays Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife Kathleen Peterson (Toni Collette) in December 2001. Michael was later convicted of murder, but was granted a retrial in 2011. Then, after six years, he entered an Alford plea, acknowledging that there was enough evidence to convict him of manslaughter while still maintaining his innocence.
Though The Staircase documentary focused on Michael's legal battles, the HBO Max series imagines what Kathleen's life looked like prior to her death and examines how the case impacted the Peterson family as a whole. Michael takes issue with these dramatizations, telling Variety, "I might be a public figure, but my children are not."
"They are innocent bystanders who years ago helped make a documentary [about me]," he explained. "So I'm just really annoyed. There is such a thing as implied consent. But where does that implied consent end? Can you take people like Margaret, Martha, Clayton and Todd, who have moved on with their lives in the last 20 years—and now take them, put actors in their place and suddenly and totally change the background about what they did?"
Michael noted that Toni's portrayal of Kathleen was equally "unconscionable," as they made her look like a "screaming shrew." In his memory, Kathleen was a doting mother and they had a good marriage.
"Campos claims he has finally focused events on Kathleen, but in doing so, he has created a person who in no way represented the real Kathleen," Michael asserted. "She, as well as my children, are victims of Campos' grossly fictitious story. She would be appalled at his portrayal of her."
Michael also expressed frustration with the series' depiction of his bisexuality. In the initial trial, prosecutors suggested that Michael had killed Kathleen after she discovered he was sleeping with other men, which Michael has always denied. As he told Variety, "Creating a false and fictional sexual reason for me to kill her is disgustingly homophobic as well as wrong. "
In response to Michael's comments, an HBO Max rep told Variety, "The Staircase is a fictionalized series based on true events. Each episode is accompanied by a disclaimer that states it is ‘a dramatization based on certain facts.' With respect to the facts that formed the basis for the series, Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn relied on extensive source material, including first-hand accounts of the people involved in the events that took place."
The Staircase is streaming now on HBO Max.