How HBO Max's The Staircase Adds a Meta Twist to a Well-Known True Crime Story

The Staircase ‘s creators break down how they adapted the docuseries for HBO Max as the original documentarians speak out against the show.

By Cydney Contreras May 20, 2022 10:17 PMTags
Watch: HBO's The Staircase Showrunners Talk Bringing True Crime to Life

The Staircase documentary seemed like the definitive source for all information on the Michael Peterson trial. After all, the documentarians were there in the room, speaking to prosecutors, defense attorneys and the real-life people whose lives were irrevocably changed by the death of Kathleen Peterson (Toni Collette).

But HBO Max's adaptation of the docuseries is likely to plant new questions in viewers' minds.

This is, by the way, totally intentional. Showrunners Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn want you to question what you thought you knew. Maggie explained to E! News that the whole series questions the "idea that anything can be fully accurate or there could be a single truth."

That being said, the adaptation is full of scenes that actually took place in the documentary, down to the outfits people wore. Maggie said they set out to include these aspects that are "grounded in accuracy" to give the series a "sense of familiarity."

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The Staircase Actors Compared to the Real-Life People

The creators left the finer details up to the actors, who were able to convey the feelings of uneasiness or mystery. Campos, who directed the series, said, "If you can achieve something in silence versus dialogue, you should always do it because it's always more powerful and the imagination can do so much more sometimes. So great actors can bring so much nuance that is necessary in making the story this complex feel accessible."

It goes without saying that the cast did that and more, but Colin Firth's portrayal of the Southern novelist is particularly notable because of his ability to go from being a compassionate widower to a cold accused killer. Like the series, viewers wonder who Michael really is—a question that even Colin had when preparing for the role.

Courtesy of HBO Max

Antonio felt that Colin's likability as a celebrity figure—who doesn't love him in Bridget Jones's Diary?—was an advantage, explaining, "It allowed you to connect with with the character in the way that you should right away because we meet a person who's a grieving husband and you need to connect with him in that moment. And then as things unfold, you have to start looking at him differently."

And is where the writers started to stray from the documentary, which had stopped being filmed at this point.

By episode five, Colin really starts to pull on the heartstrings as he plays Michael, who is convicted and sent to prison. Once there, he's beaten by fellow inmates and his kids are starting to move on with their lives, leaving him alone and the shell of the man viewers first met.

Episode five further shocks viewers with its reveal that The Staircase documentary editor Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche) started a long-distance relationship with Michael while he was in prison. She sends him books and letters in which she promises him that he will be free soon enough, inadvertently drawing her own credibility into question—and sparking a debate between the filmmakers.

Courtesy of HBO Max

This and other scenes were fictionalized, but Sophie and Michael really did date in real life, viewers just didn't know about it. The show writers only knew about these details because they had unprecedented access to unused footage and the people involved in the story.

And that's what has the original documentary-makers feeling betrayed.

Documentarian Jean-Xavier de Lestrade recently told Vanity Fair that he gave Antonio "footage, notes, and tips on particularly interesting unused video" with the understanding it was to be adapted.

"I really trusted the man," he said, adding, "So that's why today I'm very uncomfortable, because I feel that I've been betrayed in a way." 

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True Crime Documentaries Worth Watching This Spring

As for the real-life Sophie, she says she didn't start dating Michael until after she finished editing. "My relationship with Michael never affected my editing," she wrote. "I never, ever cut anything out that would be damaging for him. I have too big an opinion of my job to be even remotely tempted to do anything like that. And Jean would never let it happen anyway."

As a result, Sophie, Jean-Xavier and the rest of the team feel that their work on the documentary has been "undermined." They want The Staircase to feature a disclaimer about adding fictional events. As Jean-Xavier said, "I have to protect my work. A series on HBO like this will get huge attention. And if people think what they're watching is true, that's really damaging for us."

Courtesy of HBO Max

On the other hand, Michael's defense attorney, David Rudolf, told VF that the documentarians agreed not to release the documentary "until all the appeals were exhausted, because I didn't know whether it was going to be helpful to Michael or hurtful to Michael." (He added that he eventually let them release it because of the lengthy appeals process. In 2011, Michael was granted a retrial, in which he entered an Alford plea.)

Moreover, there is a disclaimer, it just comes after the credits.

In a twisted way, this new development adds to the question Antonio and Maggie set out to ask... Can we ever know the truth?

The Staircase airs Thursdays on HBO Max.

Watch the latest episode of E!'s While You Were Streaming Friday, Nov. 11, at 9 a.m. PT on Twitter @enews.