Patricia Arquette on Starring in Murdaugh Murders

Following the conclusion of “Severance” Season 2, Oscar-winning actress Patricia Arquette will portray Maggie Murdaugh in the upcoming Hulu series “Murdaugh Murders.” For Arquette, it’s a story that’s “always” been fascinating.

“To be married to someone who turns out to basically be a malignant narcissist is so interesting to me,” Arquette told Variety at the “Severance” Season 2 FYC event on Saturday in Los Angeles. “The way they have this kind of enchanted life together and how completely destroyed everything got. It was such a sad, rotten American tale.”

The series is based on the reporting of journalist Mandy Matney, creator of the “Murdaugh Murders” podcast, and will revolve around the powerful Murdaugh family that became accused of fraud and murder. Arquette’s character, Maggie Murdaugh, was found dead along with her son, Paul Murdaugh, in 2021. While playing a character like Maggie who is no longer alive proves a great challenge, Arquette is more interested in capturing “the essence” of any person she plays.

“How much do we participate in our own deception, our own self-deception? How we explain things and make excuses and think people are going to change,” Arquette said. “That whole dynamic doesn’t always end in murder, but it’s a really destructive dynamic and I think it’s a very common dynamic … [Maggie] loved her kids so much, but it’s like a frog in a pot boiling slowly. She got so normalized to this kind of out-of-control behavior.”

The cast also inludes Jason Clark as Alex Murdaugh, along with J. Smith-Cameron, Johnny Berchtold, Gerald McRaney, Will Harrison, Brittany Snow, Noah Emmerich, Kathleen Wilhoite and Tommy Dewey.