Entertainment
The ‘confronting’ and ‘challenging’ reality of being a murder re-enactment actor: ‘Getting into the head of a psychopath isn’t always easy’
Amanda Benson shared the reality of being a murder re-enactment actor (Picture: Amanda Benson)
A murder re-enactment actor has revealed what it’s really like stabbing, poisoning and shooting people on set and getting into the minds of real-life killers.
Viewers are often confronted by such horrifying and ghastly scenes when watching a murder documentary, they can sometimes forget about the actors playing the murderers and their victims.
Amanda Benson is an Australian actor who has participated in 14 crime stories for the shows Deadly Woman, Dark Tide and Behind Mansion Walls.
She’s played both the murderer and the victim and has said that neither role is without its own set of challenges.
Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Amanda revealed how confronting playing each character can really be.
‘It is sometimes difficult to believe that these are real people and trying to get into the head of a psychopath isn’t always easy,’ she said.
Amanda as murderer Lindy Williams and Bobby Babbin as George Gerbic (Picture: Amanda Benson)
Lindy Williams (right) was found guilty of murdering George Gerbic (left) (Picture: Brisbane Magistrate)
‘You have to distance yourself from the character after each scene.’
Amanda has played a variety of murderers but the two killers that have stuck in her mind are Lindy Williams and Marlene Postell Johnson.
Lindy is an Australian woman currently serving 20 years to life for murdering her fiancé George Gerbic in 2013.
Lindy was unlucky in love until she met George and the two immediately began a relationship. They soon made plans to be married in Las Vegas but when Lindy returned home after the honeymoon, she told George’s loved ones that he had decided to move to Rio de Janeiro without her.
Unbeknownst to everyone else at the time, George never actually made it to Las Vegas, as he had already died at the hands of his fiancé. On the night the couple were celebrating their upcoming nuptials, Lindy poisoned his champagne with a concoction of four prescription drugs.
Then, while George was unconscious, she dismembered his body with an electric saw and drove 50 miles away to try and burn his headless torso.
Marlene Postell Johnson was found guilty of murder (Picture: Rowan County Detention centre)
‘Lindy Williams chainsawed her husband’s head off, so I had to use a chain saw in that one, that was quite challenging and quite confronting…she was very troubled,’ Amanda shared.
American woman Marlene Postell Johnson killed her husband’s secretary in a fit of jealous rage back in 2018.
She is currently serving life in prison for murdering Shirley Pierce, who had been stabbed through the neck with such force that the handle of the knife had snapped off, leaving the blade impaled. The handle still has never been found.
Marlene already had a prior conviction for assaulting Pierce in 2011 and she was arrested within hours of the murder coming to light.
‘She was totally delusional and thought her husband was having an affair with his work colleague and stabbed her to death,’ the actor said.
Amanda has been shot, stabbed and poisoned on set, but it was when she was playing Marlene that she had to become comfortable being the one doing the stabbing.
Amanda on set (Picture: Instagram/@amandab_6)
‘For the stabbing role, they had a dummy that I had to stab into so that you get the resistance when the knife pulls out, and that was confronting as well,’ she explained.
‘You have to distance yourself [from the character]. You have to put yourself in a different place because these are real characters and a lot of them are full-on psychopaths.
‘You have to make sure you can see where they’re coming from but make sure you don’t get trapped in that heavy dark place that they come from.’
She said her training as an actor is what helps her separate herself from the people that she plays.
The actor added: ‘I step back and go, “these are real people, this is what they’ve done” so it is quite difficult. I do a lot of yoga and relaxation stuff that helps.
‘You have to try and convey the character as truthfully as possible and then get out of there after each take.’
Amanda has played a part in 14 crime stories (Picture: Instagram/amandab_6)
Amanda said that playing a murder victim can also be difficult, depending on what it is the character requires from you.
‘The hardest thing I had to do when playing a murder victim was when I had to lie still and not move for about 13 takes. You think it might be easy to not move but your body twitches, even your eyes or your mouth,’ she said.
‘It’s difficult being a dead body take after take and not twitch. Stillness is an amazing skill and my yoga classes have helped with this.’
When Amanda first decided to get into the world of re-enactment acting she was thrown completely into the deep end. For the first murder documentary she participated in, her character’s head was blown off.
‘I had to lie in the bed and I had blood completely covering my whole face. Everything’s always pretty spot on. With that one, the blood had to go up the wall in a certain way, so they’re all pretty fastidious about it all looking correct,’ Amanda said.
More: Murder
Amanda always does extensive research into the characters she plays to ensure she has their mannerisms and behaviour down pat while also making sure she’s being to the victims of each crime.
‘While it can be confronting, you have to make sure you’re having fun with it as well,’ she said.
Deadly Woman can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
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