Editor's note: The below interview contains spoilers for Murdaugh: Death in the Family's finale.While one of the biggest storylines in Murdaugh: Death in the Family revolves around the titular family, the Hulu true crime series also makes a point to spotlight the efforts of the journalist who originally followed the Murdaughs in real time. Long before the deaths of Maggie (Patricia Arquette) and Paul Murdaugh (Johnny Berchtold), for which family patriarch Alex Murdaugh (Jason Clarke) would ultimately be convicted and sentenced to prison, a devastating boat crash snowballs into a much broader investigation about the Murdaughs and the secrets they might be hiding. Co-created by Michael D. Fuller and Erin Lee Carr, Murdaugh: Death in the Family is largely inspired by the efforts of the Murdaugh Murders Podcast from Mandy Matney.
Ahead of the show's premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several people behind Murdaugh: Death in the Family, including Matney and Brittany Snow, who plays the series' version of the real-life journalist. Over the course of the interview, which you can watch above or read below, Snow admits that her true crime obsession paid off long before she was cast in the series, while the two reflect on their early collaboration and also explain why it wouldn't have really made sense to give Mandy a big confrontation scene with Alex Murdaugh in the finale.
COLLIDER: There's so much to talk about pertaining to this show, but a good place to start is going all the way back to the beginning, and I feel like that starts with you, Mandy, because this show is inspired by the work that you did on the podcast, following this case in real time and breaking a lot of the information. How early did you become involved with the project, and how closely did you end up working with Michael [D. Fuller] and Erin [Lee Carr] in shaping it?
MANDY MATNEY: I guess my work on this project began in February 2019, when I first found out about the boat crash, and as a reporter, I just dug in and couldn't stop. Then everything went, obviously, haywire in 2021, and at that point, I had years of research and investigative journalism built up about the Murdaugh family that I had to make a podcast and put all of that out there.
Then, a few months after we first launched the podcast, I was connected with Erin Lee Carr, and originally, I was connected with her for a documentary. We were thinking of doing a documentary because, of course, she's the queen of documentaries, and I was so excited because I had been a huge fan of hers for the longest time. I've never been more nervous for an interview, I don't think, than when I Zoomed with Erin Lee Carr, because I was like, “Oh my gosh, you're so cool!” And then from there, she kind of started developing the idea of making it a scripted series and working with Michael D. Fuller, who's a South Carolina native and really understood the story and understood the corruption surrounding the story. Both of them, we really connected with them on the fact that they were victim-forward and what they wanted to do with the story, and I like the questions that they asked. Then from there, we just let them make a majority of the creative decisions, and I'm so proud of them. They did an amazing job.
It sounds like this has been a long-gestating series. Was there any new information that ended up coming out while this was taking shape, where you had to go back and tweak some things, or add things that weren't initially planned for?
MATNEY: That's a good question. By the time we were officially greenlit and the series was going, which was about a year ago, most of the facts of the story were already out there. Still, like today, one of Alex's accomplices is in state court. There are things like that that are still ongoing, but the main events that we focused on in the show happened years ago. So, not a lot changed.
Brittany, coming into this, how much awareness did you have of the case, and did you find yourself looking into it more once you knew you were playing Mandy, who very doggedly was investigating this in real time?
BRITTANY SNOW: Luckily for me, I am such a big true crime person. It's my favorite thing to dig into. And a lot of the time, I think to myself, “Wow, I'm listening to a lot of true crime podcasts. I hope this is not a waste of time.” And in this instance, for the first time ever, my hours and hours and hours of listening to Mandy's podcast years ago were not a waste of time. I actually was doing research before I even knew I was doing research, so I was very well aware of the case and of Mandy. I was going into my meeting with Erin Lee Carr and Michael D. Fuller with so much excitement and knowledge, because I had theories and I had reasons, and so it was really exciting to me to get to learn even more and do even more research once I got the role.
Mandy Matney Couldn't Believe Brittany Snow Was Playing Her in 'Murdaugh: Death in the Family'
"This is the best day ever!"
Brittany Snow in Murdaugh: Death in the Family Episode 7
Did the two of you connect early on, Mandy, so you could give her any insight?
MATNEY: We did that right away!
SNOW: Immediately.
MATNEY: I was a big fan of hers and literally squealed when I found out that there was a possibility of Brittany Snow playing me, and then you followed me on Instagram, and I was like, “Oh my God! This is the best day ever!” I really didn't believe Erin when she said that you were a fan of the podcast. Some people say that sometimes, and they're not, and you can tell when you talk to them. So, we chatted on Instagram and met up in Atlanta a few weeks later.
SNOW: I called you.
MATNEY: Oh yeah! You called me.
SNOW: We had, like, an hour-long conversation. I remember it was Valentine's Day. I had a Valentine's Day date, and I was like, “This stupid date! I need to talk to Mandy Matney.” So that's where my priorities were. And we just hit it off.
MATNEY: I could tell immediately that she knew the story. She wasn't one of those that’s, like, “Oh, I like your podcast,” and then, like, mispronounces things. You knew all of the people, all of the players, everything.
SNOW: And I had questions.
MATNEY: And details. You remembered everything. It was super impressive.
This is sort of a two-pronged Hunting Wives question about whether you've seen the SNL sketch already — I'm assuming it was probably sent to you countless times over — and if there's anything that you can tease about where Season 2 is at in development.
SNOW: So I got wind of the SNL sketch like an hour before it aired, and so I raced home and watched it live. That was a crazy moment. It was so great. And Chloe [Fineman] did me perfectly. We were all very, very excited. And then Season 2, we're starting to film in a couple of weeks.
Brittany Snow Explains Why She Didn't Have More Scenes With Her 'Murdaugh: Death in the Family' Castmates
"That's not the power that Mandy had…"
Brittany Snow in the Murdaugh: Death in the Family finale
In watching this, sometimes it feels like you're siloed off from the rest of the cast, and there were times where I was hoping to see you get a little bit more of a chance to really bounce off some of the central figures, but also, you want to keep this as accurate and true to life as possible. Brittany, did you ever find yourself having moments where you wished you had more of those opportunities to face off with Jason [Clarke] or Patricia [Arquette], or get more of those scenes, or were you content with how the storyline ended up playing out through the season?
SNOW: It was so important for this to be accurate, and I think a lot of times in movies and TV shows, it's good TV and not necessarily accurate for the reporter to have a big scene and throw elbows with the people. But that's not the power that Mandy had, like through force. It was through her intellect, and it was through her figuring out what really happened. So, I really liked that it was sort of seen like it was behind the scenes that she was siloed off, but really, that's where she did the most work, and that's what you see today in how it's portrayed. So, I appreciated the accuracy of that.
MATNEY: Agreed. That's reflective of reality. We've talked about this: a lot of times, Hollywood does not get the journalist’s storyline correct. Like you said, a scene with me and Alex would just be stupid and unnecessary. I was busy exposing him to millions of people; if I was going to yell at him, that wouldn't have helped anything at the time.
SNOW: And a lot of the drama that you went through that was seen and a little bit alluded to in the show is that she was dealing, also, with the fact of being ostracized by her bosses and people not taking her seriously on this job and where this story was going to lead. All of those intricacies woven into the story, I think, are just as important, because it really showed how much adversity she went through in order to get this story through and over the line.
