‘Manhunt’ Post-Mortem Interview with Damian O’Hare

Damian O’Hare as Detective Thomas Eckert in ‘Manhunt’. (Photo Courtesy of Apple.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Apple TV+ series, ‘Manhunt’.
 
After seven incredible weeks of storytelling, we finally have a complete understanding of what followed the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and what led to it, courtesy of the Apple TV+ series, Manhunt. And to properly send this series off the airwaves we here at NTG were able to speak with Actor Damian O’Hare, who played Detective Thomas Eckert on the series to discuss all things, Manhunt.
 
John Betancourt: I like to start by getting to know what was it that called to you about this particular project?
 
Damian O’Hare: Well, obviously, being a historical project, you know, that's a jumping off point. And as an actor, you get the material and you look around, you look at who's involved with it, and obviously, it was Apple, and there were some wonderful people involved and then I started reading about a bit around the time and the project and, the fact that it can't it came from Jim Swanson's amazing book, which I hadn’t read at the time. But I actually found out from a lot of friends that they had read it. And that had been, I think it was about maybe eight or nine years before our project sort of given to come into being. And I devoured it, you know, it read like a thriller, even though it's all historically accurate. And I'm a fan of history and historical pieces as well. So yeah, but I mean, you, you immediately just go off the source material. And it was fascinating. I thought, you know, ostensibly, to start off, and especially the first couple of episodes, it's a sort of linear thriller, you know, a cat and mouse chase, but what was wonderful to me was that Monica Beletsky, you know, the creator, married in the whole picture of the world around and what was actually going on at the time. So, it feels like a sort of a very rich sort of tapestry. And the fact that it was an ensemble piece, was just wonderful as well, you know, I got I got to work alongside such other great actors as well. And it was wonderful, and I got to ride a horse, and wear a big mustache and the top hat, you know, so what's not what's not like, you know?  I must have a very period face because I seem to do quite a lot of historical pieces. This, this one was a joy.
 
John Betancourt:  What was it about Detective Eckert that called to you as an actor as well.
 
Damian O’Hare: Yeah, well, it's great to be a darkly bit player, historical character, you know, so you've actually got something to go off, you know, so the it's not a completely clean slate, but actually saying that, in Swanson's book, he's only mentioned two or three times I think, maybe, you know, obviously, he was around a lot and a close confidant of (Edwin) Stanton. And (President Abraham) Lincoln as well, I’m actually thinking maybe, perhaps he was supposed to go to Ford's Theater with him that night. And he turned him down, maybe, I think, on the advice of Stanton, because he didn't want him to go. So, I think he told Eckert not entertain them thinking that maybe he wouldn't go if he didn't find a companion. But yeah, then there's, I mean, there's quite a lot of stuff around in Wikipedia about him. And actually, I live in Los Angeles. And so, the Huntington Museum actually has all his papers. His original, a lot of his letters and his, you know, correspondences from the Civil War, and afterwards as well, because he was actually quite a very, so he ended up being one of the first presidents of Western Union after he retired. Yeah, so he was quite a big historical figure, you know, so there was there was great stuff going on around that. And he was a family man, and he just seemed, what I got from, mostly it came from the script, and you know, and what Monica Beletsky did, which was wonderful, was actually give him a life as well, it would have been very easy for him just to be Stanton’s sort of right hand, man, you know, but there was a few points where he actually goes off and does his own sort of bit of investigation and as a character he has a wonderful arc and his own right, you know, so that was great.
 
John Betancourt: Was there any pressure that came about from playing an important historical figure?
 
Damian O’Hare: No, I don't think so. Because it's such a long time in history. I remember one time I was in a stage play in London and I played an artist called John Everett Millais, and he was a very famous painter in the Victorian time probably and his great, great grandson or grandson or something came to see me. And it was like, “oh,” but you know, if someone's so removed, it's not like playing someone who's, who's still living or maybe that everyone has an idea of how they look or how they should sound or something. So, it gives you a lot of sort of free reign, and I didn't think I was going to be offending any family members. But I got the moustache, right, that was a given. But no, there's no pressure. But I think the pressure just comes from, because it's such an incredibly definitive point of American history. The pressure came as jointly as a, you know, just to tell my part of the story as best I could and just to be an important part of that cog. And certainly, from what I've seen, I just caught up on the series last night, I watched the last three episodes and the most recent one last night. And I think it's… I think it's wonderful and telling that story so well, and not just the pursuit of Stanton against Booth, but what was going on at the time as well, you know, and under the fact that the Civil War just finished five days beforehand.
 
I mean, it was incredible, and what they were playing with and, and what was at stake, you know, it was just amazing. And the sort of the Lovie Simone storyline, the Mary Simms storyline, as well as what was happening with the slaves and the freed slaves. And the fact that I was just reading, you know, the population at the time of the US was 31 million. And when Lincoln gave the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, that ostensibly freed four million slaves, so, you know, one in under ten people, were enslaved, you know, the whole crash of reconstruction and everything. So, yeah, no, no pressure by playing accurate, per se, but just sort of it was just, it was wonderful to be a part of that, part of the whole group and tell him that story in the history of the time, you know.
 
John Betancourt: Well, the history is what makes this series so fascinating to me. I know in my coursework in school, we breezed through this and its relevance. In fact, I noticed there are some hard parallels in this story that relate to now, and with those in mind, I’m curious what you hope audiences take away from this series.
 
Damian O’Hare: Well, I mean, like, coming from Ireland, as well, you know, you might have noticed (Laughs) there's a lot of similarities you know, and the Civil War aspect, the thing literally pitted brother against brother and family against family, you know, and as a country, we think – I’m now speaking as an American, I live here. I've been here for 12-13 years, my daughter's American, I’m about to get American citizenship this year. But we think, you know, I've heard people say we're so divided as a country, and if you look at these times, it was incredibly divided, you know, and the fact that the Civil War had just happened like five days before Lincoln actually gets shot. And how intermingled these things were, I mean, Jefferson Davis himself was the Secretary of War, you know, the same position that Stanton held himself. So, there was so much cross pollination there. And, and the fact that it was a broken country, literally, these states has had seceded and everything after the election. And so, we haven't seen that yet here happen, and I hope to God we won't. But you know, we have been closer to the brink, let me say, that than we are at the present. But yeah, it's all about, it'll be interesting to see how the last episode goes over, you know, because, ya know, we have told this story of the cat and mouse chase, and it is sort of over in episode six, which is a fantastically brave thing I think Monica has done, as well, and it just said, you know, we weren't just going for this linear thriller type thing.
 
No, we have to see how… not quite resolved but the fallout of that, you know, because, you know, nothing's black and white, you know, and so nothing is resolved completely, you know, or to everyone's liking, but I guess how things settled down and what you actually have to forgive maybe, in order to, to keep things moving and to not to completely isolate people for the rest of history or generations and also because it's so intertwined and you know, and especially that episode when, you know, Stanton is trying to get a link to, to George Sanders and the money that, you know, that funneled this thing and Jefferson Davis and everything behind, and you know, who knows? And at what point you have to pull back and say, “Okay, well, you are,” as my father always says, “We are where we are.” But yeah, we're certainly not as, as divided as we were in these times, like, you know, but I don't know, maybe there are lessons. And certainly, there's a lot of echoes in our story, which bring themselves to the fore, you know, and what's the old adage about history? You know, if you don't learn to from it, you're doomed to repeat it, you know, so?
 
John Betancourt: I think you just hit it on the head about the marginalization. I think that's been a lot of what causes some of the polarization we have right now is that there's a chunk of Americans that feel that feels so misrepresented or feel that they're not heard. And that probably is a very good point that, you know, we should be listening a little bit more than we are with the screaming show we’re putting on now.
 
Damian O’Hare: Well, exactly, exactly. And it's very easy, I mean, as just as human beings, as opposed to try and scream louder than the other person. Whereas, you know, maybe, maybe, you know, listening and sort of like getting together, and again, in Ireland talking about that, you know, these things only happen when people get around the table with each other. And because at the end of the day, everyone wants to just live and be happy and bring their kids up you know, so. Yeah, I mean, all we could do was tell the story, and then let people take their own, what their own sort of stuff from it, you know,
 
John Betancourt: Obviously, I hear the passion you've voiced about the project and the importance of it. What did you enjoy the most about taking part in this?
 
Damian O’Hare: Well, I love… I’ve done a lot of period pieces before. And so, I love the sort of reading around it, and the and watching different things and reading different books, but also the people that were involved in, I mean, Carl Franklin directed the first two episodes. You know, he was just a joy to work with, like, you know, and he's got such a rich pedigree, and there's a lot of stories about him working with Denzel Washington. But just the care and the and the passion, like, you know, Carl’s in his 70s now, you know, but his passion for the project for telling the story was just amazing, you know, and then you know… we filmed in Savannah in Georgia, which had never been to before, which was just gorgeous. I loved it. And there's a hell of a lot. I mean, right opposite the hotel, I was sequestered. And for about six months, there was a Confederate statue still up in the park there, you know, so that history is quite sort of tangible.
 
So, you know, I remember one night actually, we were filming in a beautiful old town house, and there was a couple of us having dinner, but I think it was smoking a cigarette outside or something, there was a black couple sitting outside, we started talking about that history. And their daughter was an opera singer or something. And they followed her round the world, and she’d just been in the Royal Opera House in London or something like that. But she anyway, she was a tour guide. And because there was a lot of talk and about, you know, you're conflicted when you're not part of the world, about the different plantations and everything you wanted to go to. And I was thinking, you know, because you knew the glory and the splendor of these places, but you knew what they were built on the back of and stuff like that. And I remember her saying to me, like, you got to approach history, and there's no point trying to pretend this stuff didn't happen. You know, we got to talk about it. And we got to, we got to address it. And I just thought that was great.
 
So, everything literally down there was wonderful and fantastic. I got to ride horse, I'm working with Tobias (Menzies) whose brilliant as well. I mean, most of my scenes were with Tobias and I'd seen him... we met socially a couple of times years ago when I've seen him on stage. Back in the UK. I lived in London for 16 years. I saw him in a few great productions. I remember seeing him in King Lear, actually Pete Postlethwaite as King Lear. He did a great Edgar. So just to hang around with him for like, five, six months. And then Anthony Boyle is like a fellow city man of mine. He's a Belfast boy as well from Northern Ireland. So just brilliant. You know, just to hang around with those guys and meet Patton Oswalt as well. And Matt Walsh, who was wonderful and I’m fan of, and Lovie Simone was incredible. And I think the work she's doing is amazing. And you know, Betty Gabriel as well, I mean, it was just fantastic. So, the whole, the whole thing was great for yeah, for like six months. That was wonderful, you know?
 
John Betancourt: Last question I have for you today, now that the show is out, what does it mean to you for audiences to able to enjoy this in its entirety?
 
John Betancourt: It’s wonderful. Obviously, there's a slight delay because the SAG strike and everything last year, so I think it was initially meant to come out at some point last year, but I'm glad Apple had the faith in the project to sort of hold it back a bit. And I think that showed a lot of the faith they had, they didn't just want to drop it out, they wanted us to be able to publicize it and talk about it. And it's great that it's out there. And obviously, when you do something as an actor, a lot of your face has to has to be in the in the creative team, you know, and our DP was absolutely phenomenal. You know, the show looks so great. I think Monica has done an incredible job of painting that whole world, and it's such a massive sort of skate, you know, I'm really excited, and what I've seen, Apple sent me the first two episodes, it must be last year, so maybe a bit longer, and I couldn't wait to see the rest of it and how it went, you know, and I knew that it was going to be different. Because it shoots out sort of like a gun.
 
And you know, immediately, you think it's going to be this sort of thriller-chase type thing, but then it’s very, it's not afraid to embrace the sort of the cerebral and the sort of like the… what was going on with reconstruction at the time and it asks you as an audience member to actually pay attention, you know, there's not -- you can't be on your phone and sort of ignoring things, you have to actually engage a bit. And I love that. I love seeing that. And I'm glad there's still a space for sort of challenging television or, or like Oppenheimer coming out last year, you know, I'm glad that you know, people are still treating the audience with a modicum of intelligence as well, you know, because it's such a fascinating part of our history. And it needs to be explored and it needs to be explored in such a microscopic way I would say, as well, you know, as well as it being incredibly entertaining, which I think they've done a wonderful job of marrying both things together.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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