Parker Posey Said the Line ‘Gay Military Men’ Repeatedly to Get Into Character for ‘The Staircase’
variety.comSasha Urban editorHBO Max’s “The Staircase,” which concluded Thursday, has its share of revelations for longtime followers of the true crime case.
But even for viewers who watched every bit of the 2004 docuseries, one special line from the dramatized version undeniably stands out.
It’s Parker Posey, playing Durham, N.C. prosecutor Freda Black, quoting a line from accused killer, Michael Peterson: “I was in the Marines, like to fuck, suck and rim.”Although Posey grew up in Louisiana and Mississippi, her flawless execution of Black’s Southern drawl (most notable in the delivery of the line “pure-T filth”), was close to effortless — but not quite.
There was a phrase she repeated to herself each day on set before the cameras started rolling. “What would bring me into her voice was: ‘gay military men,’” Posey told Variety, perfectly re-creating her character’s delivery from the show.Posey is perhaps best known for her rolodex of performances in Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries — including “Waiting for Guffman,” which is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary — but none of those, nor any of her other performances, were cut from the same Southern cloth as Posey herself.
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