There’s no shortage of films about serial killer Ted Bundy – but this feminist filmmaker wanted to tell a different story: how pathetic he really was.
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00:00As a woman, and as a filmmaker, I was really interested in, like,
00:05okay, so why are we as a society fascinated by these people
00:10that do such horrible things to women's bodies?
00:17And I felt like I wanted to portray Bundy as I really thought he was,
00:22which was, like I said, a deeply insecure, narcissistic person.
00:26Do you think you could kill somebody?
00:30I think you could.
00:33Well, I'm an FBI agent.
00:35I just was sort of projecting the, like, portrayal of him as this model,
00:40charismatic, you know, constantly charming guy.
00:43That's just not who I thought he was.
00:51I haven't seen every Bundy movie.
00:53You know, there are quite a lot of them, but I had seen most of them,
00:57and I felt like a lot of them really mythologized him in a way
01:02that I was very uncomfortable with.
01:04I felt like there was a lot of making him out to be this, like,
01:08model, rock star, you know, so intelligent, so charismatic.
01:12And when I looked at the real interviews of him, you know,
01:15the actual news footage, videos, and when I listened to the audio recordings,
01:21I really saw a guy who was really insecure, deeply narcissistic,
01:26very desperate to be liked, to be the center of attention,
01:29to have everyone, you know, feel like he was so smart and so interesting.
01:33And, you know, but when I looked at him, I didn't see.
01:35I mean, he's sure he's fine.
01:37He's smart enough, but he's not a genius.
01:39Could you kill somebody?
02:06Yeah, I could.
02:09Well, I could get away with it, too.
02:12I felt like we know a lot about Bundy.
02:15People have looked into his psychology, his childhood,
02:18talked to people who knew him, but we hadn't ever seen this story of Bill,
02:21you know, really learning about who Bill was.
02:23And it was a perspective on Bundy and his relationship with Bill
02:27that I hadn't seen before.
02:29And I, you know, I also, you know, I had the thought where I was like,
02:33oh God, you know, another Bundy movie.
02:35Does the world really need another Bundy movie?
02:37And then when I read it, I felt like I had a perspective,
02:41you know, I had a take on it.
02:50And so it was that perspective that I really wanted to bring to the script,
02:53like this other layer of like me as a woman, me as a feminist filmmaker,
02:58like there's an angle here that I can add.
03:02And so that was just always important to me, you know,
03:05was kind of bringing in the female voice a little bit.
03:12We're all always fascinated with our own humanity, you know, our own mortality.
03:18And I also think that particularly with Bundy, you know,
03:21the fascination with him, it's complicated compared to other serial killers.
03:26Bundy was really like a master of disguise, you know?
03:30I mean, he, again, not to say, I don't think he's smart,
03:32but he appeared like a normal looking guy.
03:35You know, some of the, you know, Ramirez, you know,
03:39was definitely kind of creepy looking, right?
03:43Whereas if you looked at Bundy, he just looked like an average Joe,
03:46you know, a moderately attractive average Joe.
03:49And I think because he was able to pull off this normal life,
03:52you know, have girlfriends or jobs or go to law school or whatever,
03:58that people became fascinated with that concept of like,
04:02oh, he's just a normal guy.
04:04He's just like one of us, you know, could be my friend or my neighbor.
04:12You know, I mean, there's certain gruesome things that you hear,
04:15you know, that don't really warrant repeating,
04:18because I just think it doesn't help anyone to hear that stuff.
04:22I really don't think there's much more to learn about Bundy,
04:24you know, other than, like I said,
04:27that I don't think he had been portrayed
04:30as the insecure kind of pathetic person that he is.