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Killer Thriller: Skeet Ulrich Played Elizabeth Smart’s Captor, Then Met Her Face to Face · Legally Brunette

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Amy Roboc and TJ. Holmes present Killer Thriller with your
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: host Elisa Donovan. Hey, everybody, Elisa Donovan here and welcome
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to Killer Thriller. Today, we are talking about one of
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the most horrifying abduction cases in modern American history, the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in June of two thousand and two.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth was just fourteen years old when she was taken
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: at knife point from her bedroom in Salt Lake City
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the night. What followed was a
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: nine month nightmare of captivity, abuse, public sightings, missed clues,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and a country desperately hoping she would be found alive. Then,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: in March of two thousand and three, Elizabeth was finally
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: rescued on a street in Utah with the people who
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: had abducted her. The lifetime film I Am Elizabeth Smart
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: tells that story in a deeply personal way, with Elizabeth
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: herself serving as narrator, refusing to let the audience look
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: away or distance themselves from what she endured. And my
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: guest today is Skeet Ulrich, who plays her captor, Brian
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: David Mitchell, a role that is chilling, unsettling, and incredibly
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: hard to shake. Skeet, Welcome to Killer Thriller. Thank you
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: so much for being here.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I am so overwhelmed by this movie. I had not
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: seen it before, and I obviously was familiar with Elizabeth
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Smart's case, and it's first of all, it's really stunning
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: and your work in it is phenomenal. And you know,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: this case is so horrifying from the start that it's
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a fourteen year old girl taken from her bed in
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the middle of the night, and you know this or
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: her sister witnessing it. What for you, what was the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: first facts of the crime that really just stunned you
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: or sat with you?
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I mean, you know, years ago when
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: it happened, I remember being pretty riveted by it. It's
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: it's you know, And as I got more familiar with
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: it and started, you know, preparing for it, it just
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: was so audacious. I couldn't couldn't believe it, and couldn't
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: fathom so much of what was going on that would
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: lead somebody to do such a thing. So, you know,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: it was something a puzzle that I needed to unlock
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: obviously to play him. But it took about two weeks
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: for me to agree to do the to do the
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: movie because I couldn't. I couldn't find why I should
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: play such a heinous human being. But then it sort
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: of came to me as I was mulling it over
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: that you know, I think it does a really good job,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: not you know, not to remove her story from a
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: you know, a retelling of it, but I thought it
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: did a really good job at showing the two sides
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: of religion. You know, that he used it for salvation
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: and it worked, and he maligned it to use it
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: for his pedophilia. And I thought the evil and the
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: good side of religion were right there butting heads with
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: each other, and that I could get behind playing the
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: negative aspect of that for a more you know, for
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: a bigger picture, right, So, you know, I but yeah,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: the you know, the initial mindset behind it was really daunting.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: You know, it's it's a disgusting case. He's a disgusting person, obviously.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: You know. She came to set.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so tell me about that, did you?
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: So?
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Had you spoken to her before that? You met her
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: on set the first time.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: I had not spoken to her before, and we were,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: I want to say, a couple of weeks into filming
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: when she came, and the plan was because I was,
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: you know, I was wearing the beard and the wig
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: and all that stuff, was to meet her before I
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: got into into hair and makeup, which didn't happen. And
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: then all of a sudden, she walked in the hair
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: and makeup trailer and I was in there as Brian,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: and I was like, you know, and she just like
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: it was almost like her heart stopped and you know,
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: and then we had a very nice conversation, you know
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: about you know, not really details or anything, but just
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: about like, you know, how I really hoped to represent,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: you know, something that that felt right to her. And
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: you know, she came down to set that day and
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: we were shooting some of the encampment scenes, you know,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: where he's got her chained up and he's you know,
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: used a five gallon bucket as her seat and would
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: force her to sit there. And she came on and
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: was like you know, and the director asked her, like,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: you know, so is this pretty accurate to that day
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: and what happened? And she was like, well, I sat
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: over here, and she picked up the bucket and put
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: it down and sat on it, like I just to
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: this I mean I just was a wash with tears,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: like you know, it just made it so.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Real.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: She's an extraordinary human.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: She really is.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: I watched her the Netflix documentary recently, and yeah, she's
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: she's pretty incredible to say the least. But but yeah,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: it was it was quite the journey, and you know,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: it was there was a lot to it. I mean,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: I had his five hundred page psyche valve for the
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: five years that he was incarcerated before they brought him
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: to trial, when they were trying to decide whether he
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: was sane or insane and how to try him, and
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: ultimately they decided he was sane, which was you know,
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: based on the psyche val He like the moment he
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: got incarcerated, he dropped the religious act like instantly, and
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: like people would ask him, he's like, I don't know,
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: like you know, and I mean it was a costume
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: he put on to live his pedophilia, and it was
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: so dark and unpalatable. Yeah, and so you know, in
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: preparing to play him, you know, obviously when you play
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: somebody real, you start to analyze, you know, sounding like them,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: looking like them. But I really, you know, felt like
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: he wasn't someone who was in the zeitgeist that I
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: didn't need to match his voice his physicality per se,
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: which was unknown. And I also didn't want to to
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: make his ego grow because somebody, you know, so I
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: really like, look, I'm It took a few days, but
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: I was like, I'm not gonna I'm not going to
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: mimic him. You know, I will find the energy of
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: what it was, which was, you know, this narcissist and
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: degree and play with that. And I, you know, it
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: was a challenge because I don't know what they you know,
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: but I carried about eighty percent of the dialogue and
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: to play a bad guy having to carry most of
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: the dialogue, you.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Know, there needs to be.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Not something that sort of an audience can go, oh,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: I I relate to that, I know that, but like
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: something entertaining, right, So I decided on this sort of
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Mick Jagger rock star sort of physicality that like gave
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: him this narcissistic air that he in his mine was
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: was Mick Jagger. He was a rock star known by
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: the world. Yes, and he acted that way.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: And Elizabeth talked about I've heard her speaking maybe she
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: says this in the documentary. I'm not sure that she
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: couldn't decide whether it was worse the physical abuse and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the consistent, constant rape or having to listen to him
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: talk that he was so inflated and had this sense
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: of himself that was just like relentless, you know, like
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: a different sort of torture.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean that's that's a yeah.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: So, I mean both sides were just so ugly.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Was there a a lot of conversation on set
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: about how to depict the violence responsibly, especially knowing that
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Elizabeth was only fourteen when this happened. That's complicated.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, yeah, there was.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: And you know, we shot the when he first the
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: NIGHTI kidnaps or he go takes her into the tent
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: to wed her so he can start.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: You know, his Yeah, and so.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: We got to that scene, which we shot on a
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: sound stage and crew members were leaving you know after
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: like they were just like torn up and like and so, yeah,
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: there was a lot of discussion about how to Obviously
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: it was you know, it was a lifetime movie. It
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: was something that fortunately couldn't get too yeah or explicit,
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: and you know, we had that parameter which saved a lot,
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: but it was it was hard it was hard to do.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: And my daughter at the time, I believe was like
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: fourteen or fifteen, like she was young, and she came
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: to set. She came up to Vancouver while we were
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: outside of Vancouver and Alberta, but she you know, she
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: or not not Alberta, but anyway in BC.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she came up.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: It was during the summer and spent like a week
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: with me. And but you know, there's a way to that.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: There's a way that I work and approach things that
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: like I didn't I didn't have to experience what his
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: mind was like. I just had to understand the actions
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: behind it and relate those personally to me. So you know,
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: when that let's take that for example, that first instance
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: of in the tent when he's wetting her and then
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: instructing her or sexually, you know, to me, it was
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: like teaching a child a lesson. And you know, at
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: the time, my son was not doing so well in school,
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: so to me, that scene was like telling him you
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: have to get good grades, like you can't just doing this.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: And then I just replaced the dialogue with get on
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: your knees, right, you know, and that was.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Sort of fun.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I just got like yeah, but I.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Didn't have to think like, oh, you know, what is
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: it like to like right right? And otherwise I think
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: I would have gone fricking crazy.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's what I was going to ask later,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: like what was the uh was it? Was it harder
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: actually shooting it or or having like did things stay
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: with you afterwards?
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: You know, It's it's rare in a in a in
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: my career anyway for things to stay with me just
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: from the approach. But in that instance, there was a
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: We had done all the like encampment stuff, and then
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: we had a little break and I got to come
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: home for a couple of days, and I had this
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: dream that I had a hair in my mouth, and
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: I started pulling the hair out, which became two hairs,
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: which became five, which became ten, which became you know,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: this band of hair, and it stopped at the end,
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: and I yanked it out, and it was that rope
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: necklace that he held that he wore that had the
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: key on it, and at the bottom was this pulsing
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: black heart.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Holy.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: I was terrified, But then I also sort of came
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: to the conclusion that that was me releasing him, you.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Know, yeah, yeah.
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Out of that constant sort of evaluation of this monster.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I use dreams in my work all the time, and
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Carl Jung and just so it's a really verdant it's
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: a very rich way to you know, to work to end.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't intentional, It just sort of happened.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: So, I mean, I guess to your question like, yeah,
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, I guess it did affect me in a
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: deeper way than other things had. And and you know,
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: it was kind of odd to say it's something that
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: you know, we all wound up very proud of. But
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: you know, yeah, I think we're just living up to
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: telling her story and hoping that in some way that
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: can illuminate something in the future that people would you know,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: be able to avoid.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, she I've also heard her say that, you know,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: the reason she's done these things is that affecting change
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: and impacting what happens going forward is easier to do
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and more powerful through stories than it is just giving statistics,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: you know, like giving numbers or this type of person
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: has this sort of behavior, you know, like actually through
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: story is a really powerful way for people to understand things.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think that's that's you know, the
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: crux of what we do, you know, is to is
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: to not stand on a soapbox, but to but to
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: show human behavior in a way that can illuminate for
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: somebody that isn't even expecting to be illuminated by you know,
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: a movie or whatever it is, a song, you know. Yeah,
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: so yeah, I'm right there with you.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: So one of the uh, I mean, there are so
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: many levels to this that are chilling and disturbing. But
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: one of the things that I was so struck by,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: what is so frustrating, is that there were so many
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: things along the way where she could have been caught
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: and saved that they had, you know, that she was
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: seen in public more than once with them, that that
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: homicide detective approaching her in the library. I mean, did
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: all those details so that is a scene that is
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: in the film as well. Did that detail haunt you? Like,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: I'm like, how Yeah.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: I mean, even watching the documentary with my girlfriend, she
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: was like, why didn't she say something?
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Why didn't she say something? You know?
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: And I think that's a question that she probably gets
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: asked at nauseam. But I understand, you know, from what
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: I've heard her say, and I think she even mentioned
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: it in the documentary, Like you know, they said they
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: would kill her family if she spoke out, and so
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: whether she got away or not, she was worried about,
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: you know, her sister, mom or dad and so you know,
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: and also this is a fourteen year old girl, right,
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: so you know, this isn't a twenty four or a
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: thirty four year old. This is a very very young girl.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: And yeah, you know, it was it was frustrating to
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: watching the documentary and the and the making of our store,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: our part of it, Like you know, it was it
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: was odd to reconciles, impossible to reconcile. But yeah, there
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: were so many close calls and so many times that
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: you know, you just thought, this.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Is it, this is it right right, she's free. But yeah, oh.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I am. I didn't know about your
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: personal history with your father, and but when I knew
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: we were going to talk, I read things and in
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: my research and I was really obviously moved and struck
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: by that. If you don't mind, can we discuss that
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: for a minute, just in terms of how your father,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: when you were six, kidnapped you and your brother for
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: several years and traveled around and how what impact did
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: that have on your decision to take this role, and
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: how did that work for you while you were actually
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: shooting it.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's always something that's just you
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: know that I'm always really trying to work through and
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: get over because of the sense you know, yeah, he
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: took us, but he was never around us. You know,
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: they would he was married, and we'd either be with
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: her and you know, and he was gone to work
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: before we got up and back after we went to
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: sleep most nights of the week, and she hated us,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: and you know, and and there were times we were
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: left with other families, and you know, it was it
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: certainly caused a lot of abandonment issues that I you know,
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: continued to work through. But in terms of this work,
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, in a way like I wound
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: up raising my kids pretty much on my own and
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: fully on my own at a certain point, and I
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: never wanted them to feel unwanted for a second. And
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: so it it was, you know, something that I just
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: you know, I don't even have to think about it
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: per se. It's just it's inside me, and it's a
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: part of me, you know. I think it, you know,
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: lends to some vulnerability and some you know, some difficult things,
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: but in reverse in this situation, you know, it's I
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: had to sort of switch to being his side of
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: the story and I and by his I mean my
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: dad's side of the story. I had to you know,
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: sort of internalize that a little more.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: So.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, you know, it definitely is is sort of
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: built into everything, whether I want or not.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I mean it probably gives you a deeper
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: in this particular case, like a deeper understanding of what
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: that is like to be you know, your sense of
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: safety to be shattered and that kind of that kind
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: of thing.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it made her side of
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: the story very relatable, but not nearly as dark obviously.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, right, I wasn't going through.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Anything like she went through, other than I was with
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: strangers for a while.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: One of one of the most extraordinary things about this
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: movie is how she Elizabeth narrates it and there is
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's very uh, I don't even know what
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: the word I'm looking for, but it's it's so powerful
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: that she is directly addressing the audience, and particularly at
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: moments when something is you don't as an audience member,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: you don't want to see it. And then she comes
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: on and is like you don't want to see that, right,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: and there I just like I get chills thinking about it.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Did did that change how you approached the role or anything?
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Like did that impact you while you were shooting at all?
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Or no?
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: I mean it was something they shot at the very end,
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: and so it wasn't you know, there weren't you know.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Spots of days carved out to do you know this
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: or that with her?
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: So you know, I was pretty focused on.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: My part of it, and.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: It is a very jarring, you know, part of the
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: story when suddenly she's right there and you're right looking
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: right in your eyes and tell you know her story
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: a bit. But you know that was something that was scripted,
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: and I, you know, I knew it existed. I think
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: if anything, you start to think of it, like how
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: to how is the moment before she speaks? How can
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: I tee her up to her for that to be
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: more impactful with her about her having to do anything?
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: Right, So you kind of view it as almost like
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: the cliffhangers before commercial breaks or something like that. Not
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: get any experience by that rather statement, but like you know,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: but yeah, you sort of are looking.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: To set her up for that.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah work.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: That was really the only consideration I had about that segment,
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: but in watching it, Yeah, it's really heartbreaking.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Again, she's h extraordinary. I mean, we wind up talking
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: a lot on this or I do. I guess about
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: how you know when your call to sort of answer
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: the call of your life, whether it's what you're looking
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: for or not, or what you had hoped it to
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: be or not. And so many of these stories are
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: situations that are utterly unimaginable and one would never choose.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: But I'm so moved by these people, women, many of them,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: most of them who decide this happened to me, and
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to sleep about it, like really actually
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: choosing to to bring some good to have it, make
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: it have meaning. You know, it's an incredible it's really.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she's a remarkable human being who you know, likely
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: would have been remarkable regardless of this happening, you know.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: So you know, I think too know what she went
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: through and still see this vibrancy and presence that you
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: know in this this you know, consideration she has for
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: others who may wind up in her situation, you know,
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: who have been harmed and even the tenth of what
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: she's gone through just as a I see you, I
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: feel you.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: You know, you will get through this. It's it's it's remarkable.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she's an incredible human being.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: So one of the other aspects of this is that
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: they credit Elizabeth's sister and her memory of the recognition
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: of the voice as a as a key component in
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: starting the process of actually finding this man.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, she I remember correctly, had had recognized the voice
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: and remembered, oh, it was the guy who came to
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: work at the house, right, you know, they had her
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: mom had hired him to come work on the roof,
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: and obviously that's when he sort of started making plans.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: But yeah, and that also just shows the premeditated you know,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I'm I can't imagine what that would be like going
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: through the years that she was waiting for this, for
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the trial to come like that. The amount of years
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: that that went on is just like I can't even remarkable.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, they ultimately found that he was sane, and
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: you know, and that's great. You know, I hope he
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: got has come up in prison like most pedaphs I
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: hear do.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: So I hope so too.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, looking.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Back on it, now, what do you think stays with
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: you the most about the case itself but also your
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: shooting of the movie.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: The case I think is you know, sort of something
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: that should be revisited on a yearly basis and in
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: terms of helping young girls overcome some of the you know,
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: the atrocities that they that are put upon them. Wouldn't
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: say it's a cautionary tale. I think it's more a
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: you know, because there's no way to sort of know
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: if it's going to happen to somebody. And you know,
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: surely there are people who are in situations where there's
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: more of a risk than others. But when you look
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: at her, like you would have thought, there's no way
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: this girl was at.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Risk, you know, right.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: And the fact that they because they were loving, kind
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: people trying to help this man and give him some work.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: It's just like it's devastating on so many levels, it
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: really is.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: I mean, I you know, the filming side of it, Like,
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: you know, I remember things like, you know, my daughter
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: and I listening to music and my trailer and you know,
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: me dancing to like you know, some sublime or something
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: to just get loose. You know, going to play him,
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: and and somebody got a picture of my daughter and
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: I holding hands walking to set. You know, I remember that,
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: I remember, you know there he used to sing as
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: he would come back to the encampment, and as it
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: was written in the script, they had selected one piece
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: of a song that just got repeated and repeat.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: It was just the same thing.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: So every time he came back, and I was and
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: I said to our team, our director and everything, like,
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: you know, I want to mix it up, like you know,
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: but they were like, well, that's the only one we
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: have rights to. And I was like, what if I
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: just ad lib something, you know instead, because really what
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: he's doing is announcing his presence, you know, as he's
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: as he's coming closer.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: To the camp. And I didn't really prethink that much.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: But when they agreed to it, when she agreed to it,
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: the director, I was like, what am I.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Going to say?
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: And because I was sort of so caught up in
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: all of it, I came up with what is in there?
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: Which is I am a lightning bolt sent from the Lord.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: I am the rain, I am the thunder. And I
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: don't know why it came to me.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: You so, you that was an ad lib.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, so I remember that.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: I remember you know that being sort of like, oh yeah,
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: that was really that worked. Wow.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Well, it is very chilling the movie. Your work is
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: wonderful in it, as is everyone else. The young actress
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: who plays Elizabeth is spectacular, as is your wife in
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: the movie.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was difficult.
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, the fortunate side is I believe
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: Alan it was like nineteen or twenty at the time,
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: or twenty one, twenty two, and she was, you know,
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: and I think they had toyed with the idea of
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: you know, it being someone underage, but you know, I.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: Think that would have been really, really difficult.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: I think it's very wise they did not do that.
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that would have really Yeah, hit too
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: close to home for everybody.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: So yeah, as are.
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: To go, oh okay, she's not fourteen, thank god, you know,
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: and to be able.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Right they can, we can great story. Yeah yeah, and
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: just for the actress herself to not if you're that young,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: you can't process what's really happening at that age.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Well, I you're a dream. You're so lovely and I
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: really appreciate your time and your heart and being so
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: open about everything.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you. I don't.
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: I rarely do podcasts because I came through this business
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: at an age when you would turn down talk shows
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: because you didn't want the audience to know anything about
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: you and to go in and experience the movie or
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: the character or whatever and not have these decisions made
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: ahead of time about oh yeah.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: Actually is like this or that or whatever.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: And podcast is sort of a very long, like you
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: mentioned earlier, long form version of that.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: That I'm always resident to like dive into.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: But this was such a you know, a important subject matter,
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: and you know, I think so important to illuminate her
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: as much as we possibly can, just so yes, somebody
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: is going through something they can feel the bravery to
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: step up and say something to somebody that may help
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: prevent it from happening.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I agree, So thank you, Yeah, thank.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: You for doing that, and thanks for you know, looking
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: at this one. Obviously I've done other killers and other thrillers,
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: but I think, right, you know, very important and continues
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: to be important.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, Thank you.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Well, I am Elizabeth Smart is available to stream now,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and thank you again so much, Skeet. It was really
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: a pleasure.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Thank you