CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- As he prepares to dive into the first episode of HBO Max’s “The Staircase,” David Rudolf takes a deep breath.
The Charlotte-based criminal defense attorney is no stranger to seeing himself on a TV screen in a depiction of one of North Carolina’s longest and most high-profile murder trials ever, having been immortalized via his omnipresence in the 2004-French-miniseries-turned-2018-Netflix-sensation of the same name.
That, however, was a pure documentary. This new “Staircase” — the first three episodes of which are landing on HBO’s streaming service Thursday — is a much different beast.
It’s a highbrow scripted drama, with an A-list cast led by Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth as Michael Peterson, a novelist who the limited series hints might but also might not be guilty of killing his wife (you’re supposed to be guessing for eight episodes) at the bottom of a staircase in their Durham home.
It’s also got Oscar nominee Toni Collette as Kathleen Peterson. And it’s already garnering critical acclaim.
But it is also, to be clear, merely based on the true events encompassing the murky days before Kathleen’s 2001 death, the twisty months-long trial, and the incredible turns of events in the case over the 14-year period following the 2003 verdict that ruled Michael guilty.
Which is why, on this April afternoon, Rudolf is bracing himself.
Although he says he knows the show’s creator, Antonio Campos, the now-72-year-old lawyer also says he wasn’t asked for his input, and noted that Campos and co-showrunner Maggie Cohn “have been very tight-lipped about it.”
“I am,” he starts to say, then pauses for a full three seconds before continuing to speak, “apprehensive, but hopeful. I’m apprehensive about how they have portrayed the process, and I’m hopeful that they have portrayed it accurately.”
One hour and five minutes later, as the credits roll, the first words out of his mouth are: ““Well, that was interesting.”
Rudolf has been joining The Charlotte Observer on Zoom from his home in Toronto — where he splits time between Charlotte with his wife Sonya Pfeiffer (who covered the Peterson trial as a TV reporter and is now his wife, as well as a partner at his law firm) — to watch episodes of the show that have been provided by HBO in advance.
We would strongly recommend that you watch before proceeding; but if you’ve already done so, or don’t mind spoilers, here is a curated selection of Rudolf’s strongest reactions to key moments in Episodes 1 through 3.
What’s this about ‘spring break’?
In Episode 1: Michael, his brother Bill Peterson (Tim Guinee), and his sons Todd (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Clayton (Dane DeHaan) are discussing possible defense lawyers when Bill says, “What about ... the one you considered before Clayton went away for spring break?” He’s referring to David Rudolf, and Michael is initially dismissive: “He’s the kind of guy you get when you’re guilty.” Bill replies, “Well, he’s smart. He’s really smart. He’s not one of those good ol’ boys, like so many of the guys down here.”
Quick aside:This is the second cryptic mention of Clayton and spring break. It’s almost certainly nodding to the fact that in real life, Clayton Peterson was sent to prison for four years in the ’90s for planting a small bomb in a Duke University office, in what he has said was to create a diversion so he could steal equipment he planned to use to make a fake ID.
Rudolf reacts: “Actually, Michael had called me, and I met with Michael and Todd — and I think Kathleen. I think all three of them. And then Michael ended up not hiring me. But I think that’s what the allusion was to (when they said) ‘spring break’ — instead of saying, you know, ‘federal prison.’”
‘I don’t eat pastrami!’
In Episode 1: In a preliminary meeting, Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg) meets with Michael at a diner and asks him about his recollections of the night of Kathleen’s death, mentions how “sometimes good people get dragged into situations that turn out bad,” and provided a rough estimate of the costs of his services. Rudolf is shown using a knife to slather spicy brown mustard onto a pastrami and rye sandwich; after Michael and Bill leave, private investigator Ron Guerette (Robert Crayton) slides into the booth across the table from Rudolf so they can debrief.
Quick aside: In real life, the late Guerette was a gritty detective who was a key figure in “The Staircase” docuseries. He was also white, whereas the actor who plays him in the HBO series, Crayton, is Black.
Rudolf reacts: “Did I meet Michael in a diner the first time? No.” ... Also: “I don’t eat pastrami! I eat corned beef, but I don’t eat pastrami! (Laughing.) And by the way, I don’t think back in 2001 you could have gotten a pastrami sandwich anywhere in Durham, that I’m aware of.” ... Oh, and in regards to the casting of Guerette: “I don’t know where they came up with that. What, they couldn’t find like an Italian-looking older guy with silver hair? I mean, give me a break. ... It was jarring to me. In a sense, it skews the whole dynamic between us.”
Run, run Rudolf...
In Episode 1: Rudolf is heard yelling at his wife to “Get the phone!” and is then seen running on a treadmill while watching CNN as his wife — clearly irritated at him — tosses the phone down from a second-floor balcony onto a couch next to the treadmill. It’s Michael calling, saying he needs Rudolf’s help.
Quick aside: In real life, after the trial, Rudolf went through a divorce.
Rudolf reacts: “I don’t know where they got this, this big space where somebody calls down and I’m exercising — I mean, that was totally fiction. But does that bother me? No. If they got into more personal details, it would bother me. Especially since they didn’t ask anything about it. But no, they want to portray me as exercising, I guess that’s better than portraying me sitting around drinking beer and watching football, right?”
‘Why detract from the reality?’
In Episode 1: At the grand jury hearing, the D.A., Jim Hardin (Cullen Moss), looks over at Rudolf — who is on the other side of the courtroom — and explains to his assistant district attorney, Freda Black (Parker Posey), that Rudolf is a “high-priced lawyer from Chapel Hill by way of New York.” Hardin nods at Rudolf; Rudolf — who is standing with another key member of Michael’s new defense team, Tom Maher (Justice Leak) — then leans closer to Maher and mutters, in reference to Hardin: “What a (expletive) (expletive).”
Rudolf reacts: “I was not in the grand jury, because defense lawyers are not allowed in a grand jury room. ... Anybody who knows anything about the criminal justice system will look at that scene and say, ‘That’s (expletive).’ So, that’s just stupidity. ... It never happens anywhere. Anywhere! I’m not aware of any defense lawyer in any jurisdiction in the United States ever being present when a district attorney is presenting evidence to a grand jury. ... We don’t have a right to even go in afterwards and present evidence. Some screenwriter imagined that and put it in. Now, does it really matter to the story? I don’t think so. But why not get it right? Why detract from the reality of what actually happens?”
The autopsy photos
In Episode 1: Near the beginning of the episode, as officers continue to work the scene in the Peterson house in the early-morning hours after Kathleen’s body has been found, police detective Art Holland (Cory Scott Allen) steps outside to call Hardin and mentions that “there’s a lot of blood.” The D.A. asks, “How much blood?” Holland replies, “Like the woman’s head exploded.”
In the middle, medical examiner Deborah Radisch (Susan Pourfar) finds 35 cuts and bruises and seven deep lacerations to the scalp during her autopsy.
And near the end of the episode, Hardin and assistant district attorney Black sit down with Kathleen’s sisters Candace Zamperini (Rosemarie DeWitt) and Lori Campbell (Maria Dizzia), and Hardin says, “We have some photos we’d like to share.” Black adds: “They’re pretty shocking. You can say no, uh-uh. ... But we just feel y’all deserve the right to make that choice.”
They’re horrified at the sight of the autopsy photos, but even more so by what Hardin shows them next: pornographic photos of naked men that were retrieved from Michael’s computer. He then presents the theory that Kathleen found them and confronted him the night she died, after which Black says, in a soothing voice: “We’ve heard so many wonderful stories about your sister this past week. I just can’t imagine she would’ve accepted this in her home. In her marriage.”
Rudolf reacts: “I think they got a lot right about the tunnel vision that the police and the prosecutors had based on blood at the scene and nothing else. And how that tunnel vision then carried over to the medical examiner; and how the medical examiner’s tunnel vision carried over to the family; and how Candace and (Kathleen’s daughter) Caitlin and Lori ended up turning on Michael, even though from the very start not a single one of them thought that that was even a possibility.
“And that’s exactly, I think, why the D.A. brought them in there. You know, it’s portrayed as this kind thing. But it was totally to turn them around.”
‘People are gonna be like, Huh??’
In Episode 2: In the opening scenes, set in Paris in 2001, producer Denis Poncet (Frank Feys) and director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (Vincent Vermignon) consider the pros and cons of various legal cases as they work to find one around which they can build a documentary — one de Lestrade hopes will depict the complicated and flawed machinations of the American justice system.
Quick aside: These two went on to make “Soupçons,” which would be re-titled “The Staircase” for Netflix’s expanded series. In real life, de Lestrade is white, but as the HBO series’ filmmakers did with the role of Ron Guerette, they cast a Black actor to play de Lestrade. The choices wouldn’t be as head-scratching if such great pains hadn’t clearly been taken to strive for spot-on casting of other key roles.
Rudolf reacts: “People are gonna be like, ‘Huh??’ ... Maybe the reason they did that is to make people realize this is not a documentary. That this is not real. I don’t know. I need to ask Antonio about that at some point.”
‘That’s just not fair to him’
In Episode 3: Out of the blue, Freda Black gets a tip that Michael was associated with another woman who was found dead at the bottom of a staircase — 20 years earlier, when he and his first wife, Patty Peterson, were living in Germany. The dead woman was a neighbor. Rudolf is incredulous to learn about the wild coincidence, and is shown shouting at Michael: “You found another woman at the bottom of the stairs? What the (expletive), Mike? We’re four weeks out! How could you not tell me?”
Rudolf reacts: “I knew about Germany a year before the trial. I went to Germany. I spoke with the prosecutor in Germany. I visited the house. I spoke with the Army CID agent who went to the house in Germany. I got his report. ... To have it seem like Michael sprung this on me, that’s just not fair to him. ... I don’t mind if they take license with a fact and sort of blow it up. But to just totally make it seem as though Michael was withholding that from me — that’s just wrong.”
Did the filmmakers really do that?
In Episodes 2 and 3: In one of the first scenes that shows Michael being followed around and interviewed by de Lestrade and his film crew, Michael stands near the staircase talking about the last time he saw Kathleen alive. Prodded by Poncet, de Lestrade tells Michael to repeat what he said, but “with more emotion.” Michael barks a refusal, saying he’s “not going to prostrate myself for the sake of your film.”
Then in Episode 3, there’s a quick scene in which a camera operator harshly shushes Michael’s adopted daughter, Margaret Ratliff (Sophie Turner), as she arrives through the front door of the Peterson home, and later, another in which a camera operator brusquely nudges Michael’s other adopted daughter — Margaret’s sister, Martha Ratliff (Odessa Young) — out of the way as he hurries to join the rest of the crew for filming.
Rudolf reacts: “They never asked Mike to redo anything. That made it seem like they wanted to stage it. ... Now, I don’t know (what happened when) I wasn’t there. But never once when I was there, did they say, ‘Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, can you do that again?’” Asked whether he ever saw members of de Lestrade’s film crew behaving like that in real life, Rudolf says, simply: “No.”
The Petersons’ money problems
In Episodes 2 and 3: In Episode 2, after Michael makes bail, he climbs into the backseat of an SUV with Rudolf as they try to escape the media horde gathered outside the jail. Rudolf says to him, “We need to do forensic accounting. The D.A.’s gonna say you killed Kathleen because of your debt.”
In Episode 3, there are multiple flashbacks to when Kathleen is still alive in which finances are discussed. In one, Michael has a phone conversation with Patty (Trini Alvarado) — who still lives in Germany — in which he complains that both Todd and Clayton “need money.” Michael asks Patty, “Can you refinance the house?” “No, not again,” she replies. “The feds in Germany frown on that type of business.” Kathleen walks in on Michael, he mouths that “It’s Patty,” and then quietly gives a thumbs-up after Michael says he “can’t ask Kathleen for more help.” In a later scene, Kathleen expresses annoyance at both Michael and his sons during a discussion with Michael about the boys’ financial problems, though it ends when he seduces her.
Rudolf reacts: “Well, what it was, was Todd and/or Clayton had run up like a $60,000 Visa bill. ... And Kathleen wasn’t happy about that. But it wasn’t some huge financial burden. I mean, she had hundreds of thousands of dollars in a deferred salary account. She was making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. Michael had just gotten notice that one of his books had been optioned for a screenplay. So they tried to use that as a motive. They actually had an SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) agent come in and quote ‘analyze their finances.’ But we were able to cross-examine him to the point where they never even came back to suggest that in closing argument. But that was their initial theory.”
Starting to get personal
In Episodes 2 and 3: In Episode 2, Kathleen’s daughter, Caitlin Atwater (Olivia DeJonge), is uncomfortable from the start of an interview with TV journalist Sonya Pfeiffer (Teri Wyble) that appears to be taking place at Rudolf’s law offices. When Pfeiffer suddenly starts reading from a school paper in which Caitlin wrote about her affinity for Michael and his relationship with her mother, Caitlin gets even more uncomfortable. She asks how Pfeiffer got it, to which the reporter replies, “David — Mr. Rudolf gave it to me.” Caitlin, caught totally off-guard, says she has to use the restroom, goes out into the hallway, drops the lavalier mic on the floor and leaves.
In Episode 3, during a phone conversation between Michael and Rudolf, Michael half-jokingly suggests that Rudolf should spend less time working on his case and more time with his wife and kid. Rudolf replies that his soon-to-be-ex-wife is “not so crazy about me right now. ... I admire the relationship you and Kathleen had, where she let you be you. My wife and I are just not on the same page.” Later, in trying to convince Margaret to let Pfeiffer interview her and Martha about their adoptive father, Rudolf says “The reporter, Sonya Pfeiffer, is a friend. So, no curveballs.” A few scenes later, right before the interview begins, Pfeiffer smiles as she tries to reassure the nervous-looking sisters: “Don’t worry, David’s a friend. Swear I’ll make it painless.”
Quick aside: Including the Episode 1 treadmill scene, these are the show’s multiple nods to Rudolf’s real-life divorce from his first wife and his subsequent marriage to Pfeiffer. When his and Pfeiffer’s relationship came up in a 2018 interview with the Observer, he said: “We got to know each other in an interesting way. ... But I don’t think it’s terribly strange for two people, in that circumstance, to form a bond of some sort. And I was close with all the reporters.”
Rudolf reacts: “I never gave Caitlin’s term paper to a newspaper reporter. That just didn’t happen. As a matter of fact, I remember actually bringing it out for the first time at trial and showing her that, and she was shocked that I had it. So that whole scene ... I mean, I get the drama, but it’s just not real.” As for the HBO series starting to get into his personal life, he says, “I don’t know where that came from.”
Too soon for the blow poke
In Episodes 2 and 3: At the end of Episode 2, Candace, Lori and Caitlin sit together at Candace’s home, still looking shell-shocked, still grieving. Then, suddenly, Candace says, “Oh my God,” gets up and goes to the fireplace — which is roaring, indicating that it’s still wintertime, probably early in 2002. Candace grabs a fireplace tool and curses Michael as she uses it to repeatedly bludgeon a throw pillow. “That son of a (expletive) used the blow poke!” she exclaims, dramatically, right before the credits roll.
Then at the beginning of Episode 3, the D.A., Hardin, explains to de Lestrade in an interview that a blow poke like hers was given to Michael and Kathleen years ago, and that the gifted tool had gone missing. “We don’t believe it was randomly misplaced, Hardin says. The time stamp introducing that scene reads “March 2022: Four Months Since Kathleen’s Death.”
Quick aside: The trial started in July 2003.
Rudolf reacts: “Candace didn’t come up with that (revelation) until like two months before trial. I mean, it wasn’t way back. They were searching for the murder weapon for months and months and months.” As for the Hardin-de Lestrade interaction, he says: “The blow poke, that was never disclosed to Jean as a murder weapon. That’s just (expletive).”
Did Kathleen know Michael’s secret?
In Episodes 2 and 3: In Episode 2, during a meeting with Rudolf, Maher and Michael, in which they’re backgrounding Michael and Kathleen’s relationship, Guerette says, “I haven’t been able to find anyone that’s willing to say one bad thing about you two. Most folks were jealous.” Rudolf chimes in, smiling wryly: “Hate to think what my neighbors would say about me and the wife.” But then Maher says, “But we can’t find anyone willing to testify that Kathleen knew about your diverse interests.” To which Michael responds: “You talked to my friends about that?”
Then in Episode 3, as the D.A.’s team discusses Michael’s sexuality, Freda Black holds up a photo of Michael and Kathleen and suggests it could help their case if she gets up in court and says, “Do you really think that Kathleen Peterson ... knew her husband was talking about (expletive) this and (expletive) that. God knows what else.” In a later scene, Bill pulls Michael aside to ask his brother point-blank whether Kathleen knew, to which Michael defensively responds: “She knew. And she understood. To say otherwise, it’s just insulting to her.”
Rudolf reacts: “It’s true that no one we could find had anything bad to say about their relationship. They were all jealous. Overall, if you’re talking about the relationship — and Mike’s life, and Kathleen’s life — I think it was reasonably accurate. As far as I know.” As for the real-life Michael’s staunch assertion that Kathleen knew he was bisexual and that he engaged in sexual relationships with men: “I think that was one thing that I just was never certain that Michael was telling the truth about. Not because I thought he murdered her. But because I think he was embarrassed not to have told her. ... I’m a hundred percent convinced he didn’t murder her. But, you know, in terms of, did he tell her? Ahhhh, I’m not a hundred percent convinced that he did. I think that’s a jump ball.”
About that hooting sound...
In Episodes 2 and 3: In the second episode, Michael’s famously odd first wife, Patty, appears outside the Peterson home, having arrived from out of town. After offering a greeting, a feathered creature of some sort — an owl, maybe? — calls out from above, and Patty cranes her neck to look up into the tree she’s standing underneath.
Then in Episode 3, Kathleen arrives home and — as ominous strains of music play on the soundtrack — Kathleen looks up into the trees above the driveway and hears the sound of what sounds a lot like a hooting owl.
Quick aside: There is, as anyone who has followed the case in real life even somewhat closely knows, a theory that Kathleen died after being attacked by a barred owl. In 2018, Rudolf posted on his website his thoughts about “the owl theory,” closing the essay by writing: “As circumstantial evidence goes, it seems pretty persuasive and credible.”
Rudolf reacts: Of the bird sounds, he says, “That’s a little hokey, right?” But “I think we’re gonna hear more about the owl theory by the end of this. Because I think that’s sort of the ultimate mystery in this case, isn’t it?”
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