FX's new series 'Trust' revisits the Getty kidnapping
Shortly after a movie dramatized a famous kidnapping, television is taking its turn.
Premiering Sunday, March 25, FX's limited series “Trust” reunites two “Slumdog Millionaire” Oscar winners - director Danny Boyle and writer Simon Beaufoy - to re-create the 1973 Rome abduction of John Paul Getty III (played by Harris Dickinson), heir to the oil-family dynasty's fortune. If his relatives were divided to begin with, their takes on dealing with the crisis only deepened those differences.
Two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank portrays the victim's mother Gail, who plans a rescue strategy with the unconventional investigator (Brendan Fraser) for young Getty's same-named, vastly wealthy grandfather (recent honorary Oscar recipient Donald Sutherland) ... who refuses to pay the ransom. Michael Esper appears as the boy's father, panicked over his son's plight.
Executive producer Boyle directed the first three of the 10 “Trust” episodes, and he says, “The proudest thing for me was casting these actors - not just the American and English actors, but the Italian actors as well. I found that process really wonderful. One of the highlights of my career has been this huge cast, gathering and bringing them together. You respond to actors' ideas, and that's a very important thing, especially in this form of storytelling.”
Sutherland certainly had his ideas about playing the senior Getty, work he completed before Christopher Plummer was brought in at the eleventh hour to play the same role - for which he was Oscar-nominated - replacing Kevin Spacey in scenes reshot for the similarly themed film “All the Money in the World.”
“Christopher is wonderful, but he's a couple of years older than I am, so he has more experience,” jokes Sutherland. “I require the research, but I have to be truthful. I was gifted with a script by Simon Beaufoy that was absolutely exquisite and brilliant, that went into my gut and just blossomed from there, so that the character lived. (FX chief) John Landgraf asked me what it felt like to be absorbed by Getty, and I said, 'No, no. Getty came in and absorbed me. I didn't absorb him.'”
Swank was aware of such related ventures as the Getty Museum and the Getty Images photo service, but adds, “I didn't know a whole lot about the Getty family. My research began, really, when I got a call from Danny. I was working on this very low-budget film in Chicago, and Danny called me up and said, 'I have something I'd love to collaborate with you on. Simon wrote it.' And I said, 'OK. I'm in.' And he said, 'Well, you want to know more?' I was like, 'Yes, but I'm in.'”
“Trust”
Premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday, March 25, on FX