Why Staircase Subject Michael Peterson Is Furious Over HBO’s Series
Michael Peterson, whose life story serves as the inspiration for HBO's The Staircase, is upset at the series' portrayal of events, saying it goes beyond artistic license. The miniseries shares the same name as Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's documentary that brought Peterson's case to national attention and became a staple of the true-crime genre. The miniseries stars Colin Firth, Toni Colette, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sophie Turner, and Juliette Binoche.
The Staircase follows Peterson's legal battle after he's accused of murdering his wife Kathleen in 2001, as well as the making of de Lestrade's documentary. Peterson was convicted in 2003 and served eight years before submitting an Alford plea reducing the charge to manslaughter in 2017. The Staircasehas already been criticized by de Lestrade and editor Sophie Brunet for their depictions, leading HBO to put a disclaimer at the top of every episode saying the series is a dramatization.
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In an email exchange with Variety, Peterson blasts the series for its dramatization, but reserves his heaviest criticism for de Lestrade, saying he sold all the footage he shot for the documentary to Antonio Campos (director of HBO's Staircase) without his permission. He claims that Campos' account distorts the truth and trashes him and his children in a way that goes beyond the artistic license. He specifically says the scenes that depict the family's infighting during the legal battle never happened at all. Read an excerpt from Peterson below:
It is disingenuous and hypocritical for Jean to talk about his integrity being challenged when he sold himself to Campos, and showed no integrity or sense of responsibility to us. He is
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