On this week’s Manhunt: Unabomber, we get the first look of Mark Duplass cast as David Kaczynski.
David ultimately was the reason the FBI was able to track down and capture his older brother Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber.
After reading the Unabomber’s Manifesto in 1996, David acted on his wife Linda’s intuition and sent a sample of his brother Ted’s writing to the FBI for a comparative analysis.
Interestingly, David got a call stating that the letter he submitted was not a match and Ted was not a suspect. This was short-lived thank to the nature of FBI profiler, Jim “Fitz” Fitzgerald, and the ongoing investigation that has been stalled.
Fitz now lives in Pennsylvania and works at the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. But he was still obsessed with the UNABOM case.
Quietly, Fitz had the writing samples the UTF received in the wake of the Manifesto’s publication sent to him surreptitiously.
Fitz found David Kaczynski’s submission that was cleared. At the risk of alienating his family and coworkers from his less than ethical protocol methods, he convinced David to give him all of Ted’s letters and writings for further analysis.
At the Television Critics Asociation, summer tour (TCA) Mark Duplass told how he drew on his relationship with his own brother when playing David.
He said: “For me, the great story was there. I just had to find the right color for it.
“I work very closely with my brother and have done so for the last 20 years. We are best friends, and we are soulmates. We make movies together, and we see each other all the time. I love him so much…and I want to beat the s*** out of him all the time.
“And when Greg [Yaitanes] called me and was, like, ‘Would you have any connection to playing the brother of the Unabomber?’ I was, like, ‘Yeah. My brother [Jay Duplass] and I, we spiritually and emotionally unabomb each other all the time. So I think I can get into this.”
Currently, the Duplass brothers have anthology series Room 104 on HBO.
Read our interview with the producers and cast of Manhunt: UNABOMBER
Manhunt: UNABOMBER, Episode 5 airs Tuesday, August 22 at 10 PM ET/PT on Discovery.