NPR’s Scott Simon speaks with Tobias Menzies, star of the Apple TV+ miniseries “Manhunt,” which relates the story of the pursuit of John Wilkes Booth after President Abe Lincoln’s assassination.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
One night toward the end of the U.S. Civil War, an off-duty security agent falls into conversation at a bar with what we now call a B-list actor who always plays supporting roles.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “MANHUNT”)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) I think you’d be much more famous, like your brother or your pa, if you played the heroes. Why don’t you?
ANTHONY BOYLE: (As John Wilkes Booth) You know, tomorrow, I’m going to be more famous than anyone in my family.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Yeah?
BOYLE: (As John Wilkes Booth) I’m going to be the most famous man in the whole world.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Really? What show you in?
BOYLE: (As John Wilkes Booth) “Our American Cousin.”
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Why I ain’t seen you on stage?
BOYLE: (As John Wilkes Booth) I haven’t made my entrance yet.
SIMON: Anthony Boyle is John Wilkes Booth in the new Apple TV+ miniseries, “Manhunt,” about the search to find Abraham Lincoln’s assassin in 1865. It’s adapted from James Swanson’s book of the same name. And the story is mostly told through the eyes of Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s friend and secretary of war. Carl Franklin directs.
Edwin Stanton is portrayed by yet another British actor playing in American role. Tobias Menzies, who played Prince Philip in “The Crown” and Brutus in HBO’s “Rome,” joins us now from New York. Mr. Menzies, thanks so much for being with us.
TOBIAS MENZIES: It’s great to be with you.
SIMON: Does Stanton, who loves Lincoln, feel that somehow he failed his friend?
MENZIES: That’s certainly the story we tell – that, yeah, he does feel some guilt. I would put it like this, that he, having navigated the Civil War together, which has finished only days earlier, Lincoln wants to go…
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