Don’t bother asking “Mindhunter” actor Sonny Valicenti for Season 2 spoilers. “I actually don’t know what happens this season,” said the Barrington native, “I haven’t watched it yet.”
The popular Netflix series revolves around the 1970s creation of the FBI’s burgeoning Behavioral Sciences Unit, whose members came up with psychological profiles of suspects by studying serial killers locked up for similar crimes. Think Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter in “Silence of the Lambs.”
Valicenti, 33, plays a mysterious Kansas ADT serviceman who, initially unbeknownst to viewers, is Dennis Rader, aka the real-life BTK (bond, torture, kill) Strangler. Rader was eventually convicted of murdering 10 people between 1974-1991, but wasn’t arrested until 2005.
“Sonny was the perfect choice to play Dennis Rader,” said Laray Mayfield, casting director for “Mindhunter.” “We needed an actor who appeared to be the average guy next door, but slowly revealed himself to the audience as BTK. Sonny pulls this off in a chilling way.”
Like the first season, the second shows us only brief glimpses of BTK in Kansas, often at the beginning of each episode. Instead, it mostly focuses on Atlanta’s unsettling child murders between 1979-1981. The FBI team takes a back seat to the children’s surviving family members, who organized searches and marched to bring attention to the cases.
The series follows the profilers as they methodically interview and gather data on imprisoned “sequential” murderers to catch active ones, so the dialogue far outweighs any violence. “Mindhunter” is the most compelling interview show on TV; you won’t find any cheesy re-enactments here. Even though viewers can read up on or Google each case, the show’s suspense-building writing and performances keep us entranced.
Valicenti is as eager as fans to learn whether there will be another season, and if he’ll be a part of it. “I have not gotten a phone call,” the actor said. “It just depends on where Dennis Rader is in his life” vs. where the series picks up next.
Show runner/director David Fincher has previously said he’d like the show to reach five seasons. Could the BTK Strangler be one of the threads that ties all five together?
While we await answers, here’s a glimpse at Sonny Valicenti’s process and background.
1. Quality vs. quantity
If you blinked during the first season, you may have missed Valicenti, and he receives only slightly more time in the second. The FBI takes notice of the BTK Strangler, though. “The content felt deeper this season. And there seems to be more attention paid to it by the other side,” Valicenti said, referring to the work by the series’ main characters, FBI agents Bill Tench and Holden Ford, and Dr. Wendy Carr.
Plus, Valicenti spent plenty of time on set. Fincher (“Gone Girl,” “Zodiac”) is known for his painstaking, multiple takes, and he’s “got this crystal vision of what the scene is,” said Valicenti, who added that the director averaged between 30 and 60 takes. “It’s a long warm-up period. Everything was basically stripped away in the first 10 takes.”
2. Valicenti displayed an early love for comedy
In fourth grade, he joined a kids’ theater group, performing in “How the First Letter Was Written,” "not memorizing my lines and hamming it up.”
Valicenti’s “mom started me on cinema before the age of 7,” and he found inspiration in Bill Murray and Jim Carrey, and “I was quoting (lines from) Chris Farley movies.” Valicenti’s dad, a graphic designer and professor, also inspired him. “Choosing a creative path was definitely in the DNA in our (family)," he said. “I’m so grateful to them. I know that is rare.”
3. Devoted to drama
When he got to Barrington High School, Valicenti met a teacher named Jon Lynn, “an incredible hero of the theater. He really fostered my interest,” said Valicenti.
Lynn, now retired from teaching (though he continues as an actor and artistic director of the Kirk Players), said, “Sonny was one of my absolutely favorite kids in the world. I saw this fire, and I knew.
“My first rule of acting is, ‘If you can do anything else with your life, don’t do theater (or acting).’ It’s not about talent. It’s about drive, desire and perseverance. With Sonny I saw it so early.”
Lynn shared an anecdote about Valicenti’s portrayal of Enjolrus, the spirited young man who jumps onto the barricade and rouses the students to rebel, in “Les Miserables.” At that time, Lynn said, Valicenti normally worked behind the scenes. “He really wanted to be in ‘Les Mis.' It was the perfect part for Sonny. His audition blew us out of the water.”
Valicenti showed great range in high school, too. “The other extreme was ‘Harvey,’” Lynn said. “He played this very mild mannered, gentle man and delivered a performance so real, so sweet."
4. He skipped school to go to Steppenwolf
“Steppenwolf Theatre was a huge part of developing my interest” in drama and acting, said Valicenti. He recalled his father letting him skip school so they could attend a Wednesday matinee of “Glengarry Glen Ross," and seeing early productions of some of Tracy Letts’ plays. A favorite: “The Minutes,” starring William Petersen.
5. The actor did his homework
For Fincher and Valicenti, the key in portraying the BTK Strangler was asking, “What is the human being in this scene? How can we understand what happened without condoning it?”
Valicenti watched Rader’s 45-minute confession on YouTube, studying the “rhythm of the way he spoke, the expressions on his face.”
The actor read excerpts of Rader’s journal in a book by John Douglas, a former FBI agent whose writing inspired the Netflix series. "There were detailed notes before and after each murder, down to what his body was feeling.”
He also spent 24 hours in Wichita, following a map from the journal. “I drove to the houses to get a sense of the streets,” and to the El Dorado Correctional Facility — the maximum security prison where the murderer remains — but didn’t meet with anyone there.
Valicenti is looking forward to watching this season of “Mindhunter,” he said. “Once I see my scenes, I can get to the show as a fan.”
While Netflix doesn’t release viewership numbers, the show is critically acclaimed and has an audience rating of 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Retired teacher Lynn is also eager to see the series. Valicenti, he said, “was ready for this.”
