The bizarre true story of the assassination of America’s 20th president, James Garfield, plays out in Death By Lightning
The story of James Garfield, the 20th president of the U.S.A, is often overlooked in the annals of history. Yet it’s a fascinating tale that resonates in today’s deeply divided America.
Garfield — a preacher, lawyer and Civil War general — served in the House of Representatives for nine terms when he was selected to become the GOP candidate at the 1880 Republican National Convention — something he hadn’t been campaigning for, or even wanted. Despite his reluctance, he ran a low-key campaign and was elected president.
His tenure in the White House began in March of 1881, but was cut short just a few months later when, that July, he was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a deluded and disturbed man who believed killing Garfield would solve all his problems. Garfield survived the assassination attempt — only to die nearly three months later due to infection brought about by his doctors’ unsanitary treatment of his wound.
This true story forms the basis of Death By Lightning, a new Netflix limited series from Mike Makowsky, based on the Candice Millard’s 2011 book Destiny of the Republic. When he read the book, Makowsky immediately knew it was a story he wanted to tell. “So much about the story felt so contemporary and vital to me,” he told Netflix’s Tudum. “It was moving and tragic and poignant, but also kind of absurdly funny at times that I wasn’t really expecting.”
Matthew Macfadyen, who plays Guiteau, concurs. “I mean, it’s a very timely story, and it’s a timeless story. It’s about political violence and ambition and obsession, and all those things.” For the Succession alum, signing onto the series was “a real no-brainer” when he saw what Makowsky had written. “I got the script and I loved it, and I leapt at the chance, really,” he says. “I thought it was a just fascinating story about which I knew nothing. And as an actor, you’re sort of looking for something a little different, and this was.”
Playing Garfield is Michael Shannon, who likewise jumped at the opportunity — albeit, he jokes, for a different reason. “I just couldn’t believe someone wanted me to play a president,” he says with a laugh. “I didn’t see that coming.”
As Shannon points out, the memory of Garfield has faded into the fabric of time, and he remains a little-known figure in America’s history during a little-remembered period between the Civil War and the First World War. “When I told people I was playing Garfield, they were like, ‘Why are you playing the cat? Haven’t they already done that?’” Shannon recalls. “And I was like, ‘No, I’m not playing Garfield the cat. I’m playing Garfield the president. They’re like, ‘Who?’ ”
Getting serious, Shannon recalls that researching Garfield was an eye-opening experience that gave him a keen appreciation of Garfield’s efforts to weed out government corruption and promote civil rights during his brief time as president. “I think President Garfield is one of my favourite people, really, based on all the research I did about him,” says Shannon. “The thing is, not many people know much about him. But if you want to know something about him, there are plenty of ways to learn, ’cause there’s amazing literature you can read. And considering how short his term was thanks to [Guiteau], he has quite a legacy. Quite a moving legacy that you can still see to this day . . . His nickname was ‘the greatest president America never had.’ ”
Born into poverty, Garfield’s humble origins gave him a level of empathy that compelled him to use his position to help Americans, a background that made him uniquely qualified for the job. “He wasn’t born into it,” says Shannon. “I mean, he had to work his way up from nothing, you know. He wasn’t in some secret society, Skull and Bones or whatever. He saw America for what it was from every vantage point. And his dignity was his ability to see other people’s point of view.”
While Garfield was guided by empathy, Guiteau was driven by delusion, brought about by what Macfadyen assumes was mental illness that doctors wouldn’t have been able to diagnose at the time. “He wasn’t psychologically very well,” says Macfadyen. “He would probably be diagnosed now with, I’m not sure what, but some sort of psychological condition. But he’s very human. I didn’t see him as a bad person. Just misguided and screwed up and kind of lonely. Lonely and confused . . . He certainly didn’t think he was doing bad things.”
In fact, Shannon jokingly contends that it wasn’t Guiteau who was responsible for Garfield’s death, but the ignorance of the medical establishment at that time. “He shouldn’t get all the blame. They say time and time again, if he would have shot Garfield nowadays, Garfield would’ve walked out of the hospital the next day,” Shannon observes.
Taking a deep dive into Guiteau, Macfadyen compares his character’s delusions of grandeur to the relentless quest for fame that exists in today’s social media. “It made me think an awful lot about how people latch onto celebrity as well today. And also, you know, that sort of feeds into your own validation for likes and, you know, all that stuff. I mean, it’s not a million miles away. I know the media landscape’s totally different, but he wanted a sort of notoriety. He wanted fame as well, you know. As he sort of progressed in his narcissism and delusion and all the rest of it. When he was in jail, he really thought he was a superstar. He thought he was a rock star.”
Shannon and Macfadyen are bolstered by an extraordinary supporting cast, including Betty Gilpin as First Lady Lucretia Garfield, Nick Offerman as Vice President Chester Alan Arthur, Bradley Whitford as Secretary of State James Blaine and Shea Whigham as Senator Roscoe Conkling.
As Shannon explains, that cast presented an opportunity to work with some old friends. “I had the benefit of knowing Shea and Nick for a real long time. I mean, I’ve known Nick Offerman literally since I was a teenager, ’cause we both came up doing theatre in Chicago together,” Shannon says. “That’s how we started out acting. We’re both in a Foreigner music video . . . And then Shea, I’ve known Shea since we met doing Tigerland together, which was Colin Farrell’s first big movie here in America. So, it was like ‘old buddies club.’ ”
According to Shannon, viewers who watch will be struck by just how eerily relevant the events in Death By Lightning are to America’s current political landscape. “I think, frankly, what the show is about and what it’s saying and its relevance to today’s events, is kinda hard to miss,” Shannon adds. “I almost feel kind of silly spelling it out, but I think if you watch the show, it will become abundantly obvious to you the reverberations between then and now. It’s almost frightening, really, how much overlap there is considering, you know, over a hundred years has gone by.”
Death By Lightning, streaming on Netflix