Michael Learned’s latest TV role is a far cry from Olivia Walton. Learned, who rose to fame playing the Walton family matriarch on the CBS show The Waltons, recently portrayed Jeffrey Dahmer’s grandmother Catherine Dahmer in Netflix’s hit series Dahmer. But despite her decades of experience in Hollywood, she wasn’t handed the role on a silver platter.
Michael Learned had to audition for her role in Netflix’s ‘Dahmer’
Learned, 83, might have won multiple Emmys (three for The Waltons and one for the early ‘80s TV series Nurse). However, she isn’t above putting herself out there for a role.
“I had to audition,” Learned said during a conversation with The Weekly Show With David J. Maloney (via YouTube). “And to be honest, I don’t audition well,” she added. (She’s previously revealed that she was hungover when she read for her breakthrough role on The Waltons.)
The actor credits her casting in Dahmer to an off-the-cuff moment when she had to stand for a full-body shot at the end of her audition tape.
“I said, ‘If I’d know [they wanted] this, I would have worn a bra,’” she recalled. “And I hoisted my boobs up. And [my manager] left it in. And I think it cracked everybody up at the audition. And sometimes it’s that whimsical in this business, that you made them laugh and you get the part. Because I’m sure many, many, many good actors auditioned for it as well.”
‘The Waltons’ star was excited to work with Ryan Murphy
Landing the part of Dahmer’s grandmother – with whom he lived in Milwaukee when he committed some of his murders – was a coup for Learned, who is a fan of series creator Ryan Murphy’s work.
“I was just thrilled that I got the part,” she said. “I felt like I was 20 years old and just starting over.”
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“It’s a little humiliating at my age to be auditioning,” she went on to admit. “Like, don’t you know I can act? But that’s my ego. I understand that. But for Ryan Murphy? You audition. Because he’s a brilliant genius in television … I think he takes chances with people.”
Michael Learned thinks Jeffrey’s Dahmer’s grandmother was in denial
To portray Catherine Dahmer, drew on her own experience as a grandmother, she told Fox News. The serial killer reportedly had a close relationship with his older relative, and in Dahmer she ignores some obvious signs that things are not right with her grandson.
”What I had to play in my mind [while doing this role] was denial,” she said. “The thing is, how can you not know somebody’s carving up bodies in your basement? Denial is such a powerful thing when it’s working on you. I mean, [the grandmother] must have known. She could smell it. And he was dragging these bags of God-knows-what through the kitchen door.”
Learned theorized that Catherine “just shut her mind down” when it came to Dahmer’s activities.
“I have a grandson living with me who’s so charming, sweet, and kind. He’s a good person,” she said. “And I can’t imagine how I would react if I suddenly discovered that there was something inside of him that I’d never seen. So I had to play the grandma who just loved her grandson and had no idea he had such a dark side.”
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