Steve Guttenberg Talks His New ‘Killer’ Role in Lifetime’s ‘Kidnapped by a Killer’ (Exclusive)
Steve Guttenberg, best known for his roles in the Police Academy franchise, is tackling a new role as a serial killer in the Lifetime Original movie Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story, premiering June 7. “I was about an hour and a half in makeup every day to sort of create the look,” says Guttenberg, explaining part of what it took to inhabit the horrific and chilling character of real-life serial killer John Robinson. “And when you see him, you just won’t believe it. I think it’s hard to believe it’s me, and that’s wonderful.”
It might be hard to believe that an actor who most audiences associate with comedies (like Three Men and a Baby, Short Circuit, or the aforementioned Police Academy) or dramas (Diner, Cocoon), could inhabit a monstrous character like Robinson, whom the actor describes as “a terrible human being,” even if also “quite complicated.” Even though Guttenberg has previously appeared in thrillers, like Lifetime’s How to Murder Your Husband, he hasn’t turned up as the villain before.
But that speaks to Guttenberg’s talent, and desire to challenge himself as an actor.
“It’s such a great opportunity to be able to go outside your wheelhouse,” he says about a role like this. “And I think that’s the classic nature of acting — people want to see you pop up through different holes. They want to see you surprise them.”
James Grassi/Lifetime
Guttenberg will likely surprise viewers in Kidnapped by a Killer — and while it is based on a true story, the actor says it was played here by himself and his costars “as fiction.”
Rachel Stubington portrays Heather Robinson, who grew up in a loving family in Illinois and, by the time she was a teen, was well aware that she had been adopted as an infant by her parents. But in 2000, the then-15-year-old’s world was shattered when she learned that the man she knew as her uncle, John Robinson, was actually a serial killer accused of murdering multiple women in the Kansas City area — including her biological mother. After her uncle’s arrest, Heather learns the shocking truth about her birth mother’s disappearance.
In telling and acting out a nightmarish story like this, Guttenberg says it is less entertainment than like watching an accident occur.
“He was a horrible murderer,” he says of Robinson, “and he took not only people’s lives, but he took their families’ lives. He took everything from them, and he destroyed hundreds — maybe a thousand people — through his murders.
“So, to me, it was a story about destruction and what one man can do, [how] one man can change so many lives [through his actions].”
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Kidnapped by a Killer: The Heather Robinson Story airs Saturday, June 7 on LIFETIME.
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