Since HBO‘s The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst aired in 2015, Durst, who was arrested shortly earlier than the docuseries’ stunning finale, was convicted of homicide in 2021 earlier than dying months later.
In that point, true-crime tasks have proliferated within the wake of hits like The Jinx and modern docuseries Making a Assassin, the podcast Serial and based-on-a-true-story fictional sequence like The Individuals v. O.J. Simpson and subsequent American Crime Story installments.
But regardless of being a part of this early true-crime wave, The Jinx filmmaker Andrew Jarecki says that there have been issues about Durst that made him much more riveting than an unsolved homicide.
“I feel Bob is sort of a unicorn as a result of he’s so uncommon, as a result of he’s such a strong character and in addition reckless and in addition keen to be trustworthy about issues that most individuals aren’t trustworthy about, so you’re feeling such as you’re seeing inside him,” Jarecki advised The Hollywood Reporter at Thursday’s New York premiere of The Jinx — Half Two, hitting HBO Sunday night time. “And past that he’s additionally wealthy and he’s additionally from this household, not solely a wealthy household, but additionally a household that he’s continuously embarrassing. There’s a lot to him, and he’s a troublemaker and sort of a firestorm. That attracts folks in. It’s very seductive. I’m unsure we’re going to seek out one other Bob Durst. Lots of people are going to seek out fascinating tales in that vein, however I’m unsure I’m ever going to discover a story like that.”
Los Angeles deputy district legal professional John Lewin, who helped prosecute Durst for the homicide of Susan Berman and seems in The Jinx — Half Two, agrees with this evaluation, coming from the standpoint of a profession chasing criminals.
“I’ve been attempting circumstances and been a prosecutor for 30 years. After they made the Bob Durst mould, they broke it,” Lewin advised THR. “As gifted as Andrew is, as nice because the present is, ultimately Bob Durst is singularly distinctive when it comes to who he’s and what he’s performed. When you had a fictionalized model of what occurred, folks would stroll out as a result of they’d say it’s not plausible. So the wonderful thing about actuality is it doesn’t should be plausible, it simply has to have occurred. Bob, who he’s, how he responded and what he did, we’ll simply by no means see it once more and he’s compelling.”
Forward of a screening of the primary episode of Half Two, Jarecki appeared again at his 20-year journey with Durst and spoke about how the most recent batch of episodes focuses on complicity.
“We might at all times say after we had been making the primary Jinx, we might at all times say within the edit room, ‘How do you kill three folks over 30 years and get away with it? It takes a village.’ And let’s speak about who else was there enabling him, as a result of there was a complete group of people who find themselves all individuals who see themselves as abnormal, first rate folks however find yourself getting drawn in to those very unhealthy acts,” Jarecki mentioned, connecting Durst, as he has a number of instances throughout this press tour, to former President Donald Trump. “That’s one thing that I really feel may be very well timed proper now, in order that’s one thing that drew me in was individuals who say, ‘I don’t know, I wasn’t a part of these unhealthy issues that occurred within the authorities; someone else did that.’ And that’s lots of what we noticed with Bob Durst: Somebody that was very persuasive, that was a spellbinder, with a robust, hypnotic voice, lots of dominance. When Trump says, ‘Once you’re a star they allow you to do what you need,’ I feel that’s what folks felt with Bob as effectively. He was at all times this crackly power. Even when it was a foul power — he was the place the motion was. He’s so fascinating. Sure, he’s wealthy however past being wealthy, he was this sort of mesmerizing character. He knew that about himself and he used that so he preyed on lots of susceptible folks. That was the sort of factor that drew me in — perhaps that was Bob Durst drawing me in too but it surely was an essential a part of it.”
Later, in a Q&A with Highlight director Tom McCarthy, throughout which Jarecki was joined by fellow producer Zac Stuart-Pontier, Jarecki took a second to focus on the complexity of among the individuals who helped Durst and bought caught in his internet, declaring how they’re actual folks with wants and issues.
“It’s very straightforward for us to see among the folks you will note in Half Two and see them as sort of ridiculous burlesque figures,” he mentioned. “Individuals who say, ‘Effectively I did this, however I wasn’t a part of the issue; I used to be a part of the answer.’ It’s very straightforward to see these folks and sort of put them at a distance and never see their humanity. However what we tried to do was see what was happening inside. As a result of Bob actually did attract susceptible folks. And he discovered individuals who had wants. You need to ask your self — it’s straightforward to say, ‘I’d by no means have performed one thing as amoral as serving to this assassin’ — however then you must say, ‘What if I had a sick youngster and what if my good friend had some sum of money, in all probability 4 or 5 thousand {dollars}, that he was keen to trickle out to me over time? That may transform the state of affairs in my household,’ so if you happen to don’t perceive what was actually behind the complicity, you simply see it as a punchline.”
Jarecki, who advised THR on the premiere of The Jinx half one that by the tip of these episodes, “you’re going to know what occurred,” mentioned that there wasn’t as a lot of a central revelation coming in Half Two.
“I feel the surprises on this usually are not going to be a single shock, but it surely’s a particularly stunning set of tales, and there are lots of revelations that had been large surprises to me,” he advised THR Thursday. “It’s essential to attempt to inform that story in a method that makes these revelations current for the viewers, form of the way in which that we uncover them.”
Jarecki additionally mentioned he tried to maintain folks just like the members of the family of Kathie McCormack, Durst’s first spouse who disappeared and whom he had lengthy been suspected of killing, in his focus whilst Durst will be distracting.
McCormack’s members of the family “weren’t jaded and did every part I’d hope somebody would do if someone in my household had disappeared,” Jarecki mentioned. “[Her brother] Jim [who was at Thursday night’s event] generally talks about retaining the porch gentle on for Kathie. They did that for about 40 years and by no means forgot her. I hope that The Jinx and the entire work we’ve performed round it honors that. They actually trusted us to inform this story.”
Nonetheless, the filmmaker — who mentioned that his therapist, who had been listening to him speak about Durst for 20 years, was in attendance — couldn’t resist sharing another anecdote about his early days with Durst.
Jarecki recalled a breakfast with Durst and his lawyer on the close by Lambs Membership, after he and Durst had met individually with Durst’s legal professional.
At that meal, Durst’s lawyer knowledgeable them that he thought Durst sitting down with Jarecki for the interview that makes up the majority of half one, “is probably the worst thought I’ve ever heard in my whole life. You’ve been accused of three murders over 30 years and have by no means gotten convicted of any such homicide so maybe it will be sensible so that you can depart effectively sufficient alone and never do such a ridiculous factor as sit with an investigative filmmaker and have him poke round in your life.”
Nonetheless, the legal professional continued, Jarecki recalled, “Because you’ve [Durst] already advised me that you just’re positively going to do it, all I can let you know is [list of things Jarecki was supposed to do including giving Durst approval over the interview, which had to be turned over to his lawyer and only air once], and Bob interrupted him within the center and mentioned, ‘Steve, I don’t care if he places it on a billboard in Occasions Sq., let him do what he desires.’”
Jarecki continued, “A couple of years later, [my wife] Nancy and I had been strolling round Occasions Sq. across the day of Bob getting arrested earlier than the ultimate episode and we appeared up and there was this large billboard and we mentioned, ‘Bob bought his want.’”