Acclaimed actor Jason Clarke looked unrecognizable as he transformed into family killer Alex Murdaugh for Hulu’s upcoming mini-series The Murdaugh Murders this week.
Instead of his signature salt-and-pepper coif and sleek exterior, Clarke, 55, waltzed around the show’s Atlanta, Georgia set on Thursday rocking Murdaugh’s bright blonde hair and a noticeably bulkier build.
He also wore the lawyer-turned-convicted felon’s go-to kaki trousers, button-up shirt and tie combo for the day’s shoot outside a Frontera Mexican Kitchen
In between takes, Clarke — known for his work in Terminator Genisys (2015) —sported sunglasses and slide sandals as the crew worked to set up the next shot.
Clarke’s surprise casting as Murdaugh was announced in December 2024.
It came months after Patricia Arquette has been confirmed to play Murdaugh’s late wife Margaret.Hulu’s The Murdaugh Murders was first announced to be development in November 2022.
The upcoming TV show will be based upon the true events that occurred in 2021, when the now-convicted felon, Alex Murdaugh murdered his wife Margaret and his son Paul by shooting them in the backyard of their South Carolina property.
Crime scene experts determined he ambushed his son Paul, 22, in the kennels and shot him twice before shooting his wife Maggie, 52, five times even as she fell to her knees at the family’s 1,800-acre hunting estate on June 2, 2021.
On July 14, 2022, Alex was indicted for two accounts of murder, and he pleaded not guilty less than a week later.
After a tumultuous trial, Alex received the guilty verdict on March 2, 2023 and the next day, he was sentenced to life in prison.
He was also ordered to pay $9 million in restitution for his financial crimes after taking settlement money from inflated fees or expenses for more than two dozen clients.
Even before the 2021 murders, Murdaugh had a long history of committing crimes such as fraud.
During the same year that he was convicted of killing his wife and son, he was also simultaneously sentenced to be jailed for three decades, for conning his victims out of nine million dollars, after he admitted he was guilty.
Murdaugh sobbed in court as he apologized to the innocent people who were victimized by his financial crimes.