Manson’s Lost Girls Star Jeff Ward on Getting Inside the Mind of a Monster [Exclusive Interview]

Getting inside the mind of a monster isn’t easy.

Actor Jeff Ward knows this all too well. He stars as the infamous Charles Manson on the upcoming Lifetime Original Movie, Manson’s Lost Girls. The film, which airs tonight at 8/7c, offers a unique take on Charles Manson through the eyes of his cult members.

Ward said the main reason he was drawn to the role was because it explored the more interesting sides of Manson. “It kind of delved into the charming, charismatic musician that he was before he really turned into a monster. And he certainly was a monster, but you know, I think we get to see how that happened gradually,” Ward explained. “There had to be something really magnetic about this guy that he was able to get people where they eventually ended up.”

As one might imagine, this was a particularly difficult role to prepare for. “I remember I was reading some of the books, and the first night when I was really reading it, I was walking around my house, and my house was empty – and I was terrified,” Ward said. “I was really, really scared. Because, could you imagine? I mean, you’re just in your house, and all of the sudden these people are just in it. You know, it didn’t happen in some horribly scary place. It happened in these people’s living rooms. You turn the corner, and there’s some guy calmly sitting there. There’s really not much scarier than that.”

One book that Ward said he read as he was researching and preparing for the role was Manson by Jeff Guinn. The book actually began by focusing on the childhood of Manson’s mother, and explored “exactly what Charlie went through growing up and how he didn’t have a father.”

Ward also explained the importance of what was going on in society at the time. “A huge part of it, too, in understanding the story is understanding the historical context. You have to understand everything that was going on politically, and the racial tensions, and where they were,” Ward said. “In the climate that America was in at the time, young kids were looking for leadership and a guru, because they rejected their parents, and that was a different generation that didn’t understand them. So they wanted purpose, and they would just pick up and move to California – and here’s this short little bearded guy, and he tells them about eternal enlightenment, and it sounds pretty good. And he gives them some acid and it’s all good.” One scene Ward said he especially loved dealt with Charlie’s take on the moon landing.

Another way Ward prepared for the role was by studying some of his favorite villains, and watching their scenes over and over. “The night before certain scenes, I watched every one of Heath Ledger’s The Joker in The Dark Knight,” Ward said. “And Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master, and Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver were both really helpful. And Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, and The Cheshire Cat was more of a weird one.”

“I was channeling a lot of my favorite villains,” Ward continued. “And kind of putting them into this perfect bad guy – or so he thought of himself. So that was really fun.”

Ward also explained that music was an important part of how he played the role. “It was funny because certain scenes [were] Rage Against the Machine, and Wu Tang Clan and Kanye, and other scenes were Bon Ivar, and The Beatles, and Jackson 5 [laughs]. It was very eclectic, but it was super helpful because he was so eclectic and such a chameleon of a person, that I really wanted to bring completely different things into it.”

As for what it was like to portray this character, there were several fun moments as well as moments that felt a bit disturbing. “It definitely was harder to shake off some scenes. There were a lot of scenes that were actually really fun. Because I really wanted to tap into his fun side,” Ward said. “But yeah, there was certain stuff that, you know, the vibe on set that night was a little weird and a little dark.”

“It was surprising how much of it felt, I don’t know, not like it was tapping into a piece of me, but like, into a piece of what’s human,” Ward continued. “The real thing I thought was scary to tap into was the feeling of power.”

One scene that particularly came to mind for Ward was a campfire scene. “We’re all talking to each other, and he starts sermonizing a little bit and telling everybody that they’re perfect, and [are] there exactly as God intended them to be,” Ward said. “I really have to hand it to everybody else in the cast, because they helped me so much [to] believe that I was this guy. Which was really hard, you know?”

Ward also shared how he decided to become an actor, which began largely with a love for movies when he was very young. “I had a VCR with colored stickers on it because I couldn’t read the buttons, but I just needed stop, play, and rewind. I really remember those stickers and what it looked like, because I would just watch movies over and over and over again.”

Some of the movies he remembers watching several times were Batman, ET, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. “I’m working on my swearing because I swear too much,” Ward said. “But I said ‘dickhead’ when I was like five years old, and I got it from Ferris Beuller. I got in so much trouble, and the movie got taken away from me, and it was really, really bad [laughs]. But I remember learning quite a bit of profanity when I was very, very young.”

So when Ward’s grandmother asked him if we wanted to go to theater camp, and explained that the other kids there would be interested in movies the same way he was, he agreed to go. “I really liked it, and then I went back the next year, and the next year I had a little bit more serious of a part,” Ward said.

“That got me more interested, and then I kept going back, and when I was sixteen I played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet in this big outdoor theater. There was this one scene toward the end, and I just kind of looked up – and it was in the Catskill Mountains – so it was like, there were hundreds of stars. And there was like five-hundred people there. I very vividly remember it hit me in that moment that I was like, this is… I’m gonna dedicate my life to this.”

If Ward could work with anyone, he said his number one choice for film would be to work with the Coen brothers. “I think they’re brilliant. In theater, I would kill to work with Martin McDonagh,” Ward said. “I think he’s my favorite writer I’ve ever read except for Shakespeare, probably. And I also love Alexander Payne. There’s a humor a heartbreak to all of his work that to me is just like, that’s everything I want in a film. I want a laugh-really-hard-at-sadness-and-then-cry-at-happiness kinda vibe, and I think Payne nails that.”

Catch Jeff Ward on Manson’s Lost Girls, airing tonight at 8/7c on Lifetime.