In the Netflix limited series Death by Lightning, James Garfield (Michael Shannon) attends the 1880 Republican National Convention to support James Blaine (Bradley Whitford) but, after a fiery speech that impresses the crowd, he reluctantly becomes the presidential nominee. A low-key, accessible campaign and strongly-held political positions begin a presidency cut far too short by the bullet of assassin Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen).
Awards Buzz spoke with creator Mike Makowsky about how he got interested in Garfield’s story in the first place:
“As crazy as it sounds, I was at my local Barnes & Noble at the buy two, get one free table, and I needed a third book. And I picked up this book about the Garfield assassination and that looked interesting. I had some dim idea that this was a man who had been assassinated, but I knew nothing else about him. I mean, this was just truly, like, a bearded portrait on a wall, devoid of any context, which is, I think, how most Americans receive him, if at all, today. But I was like, ‘You know, I want to be on Jeopardy! one day. I should educate myself.’ I’m embarrassed by how little I know about this man. I wound up reading the book, which is Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard, in one sitting. I was really, really blown away by it and found it just tragic and moving and weirdly funny at times. Not that the book is written with explicit levity or mirth, but there is a deeply ingrained situational absurdity to virtually all of the proceedings, where you laugh in that way where you feel horrified for laughing. But that’s my sweet spot. As soon as I finished the book, I was like, ‘this is as crazy as it sounds, and I know that this is the least commercial idea possible for our current marketplace. I think I need to write a limited series about James Garfield.’ And I remember telling my agent, and my agent was like, ‘No, why would you ever do that?’ And seven years later, here we are.’
Watch the video above to hear how this project relates – or doesn’t – to the rest of his filmography and what obscure presidents he’d like to tackle next, provided there’s actually interest.
Death by Lightning is now streaming on Netflix.
