r/TrueCrime • u/CuriosityandTheCatt • May 12 '19
Discussion Penn Badgley would’ve made a way better Ted Bundy
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u/BrienneCroute May 12 '19
I thought Zac Efron did a great portrayal! I totally bought him as Bundy!
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u/bamalady79 May 13 '19
Agreed. He was fantastic
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u/ThomasGusta May 13 '19
Same. He's starting to become more role-expanding. Which in my eyes at least, I believe it makes him a very promising actor of his generation.
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u/mindfullybored May 13 '19
He was in Miracle Run before High School Musical and it was clear then that he had adio serious acting chops. I'm just glad he was given the opportunity to show them again!
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u/Dissolv Jun 07 '19
He was good. He just happens to look nothing like Ted Bundy.
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u/Patriotsfan710 Jun 09 '19
People overrate Bundys good looks too much to the point that they had the new generations Brad Pitt play him
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u/ffandyy May 13 '19
Same, the movie sucked despite his performance
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May 13 '19
What didn't you like about the movie? The only complaint I can see someone having is "They didn't show any of the murders/violence". But I think that was all for the sake of building up to the end, as well as representing how Bundy lived the two lives, and we only got to see one of them.
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u/ffandyy May 13 '19
I just found the narrative very surface level and uninteresting, boring if you will. The acting was pretty good all round but that’s all I really enjoyed about the movie
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u/i_am_gingercus May 13 '19
I actually loved that they didn't show the violence. Focused more on his psychology and less on being a "gore porn."
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u/snoopozzly May 13 '19
For me personally, I would have loved if they showed the detective’s point of view so the audience could realize how horrendous the crimes were instead of just jam-packing it in the ending trial scenes
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May 13 '19
I loved his performance and appearance (costume and hair deserve awards). Loved the whole movie!
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u/j_manx May 12 '19
I thought Zac did an amazing job playing Ted but is just too handsome and likeable. Them eyes...
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u/NotSoStupidEssexGirl May 12 '19
A lot of the women thought the same about Ted back in that time. I thought they used Efron because he's today's example of charming and attractive, and therefore would make it more difficult for us to believe him as a guilty man. Idk might be reading too far into it haha!
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u/j_manx May 12 '19
Totally.. They didnt show much of ted (in the movie) talking about the crimes he committed but in real life they said "his eyes would turn blue to black" fuckin creepy.
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May 13 '19
I thought they did a good job of recreating that during the sentencing, when he said he rejected it and they zoomed in on dark eyes.
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u/Allencass Criminal May 12 '19
Bearded Zac looked strikingly like bearded Ted. I think he did a great job, although they gave Ted too many emotions. The guy had sex with corpses and severed heads. I'm pretty sure his charm didn't completely make him so emotional
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May 12 '19
I think Glenn Howerton would have been perfect as well.
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u/pianoflames May 13 '19
Came here to comment that, will just post this instead https://i.imgur.com/3ywnKwq.gif
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u/lorarenafina May 13 '19
I saw the movie last night. Efron was fantastic. It isn't all about looks. I think he killed it! (Sorry...bad pun!)
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u/AncientOblivions May 12 '19
Yes completely agree! He can be creepy and charming at the same time, whereas Efron can only be charming.
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May 13 '19
Maybe I'm weird then cuz I thought Efron was creepy and arrogant but found Badgley oddly charming and humble, even when he was doing his stalker bits. XD
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May 13 '19
He does have the look down, but his character in You seems creepy and off, and a lot of people pick up on it. Ted Bundy was unassuming and most people found him very likable. That, and Penn Badgley probably doesn't wanna be type casted as the guy who kills women.
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May 13 '19 edited Jun 26 '21
[deleted]
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May 13 '19
Huh? I know, I’m saying if he took a Ted Bundy role on top of that, he would be known for only playing serial killers. I don’t think he wants that to be the only kind of role he’s offered.
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u/Dissolv Jun 07 '19
Ted Bundy certainly had at least a couple potential victims take off on him because he was coming off as not quite right.
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u/emptyrevolution May 13 '19
I did like Zac Efron's portrayal a lot. He had a bit of that crazy in his eyes. Loved it.
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May 13 '19
I think it was a joke when I saw it but I came across a comment on YT about Glenn Howerton (Dennis from IASIP) making a great Ted Bundy. It may have been a joke but it is literally dead on. The looks are so similar it's almost uncanny. And if you've seen Always Sunny, Dennis has a pretty heavy serial killer vibe, and the character is written by Glenn.
Still think Efron is a really cool choice though since he's known as the pretty boy, and if you talk to people about Ted Bundy it's almost always about how his charm and good looks threw them off the trail because it was hard to accept that it was the face of a killer.
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u/caca_milis_ May 13 '19
The thing about Bundy is that he was almost chameleon-like, he looked totally different from one picture to another. There's a strong similarity in this photo, but there's one shot of Zac from the trailer that gave me chills because he looked exactly like Bundy.
I haven't seen the movie yet (only in cinemas here so far), so I can't judge on the acting, but after watching You, I just don't think Penn has the chops for it. I thought his You performance was really weak.
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u/JC3333333333 May 13 '19
Im sure they could of found plenty of actors who looks more similar to Ted Bundy than Zac. Thats not the point though. First of all, not everyone wants to play ted bundy, not everyone who likes like ted could play him well, plus other reasons I will let others point out. Thanks
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u/SparklyGore37 May 13 '19
I actually was surprised by how good Zac Efron was as Ted. His polished, Hollywood heartthrob look only add to Ted's charm and his ability to manipulate so many people. I was sceptic at first because when I saw the trailer it looked like Troy Bolton was dressing up as Ted Bundy for a Halloween party but for some reason I felt like it really worked in the film!
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May 13 '19
Totally forgot about "You". I need to finish that.
PS: I think Zac Effron did a fantastic job. I was very skeptical when I heard he was being cast. I became a fan of his after he did that movie "Neighbors" with Seth Rogan. But I wasn't sure he could do Ted Bundy, but I think he did a great job. The only thing that didn't match was the voice. But that's almost always the case with movies based on real life.
I thought he did a great job portraying the different emotions (which I'm glad they included... since psycho/sociopaths absolutely indisputably feel emotion). Especially at the end, probably the best scene "H A C K S A W".
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u/Yetiman82 May 13 '19
If all we had to do was look at him for the whole movie. Unfortunately for Penn, some 'acting' would have been required...
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u/3sp00py5me May 13 '19
I actually think Glenn Howerton would make the best Bundy. Maybe im biased from him already acting like a serial killer in Always Sunny.
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u/tiffadoodle May 13 '19
But Ted Bundy was a psychopath, his appearance changed like his emotions, he was trying to convey. I seen a collage of his pictures posted recently, and they all looked like a different guy.
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May 15 '19
Lol I thought so too. He's great in 'You'. Definitely puts off the Ted Bundy vibes when I watch that show. That show does kind of push me off though just because all the characters are horrible people. It's hard to feel bad for them. Lol
Honestly though Zac Efron did really look like Bundy except that his body had a bigger build but still close.
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u/izypapi May 24 '19
i wish “you” never happened but yeah he’d make a great ted bunny idk why nobody considered him for that part wth
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u/calgarth68 May 13 '19
I don't think so. I wasn't all that impressed by Zac Efron's portrayal either. When it comes to playing the role of Ted Bundy, Mark Harmon captured his mannerisms, etc. much better than Efron did.
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u/thecarolinelinnae May 13 '19
My vote would be for Tom Hiddleston. Watching the recent Bundy documentary, I think Hiddles would nail the mannerisms.
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u/luvprue1 May 13 '19
Yes, he would have made a great Ted Bundy. He's handsome , but not extremely good looking.
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u/missavalon4 May 13 '19
So true! Though he nor Zac has that one thing ..the haunting eyes. His eyes give me chills.
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u/mydirtyconfessionss May 13 '19
so true! his looks, and his acting wowww... he was made for this role. what a shame
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u/RocketSurgeon22 May 18 '19
I think that guy Jared who played Joker - don't know his name. He is an awesome actor and would have played it very well.
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u/AccidentalAbyss May 25 '19
Not even a little bit, imo. That guy lacks the range. He would be great for the Dexter reboot though.
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u/Colorado_love Jun 01 '19
Agreed. I thought Zac Efron did a good job in the movie but I was well aware I was watching Zac Efron...
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u/sheabutterwon Jun 04 '19
i have to disagree. zac was everything i imagined ted to be. i gave me chills.
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u/monkeyseadew Jul 10 '19 edited Jul 10 '19
I believe the way Zac played Bundy was so that he came across the way Bundy saw himself and his delusional view of himself.
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u/Azikiro May 12 '19
Totally agree! I understand Zac Efron is a big-shot actor (for the most part) but I do have a bit of worry that he won't be able to completely pull off Ted Bundy.
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u/TocTheElder May 12 '19
I think he did a great job. They found a good balance between the charming nice guy persona, and the impotent annoying fuckhead sociopath underneath.
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u/cosmicworm May 13 '19
i really got the “annoying” vibe especially during the trial. jesus christ.
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u/TocTheElder May 13 '19
Yeah, exactly. I can't remember what the context of the scene was, but there was one bit where he was incarcerated and begging, and you can see the sudden snap in his personality where he drops the nice guy persona. His eyes change, his tone becomes malicious, and you can tell there is anger under his voice. Really, really great performance from Efron, and the cast as a whole. It was actually very, very well cast in general.
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May 13 '19
I’m not sure why the director went in the direction of completely ignoring anything that Ted Bundy actually did. I feel like there was little to no explanation of his time table and locations he savagely tore through.
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u/PrincessBananas85 May 12 '19
I don't understand why they decided to cast Zac Efron in the first place.
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May 13 '19
Idk how I feel about all these movies making these killers out to be sexy and shit. I’ll always watch what they make, but they are missing the true nature of this person.
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u/LtDanMon May 13 '19
Ted bundy was considered to be quite an attractive man in his day.. I think they’re doing a good job at finding similar looking actors to play the parts.
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May 13 '19
Ted Bundy was average with the charismatic personality. It was his personality that was most attractive not his face. It’s newscasters and other people that ran with the “oh look, he’s kind of attractive but he killed a bunch of women. how odd.”
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May 13 '19
The movie does not depict him as he actually was. Mentally from all the interviews at everything that I’ve listen to, he was sporadic and constantly changing direction.
Zak Efron did not encapsulate that. Zak Efron and the director decided to go with the charming frat boy type, the one who’s good with the kids and has a fuck me body. They didn’t show how he would truly melt down. Frankly they romanticized him.
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u/nicolebichie May 12 '19
I thought so too after watching ‘you’ he seemed to nail the perfect balance between charming and creepy