‘Not the little Wallflower victim anymore’: Sara Paxton talks serial killers and victimhood for ‘Based on a True Story’
Sara Paxton is no stranger to the thriller genre, but for her new gig in NBC’s Based on a True Story, she wants to be clear: her character is no victim.
Warning! Major spoilers ahead for Based on a True Story season 2.
Based on a True Story season 2 is finally here, and oh boy, is this one a doozy. Picking up roughly three months after the events of season 1, we find our leads, Ava (Kaley Cuoco) and Nathan (Chris Messina), in a bit of a sticky situation. Not only are they new parents to baby Jack, but they’re also hot on the trail of a murderer known as the “Copycat Killer,” a.k.a. the new obsession of Ava’s Murder Bunny TikTok.
There are a lot of sinister forces at play here, and thanks to great cast additions like Melissa Fumero’s Drew, Based on a True Story’s sophomore outing manages to balance dark humor and more grounded thriller elements. Perhaps no one understood the assignment better than Sara Paxton.
Sara Paxton talks playing the bad guy and the complexities of female serial killers
Seeing Sara Paxton’s name in the credits of literally anything these days is a treat, and she gets to put her skills to the test here in Based on a True Story season 2. After leading everyone on a cat-and-mouse chase, it’s revealed that Chloe’s (Natalia Dyer) sister, a victim of the Westside Ripper, is the true Copycat Killer. Predictably, chaos ensues.
She’s just as cold-blooded as she is mysterious here, giving Paxton lots of great material to work with—particularly when it comes to the show’s commentary on America’s obsession with True Crime and subverting the audience’s expectations when it comes to the Copycat Killer’s identity. Speaking with The Mary Sue, Paxton said of her Based on a True Story character:
“I’m a really big fan of True Crime. I always have been, so reading the script, I was just—I’m fully aware of, ‘Oh, they think she’s a man.’ You know, because if it’s a serial killer, it must be a man. She’s a woman. You’re right. It’s a lot more rare. So all those little things that they drop in the show are really interesting to me.”
And yeah, given that we’re used to seeing Paxton in children’s classics like 2006’s Aquamarine and Halloweentown, stepping into the mindset of a serial killer is definitely a 180 for her. It’s worth mentioning that she has taken on darker roles in the past, most notably in the 2009 slasher The Last House on the Left and 2011’s The Innkeepers, but in most cases, Paxton has always played the victim—until now. And from the sound of it, she had fun switching things up for Based on a True Story.
“It is really fun because I feel like as, as an actor, in my career, I am used to playing the victim. I mean, I definitely, I’ve played like the mean girl in high school, and she’s a villain in that way. But I have a lot of times where I’m the victim of a crime, I’m being tortured or I’m being drowned, all these terrible things are happening to me. So when I saw this, I was like, ‘It’s time, baby.’ Like it’s finally, it’s your moment, like ‘you’re not the little Wallflower victim anymore.’ And it’s just so left field from who I am, you know, that it is really challenging and so it’s just really fun to do something different.”
Keeping viewers guessing is certainly part of what makes Based on a True Story so binge-worthy, and considering that American Psycho was one of Paxton’s biggest inspirations for her killer character, I’d say she aced it. She’s got the range, honey.
All episodes of Based on a True Story season 2 are now available to stream on Peacock.
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