Cameron Britton Reflects on Working With David Fincher in ‘Mindhunter’ (Exclusive)

For two seasons on Mindhunter, actor Cameron Britton portrayed serial killer Ed Kemper, a role that garnered him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. While the actor has since turned his attention to playing the heroic and misunderstood Richard Jewell on Manhunt: Deadly Games, during a recent exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, he reflected on working with director David Fincher on the Netflix project. According to Britton, his time on Mindhunter helped him find a new way of thinking about himself and his own perception of his work.

While speaking with PopCulture.com exclusively, Britton shared that he takes away a lot from his roles, including a better understanding of himself. That was no different when it came to his time on Mindhunter. “Mindhunter was an epic rebuild in my thinking about myself and art. I’m still rebuilding from that,” he said when asked what he was able to learn about himself throughout the varying roles throughout his career. “That was the base of a new direction in my life. What I realized on that set is that acting is a challenge, in that you need to surprise yourself every moment. The idea of coming into a scene with a bunch of preconceived deliveries of how to do a line or how to block it. You know, ‘I’m going to say this line, and then put my hand on my cheek, and then say this line.’ Those sorts of things, they aren’t real life. And it’s a major challenge that you need to be surprising yourself on every line.”

Britton went on to explain that he didn’t believe that he was finding his footing on Mindhunter. At one point, he even believed that he was going to be fired from the show. With the help of his co-star, Jonathan Groff, and director David Fincher, he was able to look at his performance from a renewed perspective.

“And also on Mindhunter, I thought, I mean, I thought I was going to get fired. I was trying not to get fired. I just didn’t think I was doing a great job,” Britton admitted. “And Jonathan Groff and David Fincher had to talk me down from the ledge, so to speak. And when I found out that people were receiving my work the way that they were, I realized that my perception of myself was off.” He added, “I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want to live where people see me a certain way, and I’m oblivious to that. So that became a lifelong goal, those two things.”

It was recently reported that there might not be any additional seasons of Mindhunter, the second season of which premiered in August 2019. But, you can still catch Britton on Manhunt: Deadly Games, which airs on Saturdays on CBS at 8 p.m. ET. Additionally, be sure to bookmark PopCulture.com so that you can keep up-to-date on Britton, Mindhunter, and everything in the entertainment news sphere.