Tahmoh Penikett as Malachi Dodd in Devil in Ohio. Photo by Ricardo Hubbs and copyright of Netflix.
As Constable Ray Chase he helped crack unresolved or “cold” cases in the Canadian TV police crime drama Cold Squad, suited up as Lieutenant Karl “Helo” Agathon to protect the last survivors of humankind from a threat of its own making in the Sci-Fi series Battlestar Galactica, and jaunted through time – ending up trapped in 21st century Toronto – as a dimension-travelling wizard called Alar of Caer Caladh in the miniseries Riftworld Chronicles. No matter what the story, from fantasy to period drama and even the occasional foray into horror with the cult classic Trick ‘r Treat, actor Tahmoh Penikett draws upon his years of experience in the business to deliver a convincing performance that is guaranteed to not only grab the attention of but also hold the interest of audiences. A graduate of the Victoria Motion Picture School and former student of the Lyric School of Acting in Vancouver, the native Canadian can currently be seen playing Malachi Dodd in the Netflix miniseries Devil in Ohio. It was a role that he was attracted to for a variety of reasons.
“I wasn’t given a great deal of context concerning this character in my initial audition,” recalls Penikett. “I don’t even think I was told that Malachi was a cult leader, but rather that he was a charismatic religious leader of some sort. Up to that point I’d only ever played a priest one other time during my career, which was in a very small independent film, but Malachi was quite different and unique. Again, he was charismatic as well as practiced and confident. I could tell all that from the excellent writing of Daria Polatin, who I wasn’t familiar with at the time, other than seeing her name as executive producer/showrunner on the project.
“They sent me two [audition] sides; the first was Malachi giving a sermon to his community, and the second was a scene involving him and his son, which I connected to right way. It wasn’t very long, but it was a tense exchange with a 19-year-old being slightly admonished by and then shown some love by his father. With help from a buddy of mine, I recorded both scenes on a self-tape and sent them in [to the show’s producers]. They liked what I’d done and just had a few notes. They wanted another tape with those adjustments, which I did, and I think it was in the subsequent callback that they shared with me that Devil in Ohio is based on a true story and a novel of the same name by Daria Polatin involving a Satanic cult in Ohio during the 90’s. I went out, bought a copy of the book, and read it in one day. Not only did I get an excellent sense of how capable Daria Polatin is as a writer, but that this was also an intriguing, scary and very contemporary story. From there I had a couple of more auditions and eventually got the gig,” he enthuses.
L-R: Malachi Dodd (Tahmoh Penikett) and Peter Mathis (Sam Jaeger) in Devil in Ohio. Photo by Ricardo Hubbs and copyright of Netflix.
The focus of Devil in Ohio is teenager Mae Dodd (Madeleine Arthur), the survivor of a bizarre cult who carries with her a lasting memory of that experience, specifically, a pentagram carved into her back. She is under the care of a psychiatrist, Dr. Suzanne (Emily Deschanel), who takes the girl into her home for a few days. It is not long before this mysterious stranger starts to weave her way into the life of the doctor’s fifteen-year-old daughter Jules (Xaria Dotson), doing everything from wearing the girl’s clothes to vying for the attentions of Jules’ boyfriend. There appears to be no line that Mae will not cross in her efforts to turn her life into a mirror image of Jules’. Meanwhile, as much as Mae might want to leave the cult behind, it remains within a stone’s throw and very much a danger. Not surprisingly, Malachi has a huge role to play in his community’s ongoing interest in Mae.
“I think you learn early on in the show that Malachi is connected to some more than questionable actions as a parent,” notes Penikett. “However, you’re not given the whole story, which makes you curious about what would drive someone to do this, and even more curious about the community that my character comes from. Slowly, all the pieces start falling into place regarding this community and its religion, social views, how it conducts itself, and the way it treats its children. When you’re finally introduced to Malachi, you can see that he's dealing with multiple struggles as both a community leader and a parent. He’s not just this nefarious bad guy that you’ve been hearing about. Malachi is a multi-layered individual, as are we all, and he's trying to address a variety of issues as, again, a leader, a father, and human being. As the story continues to unfold, you get to see different sides of him and are given glimpses of his strength as well as charisma, and, alternately, his weakness and desperation.
“Acting-wise, for me, the trickiest thing about this role was that they really spread my scenes, out,” continues the actor. “I’m always astounded by the first AD [assistant director], who must take all the different departments and various logistics into consideration when putting together a [shooting] schedule. Unfortunately, it can be really challenging for an actor. Most actors want to get in there and have a few scenes every day or a few days of work in a row to find their feet and really get into their role. In this instance, though, just because of the schedule – which was no one’s fault – I was brought in on the first day of shooting for one quick scene, and then wasn’t needed back on set for two-and-a-half-weeks. I filmed another scene, and then didn’t return for another three weeks.
L-R: Malachi Dodd (Tahmoh Penikett) and his son Noah (Keenan Tracey) in Devil in Ohio. Photo by Ricardo Hubbs and copyright of Netflix.
“So you lose momentum a bit, which was challenging for me at times, even being a veteran in this business. I sometimes felt like I was almost starting over, at least during the initial two or three times I was on set. I’m not a lazy performer by any means. If I’m given the time, I can get a little obsessive about prepping for a role, and with this project I was given the time, so I looked at it as an opportunity and went for it. Part of my reason for doing that was because of the big gaps between filming my scenes. Whenever I was in front of the cameras, I wanted to make sure that I was as prepared as possible.
“One of my favorite scenes is where Malachi is in church and delivers this very impassioned sermon to his entire flock. It was something that I worked on a lot and really looked forward to doing. The art department and set dec did an incredible job of converting this barn into a church, and to get up in front of all these people and shoot a scene where I was the main focus was exhilarating. It's part of why we as actors do what we do. The reason I connected to this scene and was so excited about it, was that it was a version of the audition scene that got me this job. It was also one of the last scenes I filmed for the show, so it felt like a culmination of everything I had done and remains a very cherished memory for me.”
While Malachi’s relationships with his two children may not be ideal, both are important to the character and help define who he is. “Viewers will see that Mae is everything that Malachi is, and maybe even more,” muses Penikett. “There has been a dynasty of men who have inherited this cult/community, and it includes not only Malachi’s father, but his grandfather, too. There are generations of them; Malachi was raised to follow in their footsteps, as is, he’s hoping, his son. However, in Mae we see her extreme intellect along with drive and the hunger for something more. There is a strength in her that questions the way that this community conducts itself, which in Mae’s eyes, isn’t right. That’s a challenge to Malachi, not to mention terrifying to him as well, but I hope you will also see the love that he has for his daughter.
Malachi Dodd (Tahmoh Penikett) and Sheriff Wilkins (Bradley Stryker) in Devil in Ohio. Photo by Ricardo Hubbs and copyright of Netflix.
“My character also has a very clear and close relationship with his son Noah [Keenan Tracey], which probably wasn’t easy for him to establish given the dynasty that Malachi comes from. They’re very old and hardhanded with their views and the way they conduct themselves, as his father was with him, and his grandfather was to his father. Noah will hopefully inherit the throne, and Malachi works with him and is hard on him in ways that he hopes will unsure that his son has the strength and fortitude to take his seat when he’s gone.
“Another interesting relationship that Malachi has is with Sheriff Wilkins, played by Bradley Stryker, who’s a good friend of mine. The sheriff is Malachi’s righthand man; he goes out and takes care of business for my character, no matter how serious the business. Malachi has tremendous trust in this man, and I would say that Wilkins feels the same way towards my character. The sheriff has a reverence as well as sense of loyalty and duty to his leader that I think is quite compelling to watch.”
2022 has been a busy year for Penikett. In addition to Devil in Ohio, he guest-starred in the first-ever NFT (non-fungible token)-integrated live-action Sci-Fi series GenZeroes as well as played Major Stevens in the feature film Bones of Crows and Jacob Cardinal in the upcoming Rehab. “My best buddy Aleks Paunovic, who I’m so proud of and has had so much success in this business over the years, is wearing the executive producer hat in GenZeroes, and he’s quite good at it,” praises the actor. “He has an amazing team around him, and Aleks, being such a loyal person to the [acting] community, reached out to several of us Vancouver actors about the project. We all came together to film multiple scenes of this fascinating idea of an alternate future, and I had a blast. I had the pleasure of working not only with some amazing new talent in Vancouver, but also people who I’ve known for years and worked with before like Kandyse McClure [Lt. Anastasia Dualla in Battlestar Galactica] and another old friend of mine, [stunt actor/coordinator] Kimani Ray Smith, who was directing. My character of Ranger was in many ways written for me, and I hope we have the chance to tell more of this story.
“Bones of Crows is an excellent project that’s important to Canada, and one that the world needs to hear. Marie Clements is from the Metis indigenous Nation, and a well-respected playwright/director/producer/performer of the highest caliber. She wrote this story, which is set over many decades in one family’s life. Many people are aware of the Navaho code talkers and how essential their work was to us winning World War II. What a lot of people don’t know is that the Allied forces also used Cree, which is another indigenous language, to the same effect, and that story really hasn’t been told. The shameful side of it is that a lot of these indigenous heroes returned home after the war and weren’t even given their veteran’s pay. They were disgraced and forgotten about by the government. The indigenous in Canada weren’t even given the right to vote until 1967, and yet the nation had no problem institutionalizing their children so that they never saw their families. This was done with help from many different churches in North America. The government seized these children and sent them to residential [boarding] schools where they were, unfortunately, sexually, physically, and psychologically abused for most of their childhood. They were then sent home broken shells. The damage that was done will go on for generations. This movie really touches on that; it’s something that all Canadians need to see, and I would argue Americans, too, and I’m incredibly proud to be a part of it.
“As for Rehab, I shot that about a year-and-a-half ago and it should be coming out soon. It was written by another friend of mine, Andrew Genell, a very gifted Sto:lo Nation indigenous writer. I star in the film with such talented people as Jennifer Podemski and Eric Johnson as well as some amazing young indigenous performers, who have some terrific opportunities ahead of them, so I can’t help but give a shout out to this project.”
Steve Eramo
Comments