How ‘All Her Fault’ Star Jake Lacy Found a Way Into His Disturbing Character: “He Can Be a White Knight in His Own Mind”

[This story contains major spoilers from Peacock‘s limited series All Her Fault.]

Many of the dark revelations that come out over the course of the twisty thriller All Her Fault involve disturbing actions undertaken by Jake Lacy‘s Peter Irvine.

By the end of the Peacock limited series, Peter’s dead after his wife Marissa (Sarah Snook) lets him succumb to his soy allergy, and viewers and the other characters learn he’s killed two people, was the one who tripped his brother leading to the latter’s disability and let his sister take the blame and, most significantly, replaced his and Marissa’s dead baby with the newborn child of Sophia Lillis’ Josephine Murphy (aka Carrie Finch) after both families were in a car accident.

Though Peter’s actions read as villainous, Lacy says that his biggest challenge was to “legitimize why [Peter’s] made those choices.”

“I had to find my way into that and then stick to those guns even as the rest of those characters and potentially some viewers really don’t agree with some choices he’s made,” he told The Hollywood Reporter at the All Her Fault New York premiere earlier this month.

Indeed, Lacy has put extensive thought into constructing his character’s motivations and backstory.

And in discussing what happened with Peter’s siblings, Lacy reveals Peter’s core trait that gave him “a little door into” understanding the character.

“I think Peter is, at the end of the day, petrified, filled with fear and self loathing and any of these things that poke at his fallibility or his weaknesses are unbearable for him and that that’s hardwired in,” Lacy tells THR. “So even early on, with Brian’s (Daniel Monks) accident, the fact that there’s a quick pivot, an opportunity opens where someone else takes responsibility for this and he can continue to live innocent, is similar to avoiding this pain of losing a child or his responsibility and having been the one driving the car, whether he was paying enough attention and who had the right of way, all these different things, that culpability is removed, and he can remain this white knight in his own mind.”

He continues, “That, to me, is the only way, or the best way, into that character, because then I can have sympathy for someone who is so scared of life or of failing or of coming up short that they would put others at risk; that they would live in delusion and just could not face reality if it questioned their goodness. That’s a little door into not being in judgment of these things Peter has done. The difference between going, ‘Oh, that’s messed up,’ and, ‘You’re a monster.’”

He continues, “Other people might watch the show and be like, ‘Boy, that guy Peter’s a real monster.’ And that’s fine, but my job is to figure out how to justify those things so that I can really believe them, which is even maybe scarier but just sadder in a way I think happens throughout the story, where Peter’s attachment to the reality that he’s built for many, for decades was kind of in lockstep with the reality that everyone else was going along with. It all functioned in an unhealthy but sustainable way. And then when these other things come to light, and he still can’t own up to any part in them, that’s where that ends up being the ultimate sin in that he refuses any admission of guilt or responsibility around.”

Below, in a chat with THR, Lacy breaks down what Peter was thinking during the baby swap and how much his “paranoia” grows when his son is kidnapped, as well as what his life with Marissa and Milo (Duke McCloud) post-revelations would have been like if he had survived. Plus, the actor opens up about his “daunting” next step as he looks to move into writing and directing.

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I read that you didn’t know about the twist and what happens to your character at the end until you were on set. What was your reaction when you found out?

I didn’t know there’d been a car accident and that Peter changed the babies. When I found out, I was thrilled as an actor. It’s always exciting to have more layers. You’ve got more balls in the air, and it means that everything, every choice you’re making, is complicated. It’s informed by four or five other things, what to share and what not to share and paranoia around who knows what, and then people are suspecting you of something and trying not to seem suspicious. A concern that my past actions are now, repercussions of those actions are playing out in some way that I can’t control and things get very complicated, that’s always more fun than just trying to find a person.

In terms of that paranoia, with your character, do you think he thinks about what he’s done with swapping the kids? And does he think that someone’s going to come looking for this kid before the kidnapping? Once he goes missing, does he think that maybe it’s connected to swapping the babies? How much is he living with that paranoia?

I think he thinks there’s a two percent chance that this is connected to Milo not being his biological son, but that two percent chance is taking up an outsized portion of his brain. And he is continually hoping to get some piece of information, to find his son primarily and then also is hoping to get along the way reassurance that his son is not gone because of something he’s done. You obviously want to find your child first, more than just be assuaged of your own guilt. But early on, he feels like it’s a huge coincidence for these things to have anything to do with one another. Then as time goes on and nothing is pointing to a clear answer, that paranoia gets stronger and stronger. It’s early on in the show, but Michael Peña’s Detective Alcaras shows us the photo of Carrie Finch, and Peter’s not able to place whether that is or is not definitively the woman he saw in that car five years earlier. That only builds the concern. He’s also under the assumption she was deceased. He believed she was deceased at the time, and so there would have to be some other explanation that he’s not able to arrive at as to a family member, a DNA test or something beyond his knowledge.

In terms of that moment in the car accident when the exchange was made, what do you think was going through Peter’s mind? How much of it is him acting on instinct? How much is he thinking of replacing one child with the other?

I think he believes wholeheartedly he was in shock and that he could prevent Marissa from having to grieve the loss of a child, their child, by making this swap, that it’s a weight he would carry privately so she didn’t have to, and believes correctly that his son has died and believes incorrectly that the mother of the other child is also dead. That all is a story that he believes to be true in terms of circumstance and also his own intention, and from outside of that perspective, I think it’s partially shock and partially that the reality of his son dying is too great for him to face fully. And this seems like a way to erase a bad moment, that if there’s some way to push forward and these deaths somehow cancel one another out and their life can continue on, then everything will be OK. That’s where his, the character’s, narcissism and control and God complex of sorts comes into play, but you don’t get to make those choices, right? That’s not your place to decide how someone’s life moves forward like that, both the child and also Marissa, like you can’t protect a person from grief like that. I don’t think you get to choose who feels what and in what quantity or quality.

Obviously Peter dies at the end, but before that happens, what does he imagine his life is going to look like with Marissa and Milo now that it’s all out there, all of these horrible things? Does he think that everything is just going to go back to normal?

Yes, I really do. I think he thinks it will be a long road back, but still believes in the goodness of what he’s done and that those closest to him will also eventually arrive at that perspective. But that’s sort of Peter’s point of view throughout is like, “I see it this way, and if you don’t see it this way, that’s because you have a deficit. You’re not seeing the whole picture, or you don’t have enough experience, or you’re not smart enough, or whatever it is, but if you were any of those things, experienced enough, smart enough, analytical enough, you also would see the world as I do.” And that’s not correct, ultimately, but that’s his point of view.

It’s like, Jenny (Dakota Fanning) is speaking to her husband early on saying, like, who’s going to pick Jacob (Tayden Jax Ryan) up from school? And he’s going, like, it’ll be fine. And she’s like, you can’t just say it’ll be fine. You have to actually do something to make it OK. You have to take an action because it’s not just going to be you saying it’s OK, and then I change my whole schedule to make it OK. And I think that is Peter’s point of view, is like it’s all going to be all right, meaning I will keep my perspective, and you eventually will succumb to my perspective, and then we will move forward together. And Marissa has had enough. She’s like, that’s a bridge too far. I will never, I will never agree with the actions you’ve taken. But also, this is my son, like, for all intents and purposes, this is my son.

You certainly put a lot of thought into Peter’s motivations for these things, and when you were acting and filming these scenes, were there specific scenes where you were sort of particularly challenged, or struggled with components of these revelations and how did you overcome those challenges?

There’s a scene on the stairs, where Marissa has the phone with the recording on it and I am trying to find a way to get the phone from her. And that was tricky because those scenes just on paper Peter reads as a villain and reads as threatening to his wife and is willing to show himself in that light to her. You can’t come back from that: Once you’ve shown the person you supposedly trust the most and who trusts you the most that you are, in fact, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, it doesn’t matter if you claim to go back to being a sheep, they know you’re the wolf. But as we go deeper and deeper into the story, the shot selection might be more indicative of perspective from Marissa, in which case my performance leaning more toward a willingness to show that aggression or that threat is OK, because you’re showing what Marissa is experiencing more than the objective frame of two people interacting.

And so then that becomes acceptable, performance wise. And so some of that is trusting the director and the dp as to how they’re going to film it or edit it and what they want that moment to be. Do they want it to be as close to accurate as you would live that in real life? Or do they want something that shares perspective that’s letting an audience see it and decide for themselves? So that becomes tricky. That’s less about, you know, how do I reveal this? Or when do I do this? And maybe a different answer to that question is, is finding it was really fun in the group scenes in which, you know, Brian is roaming around drunk in his wheelchair, I’m accusing Lia (Abby Elliott) of taking the pills, kind of chewing out Colin (Jay Ellis).

There’s this constant switching of tactics, in essence of Peter saying, like, I love you so much; that’s why I’m so hard on you. No one loves you as much as I do. The proof is that I’m the hardest on you. And that was a lot of fun to hear people and take them in and also play the victim and also put them in their place again and to feel the foundation shaking a little under my feet. The agreed upon relationship dynamics are starting to change, and that’s not great for Peter emotionally or logistically.

You’ve said that, going forward, you want to write and direct. How’s that going? Have you started writing things? Have you talked with writers and directors that you’ve worked with? What’s the update on that?

I have begun writing. It’s really daunting. When I started acting, I had a real expectation, an unrealistic expectation, as to what the result needed to be. I grew up loving films and then even with the knowledge of there’s an editor and music and the lighting and the director and the dp and multiple takes and all these things, I still held some kind of, you know, a performance that exists in a film as what the baseline should be. And it took, like, 15 years of doing this, of acting, to go like, hey, that’s not realistic. One take might offer one good version of one line, and you want them all to be the best they can be. But, you know, a performance is being stitched together for better or worse.

I’m sure there are great performances that nobody got to see because somebody edited together a not great performance, or vice versa, like people making great performances out of a pretty good showing on set. But I still, as a newcomer to writing, still hold myself to this completely unrealistic standard that, like the first draft will be the best it’s going to be, even though I’m on set all the time speaking to a writer, saying, “Can I say it this way?” Or, “Why is this line that way?” And they go, “Oh, that’s from an older draft, actually, that connected through to that. So you should just lose the first part.” Like it’s constantly in flux, and I create a little prison for myself of going, like, “Get it right, or don’t do it at all.” And it’s been a little journey of trying to figure out why I set myself up like that. No one is like, “First try, Jake, or else we don’t want to hear from you again.” But that seems to be some mode of working that I probably used to be comfortable with, and now I’m not, and I’m kind of figuring that out in real time.

So do you feel like maybe you can take more ownership over a project that you’ve written or directed?

Yeah, and I heard a wonderful interview with Tom Hanks maybe five years ago, where he’s like, I wish every director would act, partially so they understand how difficult everyone’s job is. So it’s a mix. I feel like I’m in awe of people who write well, both dialogue and structurally, and yes, I’m really excited to feel like I get to build a story the way that I want to build it and include the pieces I think I want to include and leave out the ones that I don’t have much care for. But, yeah, it’s fun. (Laughs.) I’m saying it’s fun. That’s a lie. It’s just, I’m just so scared (laughs), and I’m trying so hard to not be as scared as I am.

Well, you certainly put a lot of thought into it and seem to be very passionate about it.

Yes, yes, I care a great, great deal.

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All eight episodes of All Her Fault are now streaming on Peacock.