‘The Thirteenth Wife Escaping Polygamy’: Eric Johnson on Playing ‘Mormon Manson’ in Felicity Huffman Lifetime Movie

Scott Fishman May 30, 2025, 7:18 am

Felicity Huffman and Eric Johnson star in The Thirteenth Wife: Escaping Polygamy — Lifetime

Rena Chynoweth’s harrowing true-life story of survival is told through the two-part movie The Thirteenth Wife: Escaping Polygamy, premiering over two nights on May 31 and June 1 on Lifetime. Felicity Huffman plays present day Chynoweth as she recounts the trauma she endured as a child and teen in a polygamist group in the 1970s before escaping a life of oppression. Olga Petsa steps in for the flashback scenes opposite Eric Johnson, who is the manipulative polygamist group leader Ervil LeBaron. Along with his brother Joel, he ran Colonia LeBaron, a secluded polygamist Mormon settlement in Mexico.

It’s there where followers were commanded to relinquish their possessions and devote themselves to the doctrines set forth by their leaders. At age 16, Chynoweth became Ervil’s 13th wife, groomed to serve as one of his so-called “holy assassins”. At one point, she is coerced into murdering a rival polygamist Dr. Rulon Alfred in 1977.

Chynoweth was acquitted of the crime and and managed to escape the group with other loved ones when Ervil was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating the murder plot. He died in 1981 of apparent suicide after his body was discovered in his cell. Chynoweth has since been dedicated to helping others who have been abused and victimized.

Here Johnson opens up about playing the ruthless “Mormon Manson” and his other villainous turns over the years.

How much of this story did you know prior because this is a pretty intense part?

Eric Johnson: A very intense part. My awareness was zero, so it was a pretty steep learning curve before we got into it. This all kind of happened very quickly too. I think I got the official word that I was doing this on the Friday afternoon, and I was shooting Monday. It was a very quick turnaround and crash course in all things to do with this project and true story. So, it was quick.

You have a history of playing bad guys over the years. Did you pull from any of those particular roles?

It’s interesting because there is an advantage for me playing so many bad guys over the years. The things I learned about them through the years is no bad guy believes they are the bad guy. They are all the heroes of their own story. I’m taking that into consideration here. One of the first things I said to [director] Michael Nankin when we sat down to discuss the character was that he has to earnestly believe everything as if this was all manipulation from the get-go.

It needed to feel truthful to land. There is so much to consume with the history and the true events that I really had to focus on what we are telling in our script. What is the adaptation we’re telling? Then we base everything from there to make sure I’m supporting properly. Man, I just spent a lot of time on those pages going over and over them to make sure what we were doing was going to be truthful and honest for audiences.

How did you get into the character?

I think the first thing I do is look at it from a place of empathy. You have to emphasize with this person to understand where they’ve come from, I honestly believe people who have hurt people have been hurt. I sort of backtrack from there. Where do these internal wounds and need for validation and for grandiose ideas of self come from? I don’t necessarily pull from real people to try and emulate them per say, but find the root emotions that would drive somebody to be like this. Drive someone to hurt someone like this.

Eric Johnson and Olga Petsa in The Thirteenth Wife Escaping Polygamy. (Lifetime)

What was it like to work with Olga, especially during those rather uncomfortable scenes?

That was one of my biggest concerns when I was first reading the project. How am I going to approach this? How are we going to deal with this on set from a practical standpoint. My first concern being that this experience of making this show, as difficult as the subject matter is, should be a positive one. We should all be there for each other. Olga is phenomenal. She may be new to audiences, but is very much new to the craft. She is incredibly professional at such a young age. We were able to have some detailed conversations.

The production, producers and everyone around us were conscientious about all this in terms of the difficult subject matter and making sure we were in a safe place. That we were comfortable because I was uncomfortable in a sense with some of the things we had to do. One of the things I said to Michael, and we were very much on the same page with this, was less is more. The more we put into the audience’s minds what they believe happened and the less we show them. We were going to imagine things far worse than we would show on television. It’s really about the intent behind it. I have to say it was an incredible experience as we did come together very quickly on set. This whole cast was very supportive. We became a fast family and looked out for each other and showed up for each other, not only performance-wise but as people.

Even though you didn’t share too many scenes with her, how was it having Felicity involved and watching her work? She did a great job pulling out that emotion playing someone who had been through this trauma.

It was amazing because I really did get to be a fly on those days. It’s like watching a professional athlete just doing something that is masterful and seems almost effortless. And you know it’s not because you’re trying to do the same thing. The heavy lifting she had to do over three or four days, 20 pages a day of dialogue and making it so emotional and real, it was a masterclass.

It’s interesting that the story is told over two movie-length episodes. What was your takeaway from that?

Telling this story over two movies allows for more detail. The scope of the story expands over decades. That offered unique challenges to us, but it was just doing the survivors justice and telling their story in a way that is not event to event. Here you can feel the emotion and be with them, understand the conflicts and challenges of navigating the day-to-day of this world. To be honest, you could do so much in this world to tell of the people who were affected or victimized or hurt by this process. I’m glad we had four hours of television to tell Rena’s story.

With this being your latest in a long line of credits, is there a tv show you wish you could have been on more?

So many. Every once in a while you get a great mix of people. I would have done four more movies with the group we had. We were lucky. It was an incredibly talented and dedicated group. I would have loved to have done another season of Flash Gordon though. That was a fun one and completely different from the silly, space, costume drama.

Do you think it would have lasted more than one season if it had landed now?

From what I know, we were very close to having Season 2. It was some shuffling around and just didn’t happen for whatever reason far above my paygrade. There is definitely an appetite for it. I think someone should do it now and come back with a hit. Again, he’s a regular guy in a ridiculous situation in outer space. Who doesn’t love outer space fun?

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Of course, fans also know you from Smallville where you made a memorable impact as Whitney Fordman. It was also the set where you even met your wife. How do you reflect on your character’s exit today? Deployed after joining the Marines and eventually killed in battle.

That one is interesting because seeing the show continue on, you want to be there and part of it. I’ve also been incredibly fortunate to do so many things in my career and not be known for one thing. There is something incredible about that stability, but the variety of things I’ve been able to do in my career I’m very thankful for. What I didn’t realize was how much of an impact that show really had. I did my first fan conversation in 20 years this past year and met people where that was their show growing up. It holds a very dear place in their minds and hearts. It was awesome to connect with those people and get a sense of how big that show was and what it meant to them. Even playing the bad guy, it was very cool. It was hard for me not to feel nostalgic for those days.

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What baddie did you really enjoy digging into?

There are lots, but I’d say I played a really fun character on Supernatural. A demon character named Brady and had a blast doing that. That was a one episode thing, but it was a lot of fun because it was tongue-and-cheek and not so heavy and serious. Then also playing Jack Hyde in those Fifty Shades movies. Being the bad guy for movies two and three was a lot of fun. With a very excited fan base, it was cool to bring something like that to life too where they had a definite picture in their head from beloved books. Bringing that to the big screen was a lot of fun.

What do you want to say to viewers before watching The Thirteenth Wife movies?

This is a very rich story. I hope they see the hard work the cast put into this. The performances by this cast are phenomenal. Everyone was going above and beyond on this and it was evident from day one. I have to thank Michael Nankin for that because everyone did the best they could with the resources they had. It was a joy.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

The Thirteenth Wife: Escaping Polygamy premiere, May 31 and June 1, 8/7c, Lifetime