‘Death by Lightning’ Star Michael Shannon on Embodying President James Garfield for Netflix’s Limited Series

“I wish there were more people like James Garfield nowadays,” says Michael Shannon, who plays the corruption-fighting 20th United States president in this moving four-part limited series, Death by Lightning. “The more I learned about him, the more I fell in love with him.”

Based on Candice Millard’s 2011 bestseller Destiny of the Republic, the show follows the parallel paths of the chief executive and his deranged assassin, Charles Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), who shot Garfield in 1881, four months into his term.

The series begins with Representative Garfield of Ohio, a preacher, lawyer, and Civil War hero living on a farm with his children and smart wife, Lucretia, nicknamed Crete (Betty Gilpin). Their relationship had “a strength based on mutual respect,” Shannon says.

Guiteau, meanwhile, has only one ally, his married, long-suffering sister (Paula Malcomson). First seen in jail, he’s stolen money from her family to fund self-aggrandizing projects, including a newspaper. The aimless attention-seeker is in the crowd outside the Republican National Convention when Garfield becomes the surprise presidential nominee after making a rousing speech, which was meant to endorse someone else.

Larry Horricks / Netflix © 2024

Shannon says he felt pressure recreating the reluctant leader’s oration. “It’s scary, knowing it is supposed to be powerful,” he admits. “Garfield’s directing people away from hysteria and towards common sense.”

On the road to victory with Garfield are his vice president, good-time guy Chester Arthur (Nick Offerman), who’s entangled with corrupt New York senator Roscoe Conkling (Shea Whigham, above), and one of the few people Garfield trusts: Maine senator James Blaine (Bradley Whitford).

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Guiteau is an anonymous campaigner but deludes himself into thinking he is instrumental in Garfield’s win. Then events turn him bitter. You’ll hope for Guiteau to spare Garfield, whose love for country and family inspires affection and respect. And you’ll root for the president to survive the painful 79 days after the shooting (some scenes aren’t for the squeamish), during which Crete promises her husband that history will not forget him.

After playing a POTUS, would Shannon ever run for office? “No,” he insists. “They’d eat me alive!”

Death by Lightning, Series Premiere, Thursday, November 6, Netflix