This movie ruined my career and ended my dating life. 30 years later, it's seeing a resurgence on Netflix.

Yahoo

2 days ago

William McNamara opens up to Yahoo about "Copycat" — the film that derailed his career — and how it's suddenly finding a new life 30 years later, thanks to Netflix.
In high school and into college, I watched my VHS copy of 1988's Stealing Home approximately 876 times. William McNamara, with his tousled hair and Hollywood-approved cheekbones, played a teen whose relationship with his childhood babysitter defined his coming of age.
Back then, McNamara was on a path to leading man status. The heartthrob graced the pages of fan magazines, made a movie with the Coreys, shared the screen with rising star Reese Witherspoon and was cast as golden-age icon Montgomery Clift. He even dated Brooke Shields.
Everything was coming up Billy — and then he sort of vanished.
Blame Copycat — or at least he does. In the 1995 psychological thriller starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter, McNamara played a clean-cut sociopath. Perhaps too well.
'It ruined my career,' he tells Yahoo. 'I was on the leading man trajectory — the good guy roles. All of a sudden … casting agents said, 'No, I saw Billy in Copycat. He's too edgy. He's too dark. He's too comfortable in that role. There's no acting. That had to be him.'
After that, the parts McNamara got offered changed, and his leading man status faded. It also killed his dating life. Women 'saw the movie and my character disturbed them,' he says.
So you can imagine the whiplash he felt when, 30 years later, Copycat landed on Netflix and rocketed to the platform's global Top 10 the week of June 16, charting in 46 countries. The film that derailed his career was suddenly back.
Stunned by its resurgence, McNamara talks to Yahoo about the film's surprise second life, the toll it took on his career and his hope for another shot.
The comeback
McNamara had no idea the Jon Amiel-directed film landed on Netflix until his social media started blowing up in June.
'I was getting 100 new Instagram followers a day and all these [direct] messages,' he says. 'I go on IMDbPro's STARmeter and usually I'm between 5,000 to 10,000, which is not bad for a '90s star, by the way. I was (No.) 165, above Angelina Jolie. I thought it was a mistake. Then a couple of people started texting: 'Hey, Copycat is trending.'
The whole thing 'blew my mind,' he says of Copycat getting 6 million views in a week on the streaming service. It also 'tells me that I make an impression on people. I have a supporting role in Copycat. For that many people to look me up [says something]. They should give me another shot today.'
The killer role that changed everything
McNamara was cast against type as Peter Foley — a soft-spoken, button-down shirt-wearing guy who's secretly mimicking infamous murderers.
'I didn't suspect at all that I would be asked to do a serial killer role,' he says. 'I thought he was interested in me for the detective role [that went to] Dermot Mulroney.'
At his two meetings with the director, he didn't read lines. They talked, which McNamara says felt more like 'a psychiatric tour of my life' than an audition. Finally, an offer followed.
'My agent at the time said, 'They want you to play the serial killer,'' he recalls. 'I was like, 'Really? I don't know if I could do that.' He said, 'This is an important film… It's Warner Bros. You need to do this.' I thought: It seems difficult, but at the time, I was not a superstar. The money was very good, and [so was the opportunity to work] on a big studio movie with Sigourney and Holly and Dermot and Harry Connick Jr. … It was like: 'OK, I gotta do it. I gotta just figure this out.''
McNamara prepared extensively for the role, working with forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz, who consulted on the highest-profile criminal cases like Jeffrey Dahmer and FBI profiler Robert Ressler, paying them out of his own pocket.
'I did an interesting, definitely unique portrayal of a serial killer and everybody liked it,' he says. 'I got letters from Warner Bros. and [Regency Enterprises founder] Arnon Milchan, so it seemed everything was good and my career was taking off. Then I was walking through [L.A.'s] Westwood … and two UCLA girls recognized me: 'Hey, we just saw your movie.' I thought they meant Stealing Home, my big movie everybody recognized me from, but they said, 'No, Copycat.'
It turns out they had participated in a test screening of the yet-to-be-released film.
'I said, 'How was the movie?' and they replied, 'Not too good. You didn't score well,' he says. He thought it was a joke until the next day, when his agent called.
'He said, I've got good news and bad news,'' McNamara says. 'Good news: They're not going to fire you. Bad news: Your movie didn't test well. But it's not just you… They've hired Frank Darabont to rewrite the script, and you're going to reshoot for 21 days.'
A surprise acting coach and men in black
Being told reshoots are needed is something 'no actor wants to hear,' McNamara says. But,'it wasn't really all my fault.'
McNamara says he based his character on what he learned through his research, but his performance wasn't 'Hollywood' enough.
'Most serial killers are not movie stars or wildly entertaining people,' he says. 'They're cerebral and very introverted. It wouldn't be exciting to follow the real Jeffrey Dahmer around. You need Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs… It didn't translate. It was unique — nobody had done this particular portrayal of a serial killer — but it was not Hollywood. I learned that lesson.'
Leading up to the reshoots, McNamara was feeling 'panicked.' His mentor, actor Roddy McDowall, offered to have ''my friend Tony coach you'' on the script. 'Tony' turned out to be Anthony Hopkins.
'I brought all my research,' McNamara says. 'I handed it to [Hopkins] and he throws it away. He said, 'That got in your way. No more research. You want to keep it simple, stupid. We're going to memorize your lines backward and forward, and then we're just going to make it a joyous occasion. You're not a serial killer. This is a comedy, and you want to have fun.' It changed my whole perspective on acting.'
While he was Hopkins-trained, the pressure was on. The first day back on the set, McNamara arrived and there were seven or eight men in black suits with their arms crossed.
''They're here for you,'' he says Amiel told him of the FBI look-alikes who turned out to be studio execs, including then-Warner Bros. chairman Terry Semel. 'If you don't knock it out of the ballpark today, they have somebody waiting [to replace you].'
McNamara delivered, but when the film was released to largely positive reviews, he immediately felt a shift in the roles he was offered.
'Before Copycat, I had done a lot of movies playing the leading man, the straight and narrow guy,' he says. 'My agent would [try to get me] edgier roles and it was: 'No … He's too soft. He's too boy next door. He doesn't have any edge.''
When Copycat came out, 'All of a sudden, I'm not on the leading man track anymore because of this dark, edgy guy I played,' he says. 'I started being offered not B movies but [also] not A+ movies to play the bad guy. But for lots of money. I had two mortgages. I had a house on the beach in Malibu. I took the money basically.'
McNamara's career path veered from the high-profile good guy leading man roles to more supporting turns in film and television. However, 'I continued to work,' he says. 'I work all the time. I'm very lucky.'
His professional life wasn't his only disappointment. McNamara's romantic life suffered, too.
'I was a single bachelor and did well with the girls back then,' he says. 'After Copycat came out, [it changed]. [I'd ask a woman], 'Hey, can I get your number?' And she's like: 'Yeah, um, I don't know. I just don't get a good vibe about you.''
He recalled telling his therapist, ''Something really weird is going on. Every girl is rejecting me.' She said: 'Do you think it might be your role?''
They deduced that Copycat viewers didn't consciously recognize McNamara from the film, because his role was supporting, but they subconsciously associated him with his creepy character who drugged drinks and kidnapped and tortured his victims.
Luckily, he was able to turn the 'Billy McNamara charm' back around.
Coming soon: His dream role
With new fans discovering his old movies, McNamara says he'd love to see Stealing Home, 'which didn't get the right amount of attention at the time' and the 'zany and funny' 1994 film Chasers, get their due.
As for his future dream role, it's one 'I created for myself,' he says. ' he says.
McNamara wrote, directed and produced 10 episodes of The Trouble With Billy, a comedy series in which he also stars, about an exaggerated version of himself. It's about a former '90s heartthrob's quest to finance his dog's life-saving heart transplant. (McNamara's an animal activist, making headlines for his efforts.)
The series, which is being shopped around, was created 'out of desperation because for years, I've always wanted to do comedy [but was told], 'You're not funny. You're a dramatic actor,'' he says.
He's had fun leaning into the washed-up actor vibe.
"[I was told]: 'Don't ever show [the series] to a girl you're interested in because it portrays you in a very bad light, like a loser.' But I've never been homeless. I've never lived in my car. They don't do heart transplants on dogs. I have not been abducted by aliens,' he laughs. 'I'm proud of it. It's pretty good.'
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