Matt Smith Is The Latest Actor To Tackle Charles Manson In The ‘Charlie Says’ Trailer

If it feels to you like everyone’s playing Charles Manson in films this year, there’s a solid reason for that, given that the 50th anniversary of the Tate murders arrives on August 9. So not only is Dewey Crowe Damon Herriman playing two versions of the cult leader — for Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (set in 1969) and David Fincher’s Mindhunter (a 1980s arc) — but Ben Mellish is taking on the killer role in the Hilary Duff-starring horror movie, The Haunting Of Sharon Tate. And now we’ve got a first look at Matt Smith in a Manson wig and beard in the Charlie Says trailer.

Smith, who’s best known for his roles in Doctor Who and The Crown, appears to be leaving heavily upon the enigmatic side of things with his portrayal while strumming a guitar and delivering hypnotizing gazes. To be fair, though, this movie doesn’t entirely revolve around the cult leader but tackles the aftermath as experienced by the Manson Girls. Directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol), here’s the film’s synopsis:

Years after the shocking murders that made the name Charles Manson synonymous with pure evil, the three women who killed for him — Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins — remain under the spell of the infamous cult leader. Confined to an isolated cellblock, the trio seem destined to live out the rest of their lives under the delusion that their crimes were part of a cosmic plan, until an empathetic graduate student attempts to rehabilitate them.

Charlie Says arrives in select theaters on May 17, 2019.