Available in full on Disney+, the very successful mini-series On God’s Order stars Andrew Garfield as a Mormon detective in charge of a case based on a true story. But is his character also real?
This is one of the series not to be missed this summer on Disney+ : adaptation in 7 episodes of Jon Krakauer’s bestseller, On God’s Order looks back on a real criminal case that hit the headlines across the Atlantic. At the top of the poster, Andrew Garfield leads the investigation in the guise of Mormon Inspector Jeb Pyre.
July 1984. In a small town in Utah, Brenda Wright Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her 15-month-old baby are found murdered – two members of an influential family in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to which almost all the inhabitants belong. During a harrowing investigation, Detective Jeb Pyre’s faith will be put to the test…
Created, written, produced and directed by Dustin Lance Black (Harvey Milk), who himself grew up in a Mormon household, this mini-series is inspired by very real events. But does its main protagonist really exist?
Disney+
PREPARING ANDREW GARFIELD FOR THE ROLE
Contrary to what one might think for such an adaptation, the story of By God’s Command is told through the eyes of two entirely fictional characters, Inspector Jeb Pyre and his partner Bill Taba (Gil Birmingham), who do not appear in Jon Krakauer’s book.
If Dustin Lance Black did meet one of the detectives who worked on the real deal, he asked him not to be represented on screen. “It gave me the opportunity as a writer to ask myself, ‘Okay, what points of view would help viewers experience this story in the same way that readers go through the book?’”the director told Newsweek.
This is how the character of Jeb Pyre was born, which puts the events recounted in the mini-series into perspective, as well as the tension felt by this fervent Mormon between religion and the terrible reality he has to face. . “That was my question at the end of the book, and I think it’s the one Pyre asks himself at the end of the series: ‘Now what?’ explained Dustin Lance Black to IndieWire. ‘I came out of this cave, I left the darkness, I have a better understanding of things – now what do I do?’”
Disney+
To prepare for his role and understand it a little better, Andrew Garfield went to the campus of Brigham Young University, which welcomes almost exclusively student members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As he tells Newsweek, the actor also had the opportunity to exchange with a Mormon inspector in charge of a case similar to that told in the mini-series, and which particularly shook his faith. A meeting that obviously brought a lot to his masterful interpretation!
Discover now Andrew Garfield as Inspector Jeb Pyre in the mini-series On God’s Order, available in full on Disney+.