In 1982 New York real estate heir Robert “Bob” Durst walked into a New York precinct and reported his wife of nine years, Kathleen “Kathie” Durst, missing. Her body was never found. Durst — long suspected in her death — was never criminally charged. Her story is the subject of Lifetime’s original film The Lost Wife of Robert Durst (Saturday, Nov 4 at 8/7c), which is based on investigative journalist Matt Birkbeck’s A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst.
American Idol runner-up and Scorpion star Katharine McPhee warmly paints a picture of a kind and intelligent Kathie Durst, who at age 19 was swept away by the socially awkward and charming Durst (played perfectly by The Originals star Daniel Gillies).
“There’s really not very much about Kathie Durst,” shares McPhee. “Actually, one of the writers who works on Scorpion was on the prosecution team. He was a lawyer before he became a writer. He and I had talked about it, and he was telling me about some journal entries and stuff that he read of hers, but other than that there’s no tape recordings, at least that anyone can get ahold of, to hear her speaking voice or her mannerisms. Our focus was really less on those kind of things, and more on the stories that people told and her journal entries and how she felt about things.”
McPhee was determined not to portray Kathie as too sweet and innocent, as she was a very smart woman in the final months of medical school when she disappeared.
What began as a love story between Bob and Kathie turned into a bizarre (Bob barked like a dog and would disappear for days without telling anyone), abusive (he dragged Kathie out of a family party by her hair) and, ultimately, tragic story.
“I had to come up with a way to empathize with her in staying in that situation. Because people look at it and go, ‘How? How did they stay in that?’” McPhee says. “I tried to find what was the moment that she was like, ‘OK, I know I’m stuck in this situation. I’m stuck with a very, very powerful family, but I’ve got to get out of this, and I’ve got to find a way to use this situation to get me out of this, but in the meantime, I have to play the game.”
Playing the game meant putting up with him so she could get through school, as she was financially dependent upon him.
“The way I looked at it is she got herself into a situation where she became financially dependent on him to help her get through her schooling, and then when he started to threaten that stuff by her threatening to leave and he would just say, ‘Well, leave. Why do you need my money? Go take care of yourself.’ That was her whole thing, ‘That’s what I’m trying to do. I’m a very smart, intelligent woman. I’m trying to get through this schooling so I can support myself,’ and that’s exactly it,” McPhee adds. “Because I’m an actor and you have to make decisions. What’s your motivation? I just made the decision that she kind of felt stuck in this, and this is something I can relate to. You can sometimes feel like you depend on somebody in a relationship for something in particular and you feel like, ‘Oh, wow. I can’t survive without it.'”
In addition to The Lost Wife of Robert Durst film and her ongoing role on Scorpion, McPhee is releasing a romantic new album this month titled I Fall In Love Too Easily.
The Lost Wife of Robert Durst premieres on Lifetime Saturday, Nov. 4 at 8/7c.
