‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’s Murray Bartlett breaks down his deliciously devilish Episode 3 performance: “Dennis is kind of a sociopath”

Episode 3 of Apple TV‘s dark comedic thriller Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed will leave viewers utterly terrified of cold-blooded killer Dennis O’Neill, and in absolute awe of the brilliant Murray Bartlett.

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Episode 3 spoilers ahead.

After Maximum Pleasure‘s two-episode premiere ended with Dennis (Bartlett) finding Hazel’s (Nola Wallace) soccer cleats, Episode 3, “Chuttle,” saw him execute an elaborate plan to track her and Paula (Tatiana Maslany) down. The resourceful villain used a scrap of paper from the bag Paula left near the crime scene to find her local pizza joint. Then he searched nearby elementary schools, bought four pairs of identical pink cleats, and inserted trackers into each. He dropped the shoes off at each school’s Lost & Found, and when Hazel picked them up before practice, he followed the tracker and watched her get picked up.

Assuming Paula was behind the wheel, Dennis intently tailed the SUV through traffic. And naturally, in the middle of his important mission, Detective Gonzalez (Dolly de Leon) called to report his boyfriend Jeff Thorwald/Trevor’s (Brandon Flynn) murder.

After clocking the NYPD’s number, Dennis’ eyes lingered on the phone for a brief moment before he sprung into action. He rolled up the window, answered the call in a calm voice, and effortlessly played dumb as Gonzalez broke the news. While keeping his eyes on the SUV in front of him and navigating chaotic city streets, Dennis cycled through accelerated grief, shock, disbelief, and sadness. Tears welled in Bartlett’s eyes, his voice changed, his breathing grew heavy, his face contorted, and he broke down sobbing — all while keeping his eyes locked on the prize. When he was tired of the act, he hung up on Gonzalez, cut the waterworks, returned to his resting face, and casually took a swig from his water bottle. Absolutely chilling.

When chatting with DECIDER over Zoom, Bartlett broke down his award-worthy Episode 3 performance and shared his thought process when approaching the scene. Though he credits the show’s great writing for the “wonderful challenge,” the words came off the page so impressively because of his immense talent and the fact that he did his homework on Dennis.

“That’s kind of a dreamy scene on paper for an actor. It’s also terrifying, because he’s like, ‘Oh my god. OK. I’ve got to do this thing now, but also basically do this. Doing one or two things at the same time is such a great challenge. My way into it was one of key things that I was working on with Dennis, which was that he’s kind of a sociopath,” Bartlett explained. “There was this amazing book that I found called Sociopath: A Memoir written by this woman [Patric Gagne] who is a sociopath. [She’s] dispelling myths around it and explaining what that means, and that sociopaths become expert mimics. In college, she used to go to parties and just sit and watch people to learn how they interact socially. So that was helpful in a scene like that, where he’s the ultimate actor here.”

Since acting inherantly requires expert multi-tasking, playing a character who’s putting on an act challenges one to flex even more complex muscles.

“He’s doing one really intense task while dealing with a really intense phone call, but he’s already compartmentalizing all these emotional states that he’s bringing to these situations. So the challenge is to do both at the same time,” Bartlett reflected. “Because he’s not, at his core, really feeling these things, he’s acting them, it gave me a freedom to be like, ‘OK, as an actor, I’m just going to go for it. And if it doesn’t feel authentic, that’s OK. Because he’s acting this stuff.’”

Throughout Episode 3, Murray shows impressive range as he plays a calculated, manipulative, eerily charming character with intense determination, intelligence, and ruthlessness — right up until that jaw-dropping cliffhanger. While I’m obviously rooting for Paula and her loved ones’ safety at all costs, it’s also impossible to watch Murray’s deliciously devilish Maximum Pleasure performance and not crave more. So I can’t wait to see what else the series has in store for him and Dennis.

New episodes of Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV.