Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Amityville Murders’ John C. Robinson

John C. Robinson is turning heads with his performance as Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. in Daniel Farrands’ The Amityville Murders. The film, based on true events, tells the story of the infamous murderer who, on November 13, 1974, took a high-powered rifle and killed his entire family as they slept.


Pop Culturalist spoke with John about stepping into Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr.’s shoes and his life leading up to that horrific night.

PC: Tell us about your new film, The Amityville Murders.
John: The Amityville Murders is the story of the DeFeo family. It centers around my character, Butch DeFeo, during a time in his life where his father was very abusive. It’s the original story about what happened in the Amityville house. It presents the facts, but also leaves it open for audiences to come to their own conclusions on why what happened, happened.

PC: How did you prepare to play Butch? Is the preparation different when you’re playing a character based on a real life person?
John: Yes, especially since I’ve never played someone who’s in jail—it was pretty daunting. To prepare, I did a lot of research and reading. I needed to understand and put myself in that scenario. What I grabbed onto wasn’t all the stories that you hear about after the fact and his explanation of the event, but what was happening in the house. The main thing that never changed in his story was his father’s abuse. I connected with the repressive intensity of being ultra-masculine that is inherent in our society and culture, especially in the era when Butch did what he did. He was trying to explode from the box that his father was trying to put him in. He didn’t fit in. He was using drugs. His dad wasn’t having any of it. He was psychologically and physically abusive towards him: whether that justifies his actions or not is something else. The question that arises is what that does to someone’s psyche. The mind is very fragile. At the end of the day, I think it’s about what was put on him.

PC: The DeFeo murders have been widely covered by the media. How helpful or challenging was that for you?
John: It was more challenging because there was so much information. People want to speculate and there are so many theories out there. For me, I couldn’t rely on the media; it did help get my mind going, but what was more interesting was tapping into male culture. There hasn’t been a revolution where people have said to boys that they can be different. Even my experience in Los Angeles and doing movies, there’s not a huge celebration for anything outside of masculine actors. That’s what I always harp about: how can we use our medium to show something different? With Butch, this kid felt human to me. What happened to him wasn’t just an accident. There were real things that led him to do what he did. They’re interesting to explore, especially today. How can we stop this from happening? How can we habilitate people? Our justice system just wants to lock people up. How can we support young children who are in serious scenarios? How can we stop from alienating them even more to the point where they go online, buy a gun, and do what they do?

PC: How does this adaptation differentiate itself?
John: We tried to bring a bunch of different ideas to what possibly led Butch to do what he did. Other films try to say it was the voices; it was this and that. That’s both good and bad, so in our film, we try to let the audience decide.


In Dan’s research about the Amityville house, he learned that it was placed on the burial ground of Native Americans. This goes far bigger than our film, but an idea that I was excited to explore is how America is built on the holy grounds of other people and what was their nation. Over time, if we look at our society, in my view, it’s turned into this hyper-violent society, more so than any other country. Maybe these voices and spirits are coming from the karmic, troublesome endeavors of what occurred to create and pave White America into the nation that we’re all part of.

Keep up with John by following him on Twitter and Instagram, and catch The Amityville Murders out now!