Exclusive Interview: Shantel VanSanten Talks American Murderer, the Magic of Collaboration, and More

Actress Shantel VanSanten has always chased stories that spark curiosity and fear and challenge her as a storyteller. She’s starred in critically-acclaimed series and blockbuster films including For All Mankind, The Boys, and FBI. Her latest project, American Murderer, finds Shantel embodying the character of Jamie Brown, a young woman who must come to terms with the actions of her brother.

Based on a true story, the riveting thriller follows Jason Derek Brown (Tom Pelphrey), a charismatic con man bankrolling his extravagant lifestyle through a series of scams. On Brown’s trail: Lance Leising (Ryan Phillippe), a dogged FBI special agent determined to put Brown behind bars. When Brown’s funds run low and his past catches up with him, he plots his most elaborate scheme yet, pitting himself against Leising in a deadly game of cat and mouse — and becoming the most unlikely and elusive fugitive on the FBI’s most-wanted list.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Shantel about American Murderer, the magic of collaboration, and more.

PC: You’ve done it all throughout your career. What was it about this script and playing Jamie that attracted you to this project?
Shantel: When I first got the script, I knew it was based on a true story, but we weren’t doing a documentary. I read the script and I saw the relationship that I would get to help portray between Jamie and her brother. To get to work with Tom [Pelphrey] who was attached to the project was a really big pull for me. Then I had a conversation with Matthew Gentile and saw his passion for the subject, the project, and his investment in it and knew that I had things that I wanted to bring to the table. I saw how open he was to collaborate, and it felt like a perfect fit.

PC: Is the preparation for a film like this different when you’re playing an actual person and there’s so much material online to research from? What was that process like getting ready to step into her shoes?
Shantel: Yeah. There’s a lot of research that happens for every single role because I’m not always going to know somebody’s job. I’m not always going to know where they live, the time period, or whatever it might be. I want to have as much information as possible. That’s one of the exciting parts about what I do. The more information I can gain, the more truth I have to pull from. But I wanted to understand him and the facts that were known and then in other places be able to fill in the gaps with the emotional experience and not just with other people’s theories or ideas and bring the perspective of a familial relationship.

PC: American Murderer provides a 360 view of Jason. His relationship with Jamie is where we see him in his most honest form. How did you and Tom build that sibling dynamic?
Shantel: We shot this in 2020 during the pandemic. Early on after we had the cast together, we would do readthroughs on Zoom with Matthew and talk through our ideas ahead of time. When you’re shooting an independent film, the more prep that you can do before you get there on the day the better. Getting to do those, you hear each other’s perspectives. I knew I was only one slice of the pie, only one filter of understanding him, but a really important one. That’s something that Tom and I really talked about: to experience the person whom he wished he could be through his sister’s eyes—the one who was fun, the one who everybody loved and adored, her included.

Sometimes in our lives, the people who love us see the best version of us and we want to be that. At the end of the day, we’re all human. I’m not saying that we’re all murderers, but there’s a human side to us all that we want to hide from the people that we love the most to preserve their ideas of us.

PC: Beautifully said. Without giving any spoilers, towards the end of the film, Jamie is forced to come to terms with what she is and isn’t willing to do for her brother, and for the first time, she has to see him through a different lens. You handled that journey with so much nuance. As an actress, how did you create the space for yourself to dive into those more emotionally charged moments?
Shantel: I have a toolbox in my own life with emotions that I can pull, which I can draw from my own family dysfunction. It’s nuanced. It’s gray, not black and white. It’s not as simple as my brother committed a heinous crime and I need to turn him in. That’s the right thing to do. Quite often, we don’t always arrive at the right thing to do, and that’s where the lessons are.

I really try to understand with empathy and without judgment. Why would we choose to do what we perceive is the wrong thing? It’s pretty simple when it comes to family and love. It’s completely understood. Now, that doesn’t mean that when you watch it, you’re not screaming at the TV and wanting her to do the right thing. But at the end of the day, we understand it because of our own family and love dynamics.

PC: This is Matthew’s feature-length debut as a writer and director. What was it like getting to collaborate with him and sharing that moment? Is the experience different when you’re working on a project where the person who wrote the script is also at the helm directing?
Shantel: It is because it’s so immersive. Matthew is so passionate and so lovely. But also the best thing about him is that sometimes writer-directors will be so immersed that they have a tight hold on the project and what they want, but he truly allowed it to breathe. Maybe it’s because he started this journey years before we ever got to film it. Some of his ideas had evolved. He wasn’t precious about it. He knew and trusted the talent that was around him to make it even better.

The best version of any script comes out of a collaborative experience. It’s the producer standing there with the director and the actors throwing out ideas. It’s not the best one wins. It’s what we’ve molded together. That’s what wins. That’s where the magic is. It’s when you trust everybody’s perspective, respect it, and try it. What comes out of that is a smorgasbord of amazingness. You went to the buffet and you got a bit of everything.

PC: You’ve worked on projects of all sizes. What is it about independent filmmaking that excites you as a creative?
Shantel: You never know what it’s going to be. With For All Mankind on Apple TV, we knew on some level it was going to be big because of the budget. On independent films, you never know. There’s a spark, but you don’t know what it’s going to turn into. Will it just be a campfire? Will it be a forest fire? You just don’t know. You get to walk into it and know you’re one tiny, small part of what’s going to happen. So much of it is out of your control that you show up and give creatively with your whole heart to tell a truthful story. The rest is history.

PC: Speaking of television, what have you learned from your time on all those different shows that you’ve been able to apply to your career on the big screen?
Shantel: Every job has given me so much experience and knowledge, but I’ve said it in this interview: collaboration is key. I don’t always have the best idea. I only have my small perspective, experience, and lens that I view things through. If I go into it valuing, respecting, and wanting to collaborate with people who have stories and the same motivations, what ends up happening is magical.

PC: You’re absolutely captivating in this film. Is there a scene in particular that you’re really excited for your fans to see now that it’s available digitally everywhere?
Shantel: It was the one that was the scariest in my mind to face, which is when she comes back and he’s packing his bags. She doesn’t want it to be real. She doesn’t want the news to be true. She wants to believe in the best version of her brother.

Then when she’s faced with the complexities of her feelings…thinking back on it, it’s like your worst nightmare is right in front of you, whether you’re denying it, whether you don’t want it to be real, and you have to wrap your head around it. It’s that grief from the loss of the person that you expected them to be and your worst nightmare coming true. That scene was so much fun to sink my teeth into.

Also, those silly scenes where my brothers are packing up the back of a truck. We’d all be on set laughing and having a great time. It felt like there was some sort of familial sibling relationship that was developing, and it was really special.

PC: Outside of this project, what’s next for you?
Shantel: I’m currently on FBI on CBS for a few more episodes finishing out my run on that show. And then I’m maybe possibly going back to playing a character I’ve played before and can’t say anything else.

PC: That’s a great teaser. You’ve brought so many dynamic characters to life on the screen. What’s left on your bucket list?
Shantel: Oh my goodness. There’s so much left on my bucket list. I don’t even know if I know it until it falls into my lap what story I’m being called to tell. But I know that my soul is that of a storyteller, and I have experiences in my toolbox that I can lend to so many different types of roles and genres. I’m excited to find a new space that I can call home, a new form and body that I get to take on and tell my stories through. I search for the thing that sparks curiosity and fear inside me. That way I can grow and prove to myself that I don’t suck. [laughs]

To keep up with Shantel, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Watch American Murderer wherever you stream movies.