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Tarantino and 'Mindhunter' Cast the Same Guy to Play Charles Manson

Damon Herriman must play one hell of a cult leader.
Photos (L) of Mindhunter via Neflix and Manson image (R) by Albert Foster/Mirrorpix/Getty Images.

This week, it was announced that Quentin Tarantino's so-called Manson movie has finally cast its Manson: Justified's Damon Herriman. And while it's not clear how big a part Manson will play in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (how much room will there be between all those cameos, really), it turns out Herriman will have plenty of time to delve into the cult leader character regardless—because he'll play Manson in the upcoming season of Netflix's Mindhunter, too.

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According to a new report from Collider, Mindhunter director David Fincher actually cast Herriman for the part long before Tarantino, shooting the Netflix show's Manson scenes back in July. It's unclear whether Tarantino saw that footage and based his choice off the strength of the clip or if he just stumbled upon Herriman on his own. But in any case, Herriman must make a pretty outstanding Charles Manson since he apparently won over both Fincher and Tarantino, so there are worse ways to be typecast.

The Collider report makes the Mindhunter appearance sound pretty small, probably just involving a few interview scenes between him and FBI investigators Holden Ford and Bill Tench, like we saw with Richard Speck in season one.

The second season of Mindhunter is set in the late 1970s and early 80s, meaning Herriman is actually playing two very different sides of Manson. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood takes place in 1969, during the time of the Tate-LaBianca murders, when Manson was at the height of his influence. By the 1980s, though, the middle-aged Manson was a shell of his former self, mostly invisible behind bars aside from periodically popping up in TV interviews to babble incoherently, so it'll be interesting to see how Herriman tackles these two versions of the notorious murderer on screen.

The new season still doesn't have a release date set, but since Netflix was reportedly still shooting it this summer, it's unlikely that we'll get to see new episodes earlier than next summer—when Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is scheduled to hit theaters as well. Get ready for a Manson-heavy 2019.

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