If Jennifer Coolidge ever buys a house and starts receiving threatening letters from an anonymous stalker, she knows exactly how she’ll handle the situation.
“I would have 15 pit bulls,†Coolidge says. “I’d say, ‘Don’t redo the bathroom. The first room I’m having built in here is a safe room.’ I would be jacked with cameras. I would have cameras everywhere. I would have them, actually, across the street at the neighbor’s house, coming off their trees, so it would give a point of view of my house. I’ve thought this through.â€
Coolidge is on a Zoom call with several of her castmates from The Watcher, the Netflix thriller that debuts today and was inspired by a 2018 New York article by Reeves Wiedeman. It tells the true story of Derek and Maria Broaddus, a couple who bought a six-bedroom, $1.35 million home in Westfield, New Jersey, and immediately started receiving menacing letters from an anonymous source who claimed to be “the watcher†of the house. The author implied that their desirable 657 Boulevard address was haunted and their children may be in danger. “Will the young blood play in the basement?†the mystery writer asked in one letter. “Or are they too afraid to go down there alone. I would [be] very afraid if I were them.†The letters sparked controversy in the Westfield community and spooked the couple so much that they never moved in. In a recent update to the original article, Wiedeman reported that the house was eventually sold (at a loss) to a younger couple and that The Watcher’s identity has still not been determined.
TV megaproducer Ryan Murphy and his frequent writing and producing partner Ian Brennan have taken the foundation of the Broaddus’ story — a couple buys a new home and is harassed by disturbing, untraceable letters — and constructed their own haunted-house tale on top of it. The series is replete with eccentric neighbors (Margo Martindale plays Mo, who immediately finds a reason to dislike the new family on the block; Mia Farrow’s Pearl is a local historian who seems to know a great deal about 657 Boulevard), jump-scare encounters involving dumbwaiters, at least one social-climbing real-estate agent (that’s Karen, the character played by Coolidge), and plenty of reasons to give Dean and Nora Brannock (Bobby Cannavale and Naomi Watts) severe buyer’s remorse. Noma Dumezweni joins the fray as Theodora, a private investigator who becomes invested in determining The Watcher’s identity.
Only Coolidge was familiar with the article beforehand — “I know about all the creepiest stories for some reason,†she says — but both Martindale and Farrow admit to gobbling up both true and fictional crime stories, too.
“I don’t think there’s a murder you can talk about that I haven’t read about in the greatest detail I can possibly Google,†says Farrow. “Just the curiosity about what is the workings of that killer’s mind?â€
“All I read is crime and mystery and thrillers and suspense,†adds Martindale, “so that I’m not as scared as I am in life. I want to know somebody else is more afraid than I am.â€
Other people may be more afraid than the actors in The Watcher, but perhaps no one is as prepared to deal with the possibility of being stalked by some anonymous weirdo. When asked what they’d do if faced with the same situation as the Brannocks, everyone seemed to know exactly what their next move would be.
Noma Dumezweni (Theodora)
“I’m going back to my mother’s. That’s what’s happening.â€
Naomi Watts (Nora Brannock)
“I would want to stand my ground.â€
Bobby Cannavale (Dean Brannock)
“I’d try to sell my house to Coolidge because she’s really into real estate.â€
Margo Martindale (Mo)
“I would be out the moment that letter came. Out. I don’t care if I lost $2 million. Oh, I would not have stayed there for a second.â€
Mia Farrow (Pearl)
“I’d be like Jennifer. Get a bunch of dogs. Really fierce, horrible dogs. Tons of cameras. And I would make really nice pies, with maybe a little weed in it or something, for the neighbors to mellow them out and make everybody love me.â€