Netflix’s recent release Woman of the Hour, delves into the chilling story of serial killer Rodney Alcala and his heinous acts.
Alcala, who had already murdered at least three women, shockingly appeared on US TV show The Dating Game, unbeknownst to the producers or audience, in a bid to win a date with an eligible bachelorette.
Anna Kendrick takes on the role of actress Cheryl Bradshaw, who unknowingly selects Alcala as her date on the programme. This film also marks Kendrick’s directorial debut, adding another string to the Pitch Perfect star’s bow.
Kendrick successfully draws out spine-tingling performances from her cast, including Daniel Zovatto, who portrays Rodney. But who exactly is Zovatto, and where might you have seen him before?
Born in June 1991, Daniel Zovatto Blanco hails originally from San Jose, Costa Rica, and is named after his father, an Argentinian politician. He relocated to New York with dreams of theatre acting, but it wasn’t long before he found himself in Los Angeles picking up parts in films, reports the Mirror.
Zovatto has confessed to a fascination with horror, sparked by his father showing him Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining during his childhood. It seems apt, then, that his breakout role came in the 2013 horror flick Beneath. In Beneath, Zovatto plays Johnny, part of a group of teenagers forced to battle a man-eating catfish for their survival.
The actor’s journey through the world of horror continued with a role in the 2014 flick It Follows, depicting a young woman hounded by an evil presence that is always following her.
His venture into the genre deepened with his performance as one of three intruders in the 2016 thriller Don’t Breathe, invading the home of a blind man.
A more nuanced part came his way in Greta Gerwig’s critically acclaimed Lady Bird, in 2017. Meanwhile Zovatto’s acting portfolio expanded on the small screen, with guest appearances on shows like Agents of S.H. I.E. L.D. and Fear the Walking Dead.
He also landed more substantive roles in series such as Penny Dreadful: City of Angels and Station Eleven. In 2023, he appeared alongside Hollywood stalwart Russell Crowe in The Pope’s Exorcist. His transformation for Woman of the Hour might render him unrecognisable to fans from when he took on the part of Father Tomas Esquibel, a Spanish priest drafted to assist Crowe’s character in a harrowing exorcism.
As Woman of the Hour launches on Netflix, Zovatto faces perhaps the pinnacle of his acting challenges thus far, portraying the infamous serial killer Rodney Alcala. Working closely with director and co-star Anna Kendrick, he immersed himself in understanding Alcala, revealing that the macabre photographs released by police depicting potential victims who were never located played a pivotal role in shaping his performance.
In conversation with Screen Rant, Zovatto disclosed: “For me, what really impacted my research was the photographs that were released by the police of all the victims that were never found, and why it was.
“Because most of the research and most of the stuff that we know about Rodney is post-this era, right? It’s him older, him caught, him in trials – all that stuff. But this whole decade was a little bit less information, so these photographs really allowed me to realize this man is a person who is able to lure people in.
“He has charisma, he’s smart, but he also has the capacity of making that other person feel comfortable enough to photograph them and capture the essence of the person.
“And there are so many beautiful photographs that he took – and unfortunately, they are beautiful. But it gave me an idea of, ‘Oh, this is Rodney. I can play with this.’ And then all the other research, the bipolar [disorder] and all that stuff.”
Woman of the Hour is now available to stream on Netflix