Domhnall Gleeson Unpacks ‘The Patient’ Premiere, Gushes Over Steve Carell, and Learns About Ben Affleck’s Love of Dunkin’

Warning: Spoilers for The Patient lie ahead.
Domhnall Gleeson didn’t want to tell another distasteful, irresponsible story that portrays serial killers as sexy and intriguing. That’s one of the reasons he was so impressed by scripts for FX’s new dramatic thriller, The Patient, which premiered its first two episodes on Hulu August 30.
“There’s a really bad version of that show that’s quite schlocky and that is all about the mythologizing of the serial killer and this sexy, strange guy who’s intriguing in a way that, you know, I find a little bit distasteful,” Gleeson told Decider. “I don’t like that version of things. And there’s been a lot of it.”
In a compelling, unconventional take on the terrifying, somewhat tired topic, the 10-episode limited series finds Gleeson’s character, Sam Fortner, kidnapping his therapist, Alan Strauss (Steve Carell), and holding him prisoner in hopes that in-home therapy will cure his homicidal urges.
The gripping, unpredictable series from the minds of The Americans producers Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg features raw, gut-wrenching, standout performances from both Carell and Gleeson. Combined with sharp, concise writing and ambitious flashback and imagination sequences, The Patient will have you hooked from start to finish.

To celebrate the start of the series, Gleeson spoke to Decider over Zoom about The Patient‘s premiere, his character’s love of Kenny Chesney and Dunkin’, and his deep, undying admiration for the “wonderful” Steve Carell.

Decider: As a huge fan of About Time and The Office, two wholesome delights, I knew I had to watch The Patient. I will say, this show was a little more…stressful! But in a good way, like, “Look at the iconic range these two kind, funny men have.”
Domhnall Gleeson: [Laughs] Oh, that’s very nice. Thank you. I love About Time and I love The Office. Thanks very much.
So you’re very much playing a serial killer in this series. What initially drew you to this project or this script?
Well, I mean, in terms of what drew me to the project, it’s the name Steve Carell. In terms of the script, just the one liner is a fascinating one liner: Serial killer kidnaps therapist, keeps him in his basement to try to stop serial killing, then they have therapy sessions together. That’s really interesting. But there’s a really bad version of that show that’s quite schlocky and that is all about the mythologizing of the serial killer and this sexy, strange guy who’s intriguing in a way that, you know, I find a little bit distasteful. I don’t like that version of things. And there’s been a lot of it.

When I read the scripts, first of all I knew [the project] was [from] the people who had written The Americans. And so when I read this script, I was so happy that was just not what they were interested in. What they were interested in was a weird, strange version of it, which is no less interesting. In fact, it’s more interesting. But it also felt a little more responsible to me in terms of just talking about something which has been talked about a lot. So that was really the main things that drew me in. And then I thought that Sam was unlike anyone I played before. And [there were] lots of unanswered questions after reading the first couple of scripts, which I loved. And yeah, that was the jumping off point. And it just kept on getting more interesting as it went along.
The show doesn’t solely portray Sam as a serial killer. We learn he has a job, and is a passionate foodie, and loves Kenny Chesney and Dunkin’. You did such a remarkable job working Sam’s interests and hobbies into the show without losing his chilling persona. Did you enjoy those lighter scenes when you got to dance to Kenny Chesney or obsess over food?
Yeah, it’s interesting. There’s a lot about his personality that is — he views himself as being pathetic, right? And a lot of it is situation that he views himself as being unworthy of what he deserves in this life because he’s got a huge ego, he’s very selfish, all that stuff — all the stuff that we know [about] people who have done that. But I thought the J’s did a remarkable job of setting up a real person away from that. Most of the time he’s not a serial killer, like he’s not killing, you know what I mean? It’s a strange addiction and compulsion that he really really struggles with, that he wants to stop doing, but he wants to stop doing it for selfish reasons. Working in all the lighter aspects of his character to make him a bigger thing than just one thing all the time…it would be bizarre if in a show about therapy you only showed one aspect of a person’s character. That would be such a mistake. They were interested in way more than that. And so, long answer, I loved the lighter bits. I loved getting to do, like, I think the dance wasn’t even scripted. That was just like, what do you do when you listen to Kenny Chesney? I guess you dance, or I guess dance. I loved going to those places and I loved when myself and Steve got to do little bits where a part of your brain knew they were darkly funny but you would play them serious. That’s when this was super good and we were really singing.

Speaking of Kenny Chesney, did you do any No Shoes Nation research on your off hours?
I didn’t do a lot into No Shoes Nation, I found out that it was a real thing and read up on it, and did all that sort of stuff, but no, I didn’t go too deep.
And I’m so curious if you were inspired at all by Dunkin’ fanboy Ben Affleck when you found out Sam would be repping his favorite coffee chain?
[Laughs] I did not know Ben Affleck was a Dunkin’ fanboy. But no I can safely say I did not base any aspect of Sam’s personality on Ben Affleck. It’s important that I get that out there.
Okay. [Laughs] I do think Ben will love this show for its dedication to Dunkin’ if he stumbles upon it. I will say when I pictured you prepping for the role I assumed you researched serial killers and, I don’t know, maybe killed a few people. But mostly I assumed you spent hours clicking through Google images of Ben and his Dunkin’ just trying to nail that vibe. I do think he’s an iced coffee guy, though. So it might not have been great inspiration for your role.
[Laughs] Completely different. Completely different. And when we were filming I went decaf, I should point out. And we didn’t do decaf for the first take, and I was like, “Oh my god. Like, I cannot do anymore takes like that.” I was shivering with caffeine.
Oh my gosh, well I’m so glad you switched. I of course have to ask you about your brilliant costar Steve Carell. He’s of course a comedy legend has been killing it in dramatic roles the past five years especially. What was it like getting to work with him on such a serious, intimate project?
It was all of the things that I was hoping it would be. And I’ve been very lucky with people I’ve worked with over the years — I’ve had my expectations surpassed numerous occasions. But even though my expectations were so high of working with [Carell], even still, he managed to surpass them just by being such a gorgeous person. Such a kind person. Being so nice to be around. And then being so great in the show and being so great on-camera and off-camera. Like when the camera was turned around on me, and Steve wasn’t on camera, some people take their foot off the pedal a little bit and they just look after themselves a little bit. That is not what he does. He is right there with you at every second pushing, pulling, getting a better performance out of you. He was just wonderful. So yeah, he is super.

Oh I love to hear that. And I’m sure the vibe on set was fairly somber for the majority of filming. But were there any laughs? Did you and Steve ever get a chance to come up for air at all?
Definitely. That was part of what was great about the experience of making the show was, you know, you’ve got all these lovely people who were also all very funny doing something that for the majority of it, as you say, is serious. But like you cannot live in that for 12 hours a day, you’ll just go mad. I think it probably wore quite a lot on Steve. He was carrying such a lot and he had to be so still and so contained and had to swallow it down. Whereas I got to push my frustrations out a little bit. But no, no, Steve was fantastic about, as you say, coming up for air and keeping it a nice place to go to work. And it seems to me to be a very happy crew, a very happy group of people, even though it was stressful at times. It was one of the very good experiences of my life.

Speaking of laughs, there’s some unexpected humor woven into this very dark series. We see it when Sam brings out that box and is like, “Don’t worry, there’s not a head inside” or when Alan is listening to him pee for what feels like a decade.
You know what Steve was amazing at as well was every now and again you’d read a script and in the table read everybody would agree that it was a really funny line. Not that I was saying it funny, or Steve was saying it funny, but that the line itself was a brilliantly written dark comedic line. That puts a weird amount of pressure on saying it, and saying it in a way that can be truthful and funny. You can tie yourself in knots. And if on the day somebody says, “Oh, that’s really funny” or “Can we make it funnier?” you can spiral really badly and start chasing a laugh or chasing a way that you did it before because somebody laughed on that one. The set was so amazing about never doing that.

Steve always waited until the end of the day. You know, if you do something and Steve says it’s funny, you dance all the way home. He never said it during the day. If it happened, he would always wait till the end of the day and say, “By the way, that bit earlier was really funny.” And he would help you in that way. Like he is just, he is just a perfect person. I was like, that’s the way to do it. Never go in and say “That’s really funny. Keep doing it that way.” Always protect the space, keep it real. Keep trying new things. He’s the best. He’s the best.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
New episodes of The Patient stream on Hulu, Tuesdays at 3am ET/12am PT.