Robert DeNiro and Adam Scott reveal the relationships at the heart of their thriller ‘The Whisper Man’

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Behind every great crime thriller lies secrets and drama and in Netflix’s The Whisper Man, terror strikes uncomfortably close to home. Adapted from Alex North’s bestselling 2019 novel and directed by James Ashcroft, the psychological thriller, which streams on Netflix, wraps a chilling serial-killer mystery around a poignant, multi-generational study of grief, estrangement and the fragile ties between fathers and sons.  

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When widowed crime writer Tom Kennedy (Adam Scott) faces the unthinkable abduction of his young son, he must confront not only the sinister legacy of a dormant predator known as “The Whisper Man,” but also the fractured relationship with his retired detective father, Pete (Robert De Niro). 

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In this candid conversation, De Niro and Scott dive into what drew them to say yes to this project, the friction of parental control, healing old wounds and what it means to build bridges across generations when time is running out.

Mr Robert DeNiro, you’ve starred in some of cinema’s best thrillers to date. When a script like this comes along across your desk, what is it that makes you say, “Here’s something that I really want to do”?

Robert: Well, I read the script and I liked it. I thought it was an interesting script, to say the least and so I met James Ashcroft, and I said, “Okay, I’m in.”

Adam, I loved seeing you in Hokum this year. So this felt like a different kind of real horror in a way. Talk about the appeal of a script like this for you.

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Adam: It’s a really great story. There’s so much going on. There’s certainly this thriller element where my son gets abducted, but at the same time, there’s this father-son story happening beside that, and that’s incredibly important too. Then there’s the story between Bob and Michelle, and there’s a lot of balls to keep in the air. James does it really, really well, and it was a great opportunity to work with Bob, to work with Michelle, James. There were a lot of reasons to say yes to this.

Did you really have a Cape Fear CD tray with Robert DeNiro’s photo in it?

Adam: Yes, I did. We’ve been doing interviews today, and stuff like this keeps coming up. I keep embarrassing Bob. It’s all of the pictures of him I had on my wall and in my locker over the years. It’s embarrassing, but it’s true, so it’s fine. 

This is such a powerful multi-generational tale of fathers and sons. As actors exploring that lineage, what makes the friction between generations of fathers and sons so compelling, especially when it’s baked in a thriller like this?

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Robert: You kind of said it in a way. It’s not just a relationship and the dynamics between father and son, but also grandson, but it’s also rolled into a thriller and connected really well as a story. So, two reasons that make it more interesting.

One of my favorite scenes was when Pete says, “I was just trying to protect you,” and then Tom says, “That’s the original sin of fathers everywhere. You can’t.” I think that’s such a powerful moment in the film. How did you feel in that scene, unpacking the truth about the illusion of control as parents? 

Robert: Yeah, it’s an illusion, that’s for sure. With children, if you say, well, why can’t they behave better, be more obedient, or more respectful? But then you admire the spunk that they have, their independence or professed independence, because they’re young and they want to show you they don’t want to be controlled. In my situation, it’s all pretty typical. But it’s what it is. You can only do so much, and only be there to love and support them, and make sure they are protected in ways that they might not like. But sorry, you’re still not old enough to do certain things on your own, so that’s that. I don’t know if you want to call it a struggle, but that’s the situation.

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Adam: That’s right. I feel like that scene is interesting because it’s sort of this point in the movie where these two characters finally are just honest with each other. Tom says that thing about not being able to protect your kids. Maybe that’s the original sin. And Pete, Bob’s character, comes out and burns this box of letters as a sort of apology and these two guys don’t quite know how to communicate verbally yet. They’re not there yet, but they’re communicating. They’re reaching across the aisle in their own way, sort of the very beginnings of learning to communicate, and they’re they’re doing it in ways other than being really concise verbally with each other.

Mr. DeNiro, watching your movies is a tradition for so many families, as it is in mine. How does it feel that this one is being added to that list, and families watching your movies as a bonding experience?

Robert: Yeah, I’m taking my 14-and-a-half-year-old daughter to it, and one of my sons, and I guess it’s a bonding experience of sorts. 

The Whisper Man is now streaming on Netflix. 

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