In “The Staircase,” Olivia DeJonge plays Caitlin, the daughter of Kathleen Peterson, whose mysterious death leads to the arrest of her husband, Michael Peterson. Although DeJonge’s character initially believes in her adopted father’s innocence, she soon switches sides. The show, like the documentary it’s based on, is full of twists and turns and (spoiler) the truth is never revealed.
As DeJonge explained to Goggler, “Obviously as human beings, we’re all nosey and we want to know the truth. But I think as I’ve gotten older — I mean, I’m 23, so I still have a little while to go — I’ve learned that the truth is constructed and there’s a big gray area in life.” So, when it comes to the mystery of Michael Peterson, she’s resigned to the fact that she’ll never really know.
Even when she played Priscilla Presley, she took the same approach. As she said to Vogue Australia, “We’ll never really know the truth.”