Interviews

Published on April 20th, 2022 | by Darren Paltrowitz

0

Director Jessica Dimmock & Ashley Stayner On The New Hulu Limited Series “Captive Audience,” Corin Nemec & Future Projects

Captive Audience is a three-part limited series set to premiere via Hulu on April 20, 2022. Simply put, it is the story of how a story gets told, and how the media’s magnifying glass impacts the characters caught in the narrative. Siblings Ashley and Steven Stayner Jr. never knew their famous father Steven, the child victim of a shocking California kidnapping. In 1972, 7-year-old Steven went to school and never came home. His mother Kay struggled to keep the media interested in the case, and to hold her family together. Then after 7 years, a miracle happened: Steven returns. The media can’t get enough of the story, and frantic news crews descend on the Stayner home — but this is not a fairytale ending.

Now 14 years old, Steven struggles to adapt, and his family grapples with life under the media microscope. Steven’s older brother Cary has mixed emotions: happy to have his brother back, but jealous of how the media has turned Steven into a hero. When Steven’s kidnapper goes on trial, painful truths are made public, and the media coverage takes a dark turn, sending Steven on a downward spiral. Just as he starts to pull his life together — with marriage, kids, and a hit TV movie about his story — the Stayners endure another tragedy. And soon, they will be famous all over again.

Fast forward to 1999, when 4 women are brutally murdered in nearby Yosemite. Ashley Stayner was 14 years old at the time, and recalls being riveted by the months-long investigation — until she learns that someone close to home has confessed to the crimes. The story thrusts the Stayners back into the spotlight, forcing us to look into how these stories drives a demand the media is eager to satisfy.

On April 11, 2022, I spoke with Captive Audience director Jessica Dimmock and Ashley Stayner via Zoom, as embedded below. More on Captive Audience can be found by clicking here, here and here.


Tags: , , , , ,


About the Author

Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal.Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."


Comments are closed.

Back to Top ↑