Detective Pete Willis is long retired after catching the Whisper Man, but he’s called back into action when children start disappearing. When his own grandson becomes the resurgent Whisper Man’s next target, Pete reunites with his son, Tom, to hunt the killer down once and for all.

The Whisper Man is a harrowing story, but De Niro fondly recalled moments of humor on the set with his fellow cast members. “I find in these type of things, the grimmer it is, the more sense of humor you have,” the two-time Academy Award winner says. “I know when we were doing Taxi Driver, you couldn’t help but make jokes about certain things, because it’s so grim.”

“What I loved about Bob, and watching him, is that Pete has such a quietness to him as a character,” director Ashcroft says. “But there’s always a lot going on, and the wheels are always turning. He’s thinking about how to navigate this crime as a former detective but also how to navigate this fractured relationship and build a relationship back with his son.”

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Detective Beck, the officer in charge of the Whisper Man case, is a hard-nosed investigator who’s determined to catch her quarry with or without Pete’s help. 

“She possesses a real quiet intensity, so I enjoyed inhabiting that aspect of her personality,” Golden Globe nominee Monaghan tells Netflix. “Anybody who knows me probably knows I’m a little more animated than she is.”

Ashcroft was pleased that Monaghan’s performance played against the typical expectations for a cop on the hunt.

“It’s quite an internal, quieter performance rather than the usual blustering, yelling, big-personality cop that we might be overly familiar with,” he says. “A steel fist in a silk glove is how I think of the character, and that’s what Michelle brings.”

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Tom Kennedy is a writer and widower who’s struggling to raise his son, Jake, alone, a dilemma that only gets worse when Jake is kidnapped. Desperate to find him, Tom turns to his estranged father, Pete, for help.

Tom and Jake have their own set of relationship problems. “Tom’s relationship with Jake, with his son, is also complicated,” Scott tells Netflix. “They haven’t quite found their groove yet as far as picking up the pieces of their loss — but also finding their way to a relationship together.”

Ashcroft was thrilled to work with the Golden Globe and Emmy nominee.

“As far as I’m concerned, Adam Scott can do no wrong,” Ashcroft says. “His was always the name in my head; I was very adamant about his involvement right from the start. He radiates a goodness and also an intensity there, which was really interesting to explore with him.”

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Tom’s son, Jake, has his own problems: missing his mom, struggling to make friends, and clashing with his dad. All of this makes him the perfect target for the Whisper Man. After all, as the schoolyard rhyme says, “If you’re lonely, sad, and blue, the Whisper Man will come for you.”

“Jake is always reserved and quiet, but he has a really close relationship with his dad,” Porto tells Netflix. “Jake is really quiet and imaginative, but he’s also very brave and intelligent.” 

Porto was cast as Jake after Ashcroft and casting director Susanne Scheel underwent a lengthy search.

“Many of Jake’s scenes are quite emotionally demanding. It’s taxing work to ask for any actor to maintain that level of emotional engagement and play, but also varying it so it doesn’t become repetitive,” Ashcroft says. “And Acston’s just a natural in terms of being able to navigate that very easily. He really kept the set buoyant when he was on.”

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Norman Collins is a prime suspect in the Whisper Man case. He’s a crime junkie with a house full of murderous artifacts. Emmy nominee Hamish Linklater, no stranger to spooky settings, takes on the role. 

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Sergeant Dyson is another member of Detective Beck’s task force on the hunt for the Whisper Man. 

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Frank Carter is the psychotic Whisper Man, currently locked away for life in a high-security prison. Pete is the only person he’ll agree to speak to — a chilling proposition that comes in handy after Jake is kidnapped. If Frank is imprisoned, who is responsible for the crime? Pete is determined to find out.
 

Keaton’s typically lovable screen presence made him an offbeat — and irresistible — choice for the role of Carter. “Michael Keaton is a very morally upstanding, passionate individual,” Ashcroft says. “Now you put that into the character of a narcissistic serial killer, you get a very interesting experience and characterization.”

Shooting the confrontation between Golden Globe and Emmy winner Keaton and his counterpart Robert De Niro was a thrilling day on set. Although the two both appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, they never shared a scene together.

“My character got to listen a lot that day,” Monaghan says. “I got to watch them work together, and it was an amazing thing to behold. That was a really special day.”

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Frank Carter Jr. is the inheritor of his abusive father’s murderous legacy. He’s the new Whisper Man. An employee at Jake’s school, he uses his position to scope out future targets in a twisted attempt to make his father proud of him.

As Ashcroft tells it, Teague brought a crucial quality to Frank Carter Jr. “He’s a man who’s a victim himself,” Ashcroft says. “His motives are all about trying to please the father that could never be pleased. And Owen brings that real sense of empathy for him — and tragedy.”

Teague’s performance as the second-generation Whisper Man ties directly into the film’s themes of parental abandonment and neglect.

“You can see the boy in the man,” Ashcroft says. “Here’s a poor kid who, because of what he’s been through in his life, has stopped developing. He’s arrested in his development, and now he’s become something very dangerous.”

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