Unabomber Star David Webster on Metz, Jacob Tremblay, 90s & More

Posted in: Movies, Netflix | Tagged: Unabomber

Unabomber Star David Webster on Metz, Jacob Tremblay, 90s & More

David Webster (The Way Home) spoke to us about his latest Netflix biopic, Unabomber, working with director Janus Metz, Jacob Tremblay & more.

Published Mon, 02 Nov 2026 08:16:07 -0600
by Tom Chang
|
Comments

Article Summary

• David Webster explains what drew him to Netflix’s Unabomber and why its focus on Ted Kaczynski’s early life surprised him.
• Webster breaks down Roy’s role as Ted’s social opposite and how that dynamic shapes Jacob Tremblay’s Unabomber arc.
• The Way Home star shares what it was like working with director Janus Metz and filming key Unabomber scenes on little sleep.
• Webster discusses Jacob Tremblay, Annabelle Wallis, 90s paranoia, and how Unabomber echoes today’s conspiracy culture.

David Webster has a lot to be grateful for these days as a young actor coming his way up in Hollywood, and anytime you get to immerse yourself in controversial period pieces is certainly a challenge and a dream, like the Netflix biopic Unabomber from director Janus Metz, which chronicles the life of Harvard prodigy Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski (Jacob Tremblay), who descends into a life of paranoia and conspiracies and becomes the target of an FBI agent's (Shailene Woodley) pursuit for his murderous campaign that killed 3 and injured 23 from 1978 to 1995. The Way Home star, who plays Roy, spoke to Bleeding Cool about his familiarity with Kaczynski's story, working with Metz, what he liked about Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves's script, and his scene work with Tremblay and Annabelle Wallis.

Unabomber Star David Webster on How He Approached Biopic

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Unabomber,' and what did you like about Sam and Nelson's script?

Webster: What initially intrigued me was the fact that it was covering a part of Ted's life, which, to be honest, I never thought a film would, and it's a part I was already kind of familiar with, so seeing that it was getting a film adaptation was very exciting. I was really intrigued by that. I also liked the two different timeline things that Sam was doing, and I was very excited while reading the script for the first time, because it was not what I expected for a Unabomber movie.

What's it like working with Janus as a creative?

It was interesting to watch his process because he was very much in his own world while he was working on that film, often because of the set that we were on. We were in different rooms, like Video Village would be in a room, a couple of rooms over and we'd be in our room doing our scene. If he had any direction, you'd come back in, and he'd talk to us, but he was very focused on the technical aspect of making the film, which I thought was interesting. He also had his ways of trying to get energy up from the actors and whatnot and try to carry consistent energy throughout the film. Yeah, that's what I would say about my time working with Janus.

Aside from the script, did you do anything a little extra to prep for Roy?

I was already familiar with the story itself, at least historically speaking. What I did was I tried to think about what Roy is at, what the character is adding to the script and the story in terms of what it does for Jacob's character, because Jacob's is Ted, and he is the star of the show. That's what everyone's coming to see. So, clearly Roy must serve some role in telling us about Ted, and how I took it was, this is just like reading the script, thinking about it, trying to do some character study research.

I figured Roy functioned as the opposite of Ted, and he is very anti-social, very standoffish, and socially, things are difficult for him. They don't come naturally. Roy is the total opposite: very natural, very easy. He connects with Ted very well, despite him being a little bit difficult to connect to, or at least he tries to. He puts a lot of effort into it, and I think that he basically shows what a student at this school should look like socially, which Ted is not living up to.

As far as the events of that time period and having that mindset, how do you feel the film accurately portrayed that era? How do you feel that conspiratorial culture was then and has that evolved much from today?

I think things have changed overall, just in general. Throughout history, things tend to stay the same rather than change, but things definitely have changed, especially since the 50s because technology has advanced so much more. However, I do think that we hit a technology plateau for a while until maybe very recently. I think things that people were thinking about at the time and their fears about the future, a lot of them have been realized, and thus, I feel like maybe things that people might've been thinking about at the time in more niche circles have become more mainstream thought today.

Yeah, because I just think of the way before there was like leaflets and everything word of mouth, then. Now, everything is so accessible with social media and the dark web, and you have this lack of filtering; it's taking on a life of its own that never before. You have such a talented ensemble here; have you had a chance to talk with Jacob on set between scenes, or perhaps anyone else that you had a chance to pick the brain of, like Russell (Crowe), Shailene, or Annabelle?

So I narrowly missed Russell by one day [laughs]. Everybody in the 90s, so Shailene, Steven (Ogg), all of them, were filming separately. It was a very in-and-out shoot, if that makes sense. You were there when you needed to be there, and when you didn't need to be, you were gone. I did get to spend lots of time with Jacob, which I was very grateful for, and I also got to spend a little bit of time with Annabelle as well; both are lovely. I got to spend a lot more time with Jacob, so I can say that I got to know him, whereas with Annabelle, we were a bit more formal. Jacob's a really good guy, and I was really pleased to see that the film business hadn't affected his upbringing negatively. He's a very well-adjusted kid, and he's going to do great things too. He's smart, very polite, and just a good guy. He's also good at 'Mario Kart' too and beat me [laughs].

What do you find was the most challenging thing, if there was a scene or maybe something about production that you filmed?

The day we filmed a lot of my scenes in one day, and I just so happened to not sleep the night before, because they kept me in old Montreal, which was lovely, but it was a Monday so all of the repeat…I think it was a Monday…maybe we shot on a Saturday. Anyway, the night before, people were out partying, and people were coming back to the hotel- lots of drunk people. It got pretty loud all night, so I didn't end up getting any sleep, and I found getting my lines…like I'd memorize my lines, but I find when I don't sleep, getting them exactly word for word, beat for beat, gets harder and harder as the day goes on. That slowed us down a little bit, but yeah, that was probably the most challenging thing, but it's not a big deal, and that happens on set quite a bit. That was probably the most difficult thing was getting through that one day with no sleep.

You have a robust filmography across film and TV; is there a genre you feel at home in? Was there a type of project you always wanted to do but hadn't had a chance in?

That's a good question. I like doing all kinds of genres if we're just speaking genre-wise, I love comedy. I adore comedy, and drama is good too. I just like good scripts and ones that make the actual process of what we're doing feel really fulfilling. As far as something that I might like to do that, I haven't done yet, I would love to do, I'd love to be a regular on a sitcom or something. I think that would be dope, but I think also a war drama would be cool. Put me in as the kid who lied about his age or something like that. I think it would be interesting to be a part of.

Unabomber, which also stars Alexander Ludwig, Marc Menchac, and Gus Halper, is available on Netflix.

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!