Based on a True Story’s Killer Talks Playing ‘Cat-And-Mouse’ and Season 2 Possibilities

Spoiler Warning: This story contains SPOILERS for the season 1 finale of Based on a True Story

As noted by Entertainment Weekly, the season 1 finale of Based on a True Story saw Matt (played by Tom Bateman) killing Ruby (played by Priscilla Quintana) and leaving her body on Ava (played by Kaley Cuoco) and Nathan’s (played by Chris Messina) rental property. The couple are then forced to decide what they’re going to do with the body. The season ends with Ruby’s husband, Simon (played by Aaron Staton), walking in on Ava and Nathan as they attempt to clean Ruby’s blood off the floor.

With Cucou, Messina, and Bateman all in agreement on coming back for a second season of Based on a True Story, Bateman stated that Craig Rosenberg (series creator and executive producer) already had ideas for additional seasons.

Bateman told EW, “He’s really got this plan mapped out in his head. And I feel that with where it ends, season 1 is just so delicious. And you think, ‘Let’s have a second helping of that, please.'”

While chatting about how he prepped for his role as serial killer Matt, Bateman stated that he’d read The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. He said, “The sort of common thing with all of these different psychopaths was they have no empathy, that they are constantly observing the people that they’re talking to and creating very, very quickly a mask that they wear, that is pleasing to the person in order to seduce and control them effectively. And that was an amazing starting point for me.”

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Tom Bateman Said His Character “Matt Kind of Summarizes the Whole Energy of the Show”

Bateman added that he “feels very lucky” to have portrayed the character saying, “In a way, Matt kind of summarizes the whole energy of the show, do you know what I mean? He’s very, very dark. He’s very, very funny. He’s stupid. He’s vain. He’s narcissistic. He’s kind of trying to be sweet and tender and caring sometimes. He can be a nice guy. He’s all of these things mashed up into one person. So I got to, I felt, embody the heartbeat of the piece just in playing that role.”

At the end of the final episode of season 1, Matt ends up with Tory; however, it isn’t clear how long they’ve been involved. Bateman told EW, “My instinct with that is that it’s a kind of play to be even further behind enemy lines. Because Matt can feel them pulling away from him, he can feel that they’re getting a bit scared, they’re in over their head. And there might be a world in which they go to the police, and just confess everything and say, ‘Send us to jail.’ And the way to stop that is to make it not only about the two of them, but her sister as well.”

Bateman noted that this is something he’d like to explore further in Based on a True Story. He said, “I personally would like to see him f— with their family unit a little bit more. I think what I enjoyed as an actor, and I think Matt as a character enjoys, is that sort of delicious cat-and-mouse thing where he enjoyed being the cat to their mice. So I’d like to see that a lot more.”

Bateman added, “It can become a game of chess at this point, where they all know each other, they know everything about each other. The three of them are trying to control each other, and they’re trying to keep me on the reins, and I’m trying to bite through the reins and drag them off the cliff. And I think that sort of tug of war is quite fun. I’d like to see that happen, personally.”

The actor also admitted that he’d like to see Matt “sweat a little bit” and end up “in a bit of hot water.”

Still, Bateman noted that at the moment, “We just have to see if an audience gets into it and really enjoys it. And I hope they do, because we had a great fun time making it, and I do feel there’s more road to be explored with it.”