Every American knows the names of John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, the respective assassins of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. But Charles Guiteau, who shot President James Garfield in 1881, has largely been forgotten.

Guiteau’s attack occurred only four months into Garfield’s presidency. Garfield clung to life for several months after, and his death was ultimately more the fault of incompetent medical treatment than it was Guiteau’s bullet.

But a historical footnote can be fodder for great television as much as a famous event. The Netflix limited series Death by Lightning — starring Matthew Macfadyen as Guiteau, Michael Shannon as Garfield, and Nick Offerman as Chester A. Arthur, the underqualified vice-president thrust into the Oval Office due to Guiteau’s actions — turns the story into something poignant, funny and enormously entertaining.

The English-born Macfadyen spoke with the Television Academy about playing this strange and tragic figure. He also shared how his two-time Emmy-winning role as Tom Wambsgans on HBO’s Succession has changed his life and career, and why it took so long for the TV business to realize he can do comedy.

Television Academy: Growing up in the UK, what did you know about Charles Guiteau and James Garfield before this?

Matthew Macfayden: Nothing. Then my agents called me and said, “There’s this project that Netflix is doing and it’s about James Garfield.” And I was like, “Who’s that?” It was delightfully new. I was unencumbered by any knowledge. It seems like if people know Guiteau, it’s from Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins. It was lovely to discover a little bit about that. It’s a fascinating bit of American history.

What was your sense of what motivated Guiteau to shoot Garfield?

In the script, our Guiteau is probably a little more sympathetic than [the real] Guiteau actually was. I found him fascinating because he really wanted to help, and to be a part of things. He wanted to be valued and be useful. But, he was sort of hopeless at anything he did. He tried to be a journalist, tried to be a lawyer, he tried to set up a newspaper, he joined a free love community — and that was sort of disastrous. He was pretty disturbed, and he became increasingly more disturbed and deluded as he went on. But a lot of what he said, a lot of what he thought and felt and believed at the beginning was kind of laudable. It was kind of quite reasonable, I suppose.

With roles like this, actors say that they can’t play them as villains. That they have to find a way to see their characters’ point of view.

Actors only say that because to do anything else is impossible. You can’t play the whole thing; you have to go moment by moment. Guiteau doesn’t think he’s a villain. He thinks he’s been spoken to by God. He feels very upset that he didn’t get his consulship. It’s wonderful as an actor — that journey and that storyline — to do it with wholehearted belief. I don’t think he’s a psychopath. He’s not without any feeling. I think he really believes he’s doing the right thing. He’s sort of evangelical about it.

Photo credit: Netflix

At this point in your career, do you think you’ve wrestled the American accent to the ground?

[Laughs] No! It’s always a bit like, “Oh, god!” American accents are a little more forgiving than someone in America doing a British accent, because there are so many — so you can get away with a lot more. I’m always thinking about it, but it’s really liberating doing something in a different accent. Just because the vowel sounds and the rhythm of the voice make you feel a different way.

Early in your TV career, you played many straight dramatic roles. Then you won two Emmys for playing maybe the most ridiculous character on Succession, which was a wickedly funny show. Do you feel like that’s changed Hollywood’s perception of the kinds of roles you can play?

It’s always the way. On stage, it was slightly different. For many years in the UK [on TV], I would play a taciturn spy, a taciturn police officer or a taciturn man in britches striding across a field. As an actor, you know you can do all kinds of things. You’ve got all kinds of people jumping around inside you. The trick is just to keep working and keep going, and you catch a different sort of wave — as I did with Tom — and that was just good fortune. It allows you to do something else, flex another muscle. Now, the challenge is to find something different again. To not play another crazed, sort of slimy Midwesterner, like Tom. If I can get away with it.

It’s just a different kind of typecasting from you being the taciturn man.

I know! “Let’s get the human grease stain out again!” But next year, they’re adapting the John LeCarré novels [for a new series, Legacy of Spies], and I’m playing George Smiley. That’s a million miles away from Tom.

When you’re playing a role like Smiley — or Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice — ones that have been memorably portrayed on the screen before, do you try to avoid looking at the previous interpretations?

I watched all those old [LeCarré] adaptations on the BBC with Alec Guiness when I was a teenager, and I adored them. It’s never like that, really. Otherwise, you wouldn’t bother. And you wouldn’t play King Lear, or any of those classic parts. It’s you. Those parts are so rich and interesting, that you just jump in. You’ll find something, inevitably.

Photo credit: HBO

Beyond the impact Succession has had on your career, how has it changed your life? Are you recognized more?

Yes, I am. TV is everywhere. It’s in people’s hands, and their phones. It’s different. I used to enjoy walking around and mooching and watching the world go by. And, sometimes, that’s tricky. I’m not that famous!

With shows like that, there are viewers who see it as the cautionary tale that it is. But there are others who look at it almost aspirationally. Do you ever run into people who actually want to be one of “the Disgusting Brothers,” like Tom and Cousin Greg?

Yeah, and it’s confusing. You can’t cater for how people want to take it. But people come up to you, like, “Well done! You won!” And you’re like, “Won what? It’s a corporate nightmare they’re in, you know?” But you do get high fives!

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Death by Lightning is now streaming on Netflix.