'Experimenter' star Peter Sarsgaard on default obedience

Hollywood actor Peter Sarsgaard (Garden State, An Education) joins Shad to discuss his striking turn as Stanley Milgram in Experimenter — a biopic about the strong-willed social psychologist and his controversial "Obedience to Authority" experiments.

The tension between empathy and obedience forms the backbone of the film — and it's a theme Sarsgaard has put a lot of thought into. "I think we're all born with empathy. Either you cut it off, or you latch on to it." 

Milgram himself was known to be clinical and unemotional during his experiments, something the naturally empathetic Sarsgaard found challenging.

"I felt like I was being a bad actor. It's very difficult to play someone who is so dispassionate. In order to be a good scientist, you don't want to get emotionally involved in your results; you're just recording them. It's uncomfortable to play."

WEB EXTRA |  Watch the trailer for Experimenter below.