{"id":8791,"date":"2025-03-27T21:26:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T21:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/?p=8791"},"modified":"2025-03-27T21:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T21:39:09","slug":"dennis-quaid-admits-wife-was-disturbed-by-his-serial-killer-role-in-happy-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/strongermarriages\/2025\/03\/dennis-quaid-admits-wife-was-disturbed-by-his-serial-killer-role-in-happy-face.html","title":{"rendered":"Dennis Quaid Admits Wife Was &#8216;Disturbed&#8217; By His Serial Killer Role in &#8216;Happy Face&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_8803\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8803\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8803\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/413\/2025\/03\/Dennis-Quaid-and-Wife_credit-Tinseltown-Shutterstock-Inset-Paramount.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-8803\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tinseltown \/ Shutterstock.com, Inset: Paramount<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Dennis Quaid recently opened up about how his wife, Laura Savoie, reacted to his chilling new role as serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson in the Paramount+ series <em>Happy Face<\/em>. The actor admitted the role was unsettling for Savoie at first.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a little iffy there for a couple of hours afterwards because, you know, that\u2019d be creepy for me, too,\u201d Quaid told <em>Fox News Digital<\/em>. \u201cBut she knows me,\u201d he added with a laugh.<\/p>\n<p>Quaid portrays Jesperson, a Canadian-American truck driver who murdered at least eight women in the early 1990s and gained notoriety as the &#8220;Happy Face Killer&#8221; after signing letters to law enforcement and media with smiley faces.<\/p>\n<p>Quaid and Savoie, who is 39 years his junior, married in 2020 after getting engaged in 2019. The actor credits their lasting bond to their shared Christian faith. \u201cGod is in our relationship,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the real secret of it. Having God in your relationship is essential, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Quaid, who has been married three times before, reflected on his past relationships, including his high-profile marriage to Meg Ryan, with whom he shares a son, Jack. He was also previously married to actress P.J. Soles and real estate agent Kimberly Buffington, with whom he has twins, Thomas and Zoe.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of Jack, Quaid couldn\u2019t be prouder of his son\u2019s rising acting career. From early roles in <em>The Hunger Games<\/em> to his breakout performance as Hughie Campbell in Amazon\u2019s <em>The Boys<\/em>, Jack recently landed his first lead role in the action film <em>Novocaine<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeeing his movie lead the box office was fantastic,\u201d Quaid said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be prouder. The guy is on a trajectory to go way past both me and his mother, I think. I hope so. And I think he will. He\u2019s such a great guy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Quaid also praised Jack\u2019s determination to make it on his own in Hollywood, revealing he once offered to help him get an agent. \u201cHe said, \u2018No, Dad, I want to do it myself.\u2019 He\u2019s really earned it. Done it all himself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for <em>Happy Face<\/em>, the eight-part series premieres March 20 and is based on the story of Jesperson\u2019s daughter, Melissa Moore, who discovered at age 15 that her father was a serial killer. The series draws from Moore\u2019s 2009 memoir <em>Shattered Silence<\/em> and her 2018 podcast <em>Happy Face<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Quaid chose not to meet Jesperson in preparation for the role. \u201cUsually I like to \u2014 if I play a real-life person \u2014 I like to meet them. But this guy, I didn\u2019t want to meet him,\u201d Quaid explained. \u201cHe\u2019s in a hole in prison in Portland, where he should be. And I really didn\u2019t want to give him any kind of entertainment or feelings of excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he gained insight into Jesperson through conversations with Moore, whose experience forms the emotional core of the series. Quaid described the tension between Moore\u2019s childhood memories and the horrifying truth she learned as a teenager.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey had a very loving, sweet, affectionate relationship,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then at the age of 15, she finds out her father&#8217;s a serial killer. So how do you reconcile that in your brain? It doesn\u2019t fit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moore, he said, has spent her life trying to \u201cright a wrong that cannot be righted.\u201d Despite the trauma, she has reached out to other victims\u2019 families \u2014 and even to children of other serial killers \u2014 to build a supportive community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s really struggled and fought just to be normal in this life,\u201d Quaid said. \u201cI really admire her\u2026 Nobody really understands, except people who\u2019ve gone through what you\u2019ve gone through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Quaid\u2019s co-stars James Wolk and Tamera Tomakili, who play Moore\u2019s husband and coworker, also shared their admiration for Quaid\u2019s work. Wolk called him \u201ca generous actor\u201d and \u201cvery kind and professional,\u201d while Tomakili described his energy on set as \u201cinspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both emphasized that the show does not glamorize violence. \u201cIt shows the other side \u2014 the people who are actually affected by it and how they move forward through it,\u201d Tomakili said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dennis Quaid recently opened up about how his wife, Laura Savoie, reacted to his chilling new role as serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson in the Paramount+ series Happy Face. The actor admitted the role was unsettling for Savoie at first. \u201cIt was a little iffy there for a couple of hours afterwards because, you know,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":8803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dennis Quaid Admits Wife Was &#039;Disturbed&#039; By His Serial Killer Role in &#039;Happy Face&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dennis Quaid says his wife was \u201ca little iffy\u201d after seeing him play a serial killer in &quot;Happy Face,&quot; but faith keeps them grounded.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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