The Staircase's Patrick Schwarzenegger Believes Michael Peterson Killed His Wife

Patrick Schwarzenegger, one of the stars of HBO's The Staircase, definitively believes Michael Peterson killed his wife Kathleen.

"I do think it was him," Schwarzenegger told Variety in an interview published Tuesday, though he said that the owl theory did throw him off at first. In the series, Peterson's neighbor tries to prove that Kathleen was attacked by an owl and fell down the stairs after the attack, a theory that gained traction online after The Staircase docuseries was released in 2004.

Schwarzenegger, who plays Todd Peterson, one of Michael's sons, watched the owl theory episode with his mom, Maria Shriver, saying, "She was like, 'I'm really upset that I watched this and I saw the owl thing, because it's just taken a little bit away from me saying that it was for sure him.'"

In the interview, Schwarzenegger also revealed he filmed additional scenes that show his character doing "more investigations into his sexuality," but those scenes didn't make the final cut.

"There were some scenes where he was pleasuring himself in his dad’s office and … he can't to straight porn and straight stuff. So he starts to investigate other stuff," Schwarzenegger said.

The Staircase is currently streaming on HBO Max.

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Deena ElGenaidi's writing has been featured in Nylon, MTV News, Insider, The AV Club, and more. You can follow her on Twitter @deenaelg.