What the 'Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile' Characters Look Like vs. Their Real-Life Counterparts

Ever since the Ted Bundy movie Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vilewas announced, true-crime aficionados have been dying—figuratively, that is—to see it. It’s been a trending topic for months, in part because of multiple controversies. First off, people were really conflicted about Zac Efron playing Ted Bundy. A certified hottie portraying a serial killer might encourage viewers to be...attracted to a monster. The trailer itself also caused a lot of controversy, as many people felt the movie was glorifying Bundy and showing him as an attractive, charismatic charmer rather than a disturbed murderer.

To be fair, Bundy’s charm was part of his strategy for reeling in victims, but Extremely Wicked does show both sides of the serial killer as well as all the people around him who had to deal with the fallout from his heinous crimes. Wondering what the characters from the movie look like in real life? 

Bundy used his good looks and charm to both bait his victims and evade suspicion, so it makes sense that Zac was chosen. He has perfect abs, yes, but the actor made it very clear that he is in no way glamorizing Bundy.

“I really wasn’t interested in playing a serial killer,” he told reporters at the London premiere of Extremely Wicked. “I’m not in the business of glamorizing a horrendous person or his acts, but there is something unique about the way we went into the psyche of Ted and his longtime girlfriend Liz [Kloepfer].”

Zac also added that it was “almost impossible” to separate himself from his character. “I’d like to say that I did it successfully, but I couldn’t,” he said. That’s, um, a little frightening.

Most people know all about Bundy, but Extremely Wicked actually tells the story from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Kloepfer, who had no idea that Bundy was a killer. Lily Collins portrays Kloepfer in the movie, and she actually met with Kloepfer (who now goes by Liz Kendall) to prepare for the role.

“It was really helpful, and she was so gracious, giving me material to look at and speaking to me and allowing me to ask questions,” Lily told the hosts of This Morning. “I don’t know if she’s going to see the movie because it’s difficult, but within the filming process, she came on-set and she was a positive light on-set. You wouldn’t expect that with what happened. She gave us her support. She’s really lovely.”

After Kloepfer, Bundy married Carole Ann Boone. Boone defended Bundy during the trials, and in a famous stunt, Bundy proposed to her while she was sitting on the witness stand. The two got hitched and somehow managed to conceive a childwhile he was in prison despite not being granted conjugal visits. Boone ended up divorcing Bundy three years before his execution, and not much is known about her or their daughter, Rose.

Although Kaya Scodelario never met Boone in person, the actress told Elle that she watched footage of the trial and interviews with Boone to better understand her character.

“I really loved doing that story and research,” she said. “It’s the first time I’ve played a character who may still be alive or that at least existed once. For me, I really wanted to dig into that.”

Larry Simpson—played by The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons—was the main prosecutor on Bundy’s case. He worked for the Florida state attorney’s office, but he was only a few years out of law school when the case began.

“Nobody had ever handled a case like this before—before the cameras and certainly not before the virtual nation watching,” Simpson said in the Netflix documentary Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes. “I was a young lawyer at the time. It was baptism by fire, if you would. But quite frankly, from my perspective, I had to treat it like it was just another case.”

With the help of forensic science and key witnesses, Simpson won the case. According to the Daily Business Review, he went on to form a private practice with his business partner, Jimmy Judkins, and work as a lawyer for more than 35 years. He’s now semi-retired.

If you’re wondering why the movie is called Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, you can thank John Edward Cowart (played by John Malkovich). He was the judge who presided over Bundy’s case, and he uttered those exact words while making his final remarks after declaring Bundy guilty of first-degree murder.

“The court finds that both of these killings were indeed heinous, atrocious, and cruel and that they were extremely wicked, shockingly evil, vile, and the product of a design to inflict a high degree of pain and utter indifference to human life,” he said.