Taking a Career Leap Worthy of Superman

He doesn’t know Scott Peterson’s mind, but Dean Cain had to try to put himself into it.

TV’s former “Superman” portrays the Modesto man accused of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn child in “The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story,” a USA Network movie premiering Friday.

The teleplay starts on Christmas Eve 2002, when eight-months-pregnant Laci was reported missing, and follows related events up to Scott’s arrest last April. Composite characters played by Sarah Joy Brown (“General Hospital”) and David Denman “narrate” the film.

Among other familiar figures represented are Sharon Rocha, Laci’s mother, played by Dee Wallace Stone (“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”); Amber Frey, Scott Peterson’s now-former girlfriend, portrayed by Tracy Lynn Middendorf (“24”); and Ron Grantski, Laci’s stepfather, played by Peter Jason (“Seabiscuit”).

“I turned this down at first,” Cain says. “I was concerned about the content and about my association with it. I discussed the project with my father [film director Christopher Cain], and he said, ‘Is it a complex character?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Can you be good in it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, actually. I think I can be very good in it.’ Then he said, ‘Are you an actor?’ I said, ‘OK, Dad, I get your point.’ I have to agree, that’s the right way to approach it.

“People talk about micromanaging careers, whether to take this role or that role, and the reality is that you look for roles that are interesting and good. This turned out to be a wonderful experience, which was a surprise to me.”

Like millions of other people, Cain has heard many reports about the Peterson case during the last year. “Our first day of shooting was the first day of [Scott Peterson’s] preliminary hearing, so I went home and turned on CNN to check out the day’s events, and there it was. Every day during filming, when I went home and just before I went to bed, I’d see the new developments. It was like they were doing our work for us.

“I didn’t have to strip away everything I knew about the case to play this. At certain times, I knew he was lying, like when he was asked if he had been untrue to his wife. As far as his guilt or innocence in the murders goes, I don’t know any more than anyone else. I just played him as innocent and confused as best I could.”

Cain deems using fictionalized characters to frame the movie “a very effective tool for telling the story.”

“It’s not so much about whether Scott Peterson is guilty or innocent but about believing someone is a certain way,” he says. “In this case, he fooled a wife, he fooled a family, he fooled a community -- he basically fooled a nation for a while. In truth, he was somebody completely different.”

Typically cast as heroes since his four seasons in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” Cain feels Scott Peterson is a good follow-up role to his performance as a brutish husband in last year’s movie “Out of Time,” which starred Denzel Washington.

That film, Cain says, was “great for me. I’m also guilty of thinking of actors only playing specific kinds of roles. I don’t blame people for thinking that way, but actors can play a lot of different roles.”

Jay Bobbin writes for Tribune Media Services.

“The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story” airs at 8 p.m. Friday on the USA Network. The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14).

Cover photograph by Vivian Zink.