Hulu’s ‘Candy’: Timothy Simons Reveals His Inspiration for Pat Montgomery [Exclusive]
Pat Montgomery is an all-around family man in Jessica Biel’s Candy on Hulu. He’s married to 1980s Texas housewife Candy Montgomery (Biel), who is bored with her life and husband. Although their relationship isn’t very exciting, Pat’s a good husband who sticks by her side through nearly everything. As the true story of Candy goes, Pat was content and happy with his life until the ax incident. But Timothy Simons, who portrays Pat, feels that he’s nothing like the man he plays. Find out how he transformed into his character in the true-crime drama.
Hulu’s ‘Candy’ cast: Pat Montgomery is the ‘exact opposite’ of Timothy Simons
Timothy Simons doesn’t know who picked him to play Pat Montgomery in Candy, but he’s happy they did, even if he’s nothing like the character he portrays. In an interview with the Veep actor, Showbiz Cheat Sheet asked if Simons channeled his personal life to play Pat Montgomery. Simons also has two children like, Pat and Candy, but that was the only thing he had in common with Pat.
“Weirdly, it was almost the exact opposite of my personal life,” Simons began. “Especially in those first few episodes, Pat is uncomplicated and happy. Everything is going great, and he enjoys it. I am too anxiety-ridden about most things, and I think too much. I overanalyze, and I don’t have an ease in my day-to-day life that Pat did in those first few episodes.”
In Candy on Hulu, Pat Montgomery goes to a job he likes, takes daily jogs, and jokes with his kids around the kitchen table. He relaxes in front of the television at night while drinking a beer. Pat has a relatively easy, simple life that he’s content with until the police department accuses his wife of murder.
“So, it was a challenge for me to try to play somebody who is enjoying themselves,” Simons concluded. “I could not draw on my own day-to-day life for that.”
The ‘Candy’ cast members did not replicate their characters
Although the creators of the true crime drama on Hulu, Robin Veith, and Nick Antosca, held true to the accuracy of the Candy, they did not want the characters to be exact replicas. Timothy Simons explained that he researched Pat Montgomery for Candy but did not try to look like him.
“One of the things that was nice is that we weren’t trying to do a photo-realistic impression of this person,” Simons continued in the same interview. “It is a dramatization of this, so we don’t have to be [them]. It gives you a little bit of freedom. You research, find out more, find out about the story, and read as much as you can. We had consultants that I would talk to. I tried to ask them, from their view, ‘What was Pat like when he was with Candy? What was Pat like when he wasn’t with Candy?'”
Simons attempted to find information that he could build off of to create the character of Pat. However, he adapted the part to what he thought “would be interesting to play.” He explained that the bonus of the dramatization was that if something didn’t work out, Simons could change it.
What was Pat Montgomery like in real life compared to Hulu’s ‘Candy’ dramatization?
Although Pat Montgomery was not available to interview for Hulu’s Candy, the producers enlisted the help of Jim Atkinson and John Bloom as consulting producers. The two men wrote the original Texas Monthly articles describing the strange Candy Montgomery story and eventually wrote a book, Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs. In their original article, they described Pat briefly.
“When Pat Montgomery married Candy Wheeler in the early seventies, he was one of the brightest young electrical engineers at Texas Instruments,” the article described Pat.
The article also noted that Candy grew frustrated with Pat when she didn’t take an interest in her creative writing papers. Atkinson and Bloom spoke to both the Gore and Montgomery families in 1980, so their account of the characters is most accurate. But, the writers also allowed the Candy cast members creative liberties with their characters. So, it sounds like Pat Montgomery is a mix of his natural life persona and the artistic feelings of Timothy Simons.
Candy premieres on Hulu Monday, May 9, with the release of only the first episode at 9 p.m. PT/midnight ET. The remaining four Candy episodes drop on Hulu every day following the premiere, with the finale dropping on Friday, May 13.
