Dennis Quaid on the Chilling Psychology Behind Happy Face: “It’s Really About Ourselves”

JustWatch sat down with legendary actor Dennis Quaid to discuss his gripping role in the new Paramount+ series Happy Face, which aired its season finale on Thursday, May 1st.

With a career spanning half a century, Quaid has amassed a variety of acclaimed performances, mainly in character actor roles. The actor rose to stardom in films like The Right Stuff (1983) and Innerspace (1987), and has since built an enduring career with hits including The Parent Trap (1998), The Rookie (2002), and The Day After Tomorrow (2004).

Quaid has recently found a resurgence from his performance as a sleazy television producer in the Oscar-nominated The Substance. One of the acclaimed film’s best scenes sees Quaid gorging on a bowl of shrimps, which stood out even amid the grotesque scenes of body horror. You may never look at shrimps in the same way again. 

Dennis Quaid’s career takes a particularly sinister turn as he plays a real-life serial killer in this unsettling psychological drama.

Happy Face is adapted from the 2018 podcast of the same name by Melissa Moore and her 2009 autobiography, Shattered Silence.

The series follows Annaleigh Ashford as Melissa and her incarcerated father (played by Quaid), known as the Happy Face Killer. After decades of no contact, he finally finds a way to force himself back into his daughter’s life. The show delves into how his crowns have affected the victims and Melissa’s own identity, diving deep into the psychology of evil and the grey area between nature and nurture.

Quaid plays Keith Hunter Jesperson, a real-life Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women from 1990-95. The actor brings chilling gravitas to Happy Face, proving once again his ability to captivate audiences across generations.

The actor commented on the dark complexity of the eight-episode series:

“What I found fascinating about Happy Face is that it wasn’t your typical story of a serial killer, but it was really this relationship between the father and the daughter.

“Serial killers in a way are very easy to play because they don’t really have any empathy and feelings. We all have that capability maybe inside of us, or we suspect we do, so it gets down to human nature and the question becomes really about ourselves.”

His exclusive quote appears on the Happy Face title page as part of JustWatch’s Why to Watch feature, which showcases personal insights from actors, directors, and writers to help fans decide what to stream. Happy Face is also climbing the charts—up 11 spots this week to #36 in

JustWatch’s U.S. streaming rankings could rise even higher following this week’s season finale.

The show first aired on March 20th and is available to watch on Paramount+.