Corey Stoll, Lorraine Toussaint drawn to ‘The Better Sister'

Yahoo

4 days ago

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Corey Stoll has portrayed a variety of roles during his acting career. He tends to lean toward characters who are complicated and complex from the villainous Yellowjacket in 'Ant-Man' to the conniving Rep. Peter Russo in 'House of Cards.'
His latest foray into that kind of performance can be seen in the Prime Video eight-episode limited series 'The Better Sister' when it debuts May 29. He's a handsome lawyer who has a connection to two very different sisters played by Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks.
'I don't think I would play a simple character,' Stoll says. 'I am not bragging. It's just that the whole point of acting is to play contradictions. That's what drew me to it, and it is the only way I know how to work.'
Adam (Stoll) and Chloe (Biel), a high-profile media executive, live a picturesque life with their troubled teenage son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan). When Adam is brutally murdered, the prime suspect sends shockwaves through the family, reuniting the two sisters, as they try to untangle a complicated family history to discover the truth behind his death. Chloe must deal with the tragedy with her estranged sister Nicky (Banks) who is struggling to make ends meet and stay clean.
'The Better Sister,' is based on the book by bestselling author Alafair Burke that deals with a murder in a very unique family. Stoll points out that while the mystery was the driving aspect of the book, the series focuses more on family elements.
'As you watch every episode, the family seems to get more and more complicated,' Stoll says. 'That was what drew me to it. I love getting to work with both Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks.
'It was great to have these very different wives. But it was the father-son relationship that I really identified with. It is a very fraught father-son relationship like many father-son relations are. I think a lot of guys will be able to identify with that.'
Stoll's credits also include the FX horror drama series 'The Strain,' the big business series 'Billions' and the NBC police drama 'Law & Order: LA.'
The series also stars Kim Dickens as Detective Nancy Guidry, Bobby Naderi as Detective Matt Bowen, Gabriel Sloyer as Jake Rodriguez, Gloria Reuben as Michelle Sanders, with Matthew Modine as Bill Braddock, and Lorraine Toussaint as Catherine Lancaster.
The streaming service series arrives just as Toussaint learned her CBS series, 'The Equalizer,' was canceled. Her character in 'The Better Sister' is both a stern boss to Chloe and her chief confidant. That part is similar to her work on 'The Equalizer' as she was the touchstone for every member of the family.
Toussaint is certain that she is one of the names of actors who get mentioned when the character must be extremely strong.
'Some of it is 'dance with the lady who brought you to the party',' Toussaint says. 'I certainly don't shy away from roles like that, but I am also getting to play a lot of mothers and that is bringing out the maternal part of me.'
She enjoys playing those in charge and maternal roles but she is ready to expand her acting portfolio. The next part of Toussaint's acting career will have her tackling a lot of vampy roles.
Any roles Toussaint tackles in the future based on a book will have her reading the original story. She finds background information in the book that helps her flesh out the character.
'Sometimes a character can be very inconsequential in the book and then suddenly it is expanded in the series,' Toussaint says. 'It gives me a world where this narrative exists.
'I always like having a bird's eye to see how what I am doing fits into the whole.'
This perspective comes from more than 40 years of acting that started in the theater. Toussaint began her career in theatre, before landing roles in 'Law & Order,' 'Orange is the New Black,' 'Crossing Jordan,' 'Hudson Hawk,' 'Dangerous Minds' and 'Any Day Now.'
Because 'The Better Sister' has so many twists and turns, there are multiple suspects along the way. Stoll admits he had no idea who had committed the crime until he saw it in the script.
'I'm the worst at that,' Stoll says. 'My mother would read mysteries and know who had done the crime early. I believe too much in my fellow man so I can't believe anyone would do it.'
Toussaint was in the same boat as Stoll. She was so interested in seeing who was the killer that she stayed up late at night to read as much of the book as possible.
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