Limited/TV Movie Roundtable: Stephen Graham, Elizabeth Banks, Javier Bardem, Sacha Baron Cohen, More
Brian Tyree Henry ('Dope Thief') joins Jenny Slate ('Dying for Sex'), Renée Zellweger ('Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'), Elizabeth Banks ('The Better Sister'), Javier Bardem ('Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story'), Stephen Graham ('Adolescence') & Sacha Baron Cohen ('Disclaimer') on the L.A. Times Limited Series & Television Movie Roundtable.Presented by The Walt Disney Studios.
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Los Angeles Times
13 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Limited/TV Movie Roundtable: Stephen Graham, Elizabeth Banks, Javier Bardem, Sacha Baron Cohen, More
Brian Tyree Henry ('Dope Thief') joins Jenny Slate ('Dying for Sex'), Renée Zellweger ('Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'), Elizabeth Banks ('The Better Sister'), Javier Bardem ('Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story'), Stephen Graham ('Adolescence') & Sacha Baron Cohen ('Disclaimer') on the L.A. Times Limited Series & Television Movie by The Walt Disney Studios.
Los Angeles Times
13 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
‘Somebody hug me!' 7 Emmy hopefuls on staying calm, hitting their marks and more
The Emmys' limited series/TV movie acting categories have come to represent some of the best and most-talked-about shows on television, and this year's crop of contenders is no exception. The seven actors who joined the 2025 Envelope Roundtable were Javier Bardem, who plays father, victim and alleged molester Jose Menendez in Netflix's 'Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story'; Renée Zellweger, who reprises her role as the British romantic heroine in 'Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'; Stephen Graham, who co-created and stars in 'Adolescence' as the father of a teenage boy who commits a heinous murder; Jenny Slate, who plays the best friend of a terminally ill woman in FX's 'Dying for Sex'; Brian Tyree Henry, who portrays a man posing as a federal agent in order to rip off drug dealers in Apple TV+'s 'Dope Thief'; Elizabeth Banks, who takes on the role of an estranged sibling and recovering alcoholic in Prime Video's 'The Better Sister'; and Sacha Baron Cohen, who appears as the deceived husband of a successful filmmaker in Apple TV+'s 'Disclaimer.' The Times' news and culture critic Lorraine Ali spoke to the group about the emotional fallout of a heavy scene, the art of defying expectations and more. Read highlights from their conversation below and watch video of the roundtable above. Many of you move between drama and comedy. People often think, 'Drama's very serious and difficult, comedy's light and easy.' Is that true? Banks: I think the degree of difficulty with comedy is much higher. It's really hard to sustainably make people laugh over time, whereas [with] drama, everyone relates to loss and pining for love that's unrequited. Not everybody has great timing or is funny or gets satire. Henry: There's something fun about how closely intertwined they are. In my series, I'm playing a heroin addict running for my life, and I have this codependency with this friend … There's a scene where I've been looking for him, and I'm high out of my mind, and I find him in my attic, and all he's talking about is how he has to take a s—. And I'm like, 'But they're trying to kill us.' You just see him wincing and going through all these [groans]. It is so funny, but at the same time, you're just terrified for both. There's always humor somewhere in the drama. Banks: There's a reason why the theater [symbol] is a happy face/sad face. They're very intertwined. Renée, with Bridget Jones — how has she changed over the last 25 years and where is she now with 'Mad About the Boy'? Zellweger: Nobody's the same from one moment to the next, one chapter to the next and certainly not from one year to the next. It's been a really interesting sort of experiment to revisit a character in the different phases of her life. What I'm really grateful for is that the timing runs in parallel to the sort of experiences that you have in your early 20s, 30s and so on. With each iteration, I don't have to pretend that I'm less than I am, because I don't want to be the character that I was, or played, when she was 29, 35. I don't want to do that, and I certainly don't want to do that now. So it was really nice to meet her again in this place of what she's experiencing in the moment, which is bereavement and the loss of her great love, and being a mom, and trying to be responsible, and reevaluating what she values, and how she comports herself, and what's important and all of that, because, of course, I relate to that in this moment. Stephen, 'Adolescence' follows a family dealing with the fallout of their 13-year-old son being accused of a brutal murder. You direct and star in the series. What was it like being immersed in such heavy subject matter? Did it come home with you? Graham: We did that first episode, the end of it was quite heavy and quite emotional. When we said, 'Cut,' all of us older actors and the crew were very emotional. There were hugs and a bit of applause. And then everyone would be like, 'Where's Owen?' [Cooper, the teenage actor who plays Graham's character's son]. 'Is Owen OK? Is he with his child psychologist?' No, Owen's upstairs playing swing ball with his tutor. It was like OK, that's the way to do this — not to take myself too seriously when we say, 'Cut,' but when I am there, immerse myself in it. Let's be honest, we can all be slightly self-obsessed. My missus, she's the best for me because I'd phone her and say, 'I had a really tough day. I had to cry all day. My wife's died of cancer, and it was a really tough one.' She goes, 'The dog s— all over the living room. I had to go shopping and the f— bag split when I got to Tesco. There was a flat tire. They've let the kids out of school early because there's been a flood. And you've had a hard day pretending to be sad?' Bardem: I totally agree with what Stephen says. You have a life with your family and your children that you have to really pay attention to. This is a job, and you just do the job as good as you can with your own limitations. You put everything into it when they say, 'Action,' and when you're out, you just leave it behind. Otherwise, it's too much. Certain scenes, certain moments stay with you because we work with what we are. But I think it doesn't make you a better actor to really stay in character, as they say, for 24 hours. That doesn't work for me. It actually makes me feel very confused if I do that. On the show 'Monsters' I tried to protect Cooper [Koch] and Nicholas [Alexander Chavez], the actors who play the children, because they were carrying the heavy weight on the show every day. I was trying to make them feel protected and loved and accompanied by us, the adults, and let them know that we are there for them and that this is fiction. Because they were going really deep into it, and they did an amazing job. Elizabeth, in 'The Better Sister,' you portray Nicky, a sister estranged from her sibling who's been through quite a bit of her own trauma. Banks: I play a drunk who's lost her child and her husband, basically, to her little sister, played by Jessica Biel. She is grappling with trauma from her childhood, which she's trying not to bring forward. She's been working [with] Alcoholics Anonymous, an incredible program, to get through her stuff. But she's also a fish out of water when she visits her sister, who [lives in a] very rarefied New York, literary, fancy rich world. My character basically lives in a trailer park in Ohio. There's a lot going on. And there's a murder mystery. I loved the complication … but it brought up all of those things for me. I do think you absolutely leave most of that [heaviness] on set. You are mining it all for the character work, so you've got to find it, but I don't need to then infect my own children with it. Sacha, you have played and created these really gregarious characters like Ali G or Borat. Your character in 'Disclaimer,' he's not a character you created, but he is very understated. Was that a challenge? Cohen: It took me a long time to work out who the character was. I said to [director] Alfonso [Cuarón], 'I don't understand why this guy goes on that journey from where we see him in Act 1.' For me it was, how do you make this person unique? We worked a lot through the specificity of what words he uses and what he actually says to explain and give hints for me as an actor. A lot of that was Alfonso Cuarón saying, 'Take it down.' And there was a lot of rewriting and loads of drafts before I even understood how this guy reacts to the news and information that he believes about his wife. Jenny, 'Dying for Sex' is based on a true story about two friends. One has terminal cancer, and the other — your character — supports her right up until the end. Talk about what it was like to play that role in a series that alternates between biting humor and deep grief. Slate: Michelle Williams, who does a brilliant job in this show, her energy is extending outward and [her character] is trying to experiment before she does the greatest experiment of all, which is to cross over into the other side. My character is really out there, not out there willy-nilly, but she will yell at people if they are being rude, wasteful or if she feels it's unjust. [And she's] going from blasting to taking all that energy and making it this tight laser, and pointing it right into care, and knowing more about herself at the end. I am a peppy person, and I felt so excited to have the job that a lot of my day started with calming myself down. I'm at work with Michelle Williams and Sissy Spacek and Liz Meriwether and Shannon Murphy and being, like, 'Siri, set a meditation timer for 10 minutes,' and making myself do alternate nostril breathing [exercises]. Brian, many people came to know you from your role as Paper Boi in 'Atlanta.' The series was groundbreaking and like nothing else on television. What was it like moving out of that world and onto other projects? Henry: People really thought that I was this rapper that they pulled off the street from Atlanta. To me, that's the greatest compliment … When I did 'Bullet Train,' I was shocked at how many people thought I was British. I was like, 'Oh, right. Now I've twisted your mind this way.' I was [the voice of] Megatron at one point, and now I've twisted your mind that way. My path in is always going to be stretching people's imaginations, because they get so attached to characters that I've played that they really believe that I'm that person. People feel like they have an ownership of who you are. I love the challenge of having to force the imaginations of the viewers and myself to see me in a departure [from] what they saw me [as] previously. Because I realize that when I walk in a room, before I even open my mouth, there's 90 different things that are put on me or taken away from me because of how I look and how I carry myself. Javier, since doing the series are you now frequently asked about your own opinions on the Menendez case? The brothers claim their father molested them, and that is in part what led to them murdering their parents. Bardem: I don't think anybody knows. That's the point. That was the great thing about playing that character, is you have to play it in a way that it's not obvious that he did those things that he was accused of, because nobody knows, but at the same time you have to make people believe that he was capable. I did say to Ryan [Murphy] that I can't do a scene with a kid. Because in the beginning, they do drafts, and there were certain moments where I said, 'I can't. It's not needed.' The only moment that I had a hard time was when [Jose] has to face [his] young kid. It was only a moment where Jose was mean to him. That's not in my nature. Henry: I discovered, while doing my series, 'My body doesn't know this isn't real.' There's an episode where I'm shot in the leg, and I'm bleeding out and I'm on all this different morphine and drugs and all this stuff, and I'm literally lying on this ground, take after take, having to mime this. To go through the delusion of this pain ... in the middle of the takes, it was just so crazy. I would literally look at the crew and say, 'Somebody hug me! Somebody!' Stephen, that scene where you confront the boys in the parking lot with the bike, I was just like, 'Oh, my God, how many times did he have to do that?' This kid gets in your face, and I was like, 'Punch the kid!' My heart went out to you, man, not just as the character but as you being in there. Graham: Because we did it all in one take, we had that unique quality. You're using the best of two mediums. You've got that beauty and that spontaneity and that reality of the theater, and then you have the naturalism and the truth that we have with film and television. So by the time I get to that final bit, we've been through all those emotions. When I open the door and go into [Jamie's] room, everything's shaken. But it's not you. It's an out-of-body experience and just comes from somewhere else. Bardem: Listen, we don't do brain surgery, but let's give ourselves some credit. We are generous in what we do because we are putting our bodies into an experience. We are doing this for something bigger than us, and that is the story that we're telling. What have been some of the more challenging or difficult moments for you, either in your career or your recent series? Zellweger: Trying not to do what you're feeling in the moment sometimes, because it's not appropriate to what you're telling. That happens in most shows, most things that you do. I think everybody experiences it where you're bringing something from home and it doesn't belong on the set. It's impossible to leave it behind when you walk in because it's bigger than you are in that moment. Banks: I would say that the thing that I worked on the most for 'The Better Sister' was [understanding] sobriety. I'm not sober. I love a bubbly rosé. So it really did bring up how much I think about drinking and how social it is and what that ritual is for me, and how this character is thinking about it every day and deciding every day to stay sober or not. I am also a huge fan of AA and sobriety programs. I think they're incredible tools for everybody who works those programs. I was grateful for the access to all of that as I was making the series. But that's what you get to do in TV. You get to explore episode by episode. You get to play out a lot more than just three acts. Stephen, about the continuous single shot. It seems like it's an incredibly difficult and complex way to shoot a series. Why do it? Graham: It's exceptionally difficult, I'm not going to lie. It's like a swan glides across the water beautifully, but the legs are going rapidly underneath. A lot of it is done in preparation. We spend a whole week learning the script, and then the second week is just with the camera crew and the rest of the crew. It's a choreography that you work out, getting an idea of where they want the camera to go, and the opportunity to embody the space ourselves. Cohen: That reminds me of a bit of doing the undercover movies that I do because you have one take. ... I did a scene where I'm wearing a bulletproof vest. There were a lot of the people in the audience who'd gone to this rally, a lot of them had machine guns. We knew they were going to get angry, but you've got to do the scene. You've got one time to get the scene right. But you also go, 'OK, those guys have got guns. They're trying to storm the stage. I haven't quite finished the scene. When do I leave?' But you've got to get the scene. I could get shot, but that's not important. Henry: There's a certain level of sociopathy. Slate: I feel like I'm never on my mark, and it was always a very kind camera operator being like, 'Hey, Jenny, you weren't in the shot shoulder-wise.' I feel like such an idiot. Part of it is working through lifelong, longstanding feelings of 'I'm a fool and my foolishness is going to make people incredibly angry with me.' And then really still wanting to participate and having no real certainty that I'm going to be able to do anything but just make all of my fears real. Part of the thing that I love about performance is I just want to experience the version of myself that does not collapse into useless fragments when I face the thing that scares me the most. I do that, and then I feel the appetite for performance again. Do you see yourself in roles when you're watching other people's films or TV show? Graham: At the end of the day, we're all big fans of acting. That's why we do it. Because when we were young, we were inspired by people on the screen, or we were inspired by places where we could put ourselves and lose our imaginations. We have a lot of t— in this industry. But I think if we fight hard enough, we can come through. Do you know what I mean? It's people that are here for the right reasons. It's a collective. Acting is not a game of golf. It's a team. It's in front and it's behind the camera. I think it's important that we nourish that. Henry: And remember that none of us are t—. Bardem: What is a t—? I may be one of them and I don't know it. Graham: I'll explain it to you later.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘The Better Sister' Bosses Break Down the Series' Spiderweb of Secrets, Complex Family Dynamics and Mysteries They Can Explore in a Season 2
[This story contains spoilers from all eight episodes of Prime Video's ] When crafting Prime Video's eight-episode limited series The Better Sister, starring Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks, showrunners Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado asked themselves, 'What is the most uncomfortable path we can take and can we bear telling it this way?' More from The Hollywood Reporter 'The Better Sister': Jessica Biel, Elizabeth Banks on Wanting the Audience to Root for Their "Messy" Characters and That "Rallying Cry" Ending 'The Better Sister' Review: Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks' Chemistry Gets Squandered in Amazon's Dull Sisterly Mystery 'The Wheel of Time' Canceled at Amazon's Prime Video After Three Seasons That path proves to be a spiderweb of mysteries as Milch and Corrado explore both the unraveling of a whodunit and the trauma and history between two estranged sisters Nicky (Banks) and Chloe (Biel). Adapted from Alafair Burke's novel of the same name, Biel and Banks star as sisters seemingly living opposite lives — Chloe with an established career and devoted family that includes lawyer husband Adam (Corey Stoll) and teenage son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), while Nicky struggles to stay clean. However, when Adam is murdered, the two sisters must come together, especially when Ethan is accused of the murder. To make matters more complicated, Nicky is also Adam's ex and Ethan's biological mother. When exploring the lingering secrets and complex family and personal history that exist for Chloe and Nicky, Milch tells The Hollywood Reporter that they were really exploring 'the emotional and psychological unraveling' of each character. 'I think so much of the show is about the stories that we've told ourselves about who we are, about who our siblings are, and about what happened,' Milch says, adding, 'As you get to know the characters, you start to understand more and you start to understand how they didn't understand each other at a certain point, how they sort of moved away from each other.' Throughout the series, the audience watches Biel's Chloe and Banks' Nicky fight to save their son from jail while also having to confront their own demons whether personally or ones that spurred from each other and their parents. As for who is actually the 'better sister'? That was a 'real guiding light' for the show, Milch says, adding, 'All of us are trying to sort of be better than our worst selves, and we don't always succeed. These two sisters think things about each other. The world thinks things about them. And, at different moments, one of them is trying to do the right thing, and one of them has made a mistake, and yet they sort of keep finding each other.' Corrado says, 'I think they ultimately have have destroyed the trust between them, and there is this slow rebuilding. But the question remains, can they actually move on from these things that they've done to each other, which are very deep and unforgivable in some ways? Can we forgive, but can I live with you and move forward?' Ahead of the show's premiere, Milch and Corrado chatted with THR about show's spiderweb of mysteries, exploring a complex yet 'perfect alcoholic family' and break down that killer reveal ending — and the new mysteries to explore. How did this project come to you both and what about the story made you want to be a part of it? OLIVIA MILCH Tomorrow Studios, the amazing producers on the project, had sent the book to me in 2019. It's so twisty and turny and fun, and [author] Alafair [Burke] does such an incredible job. Then her prosecutorial background and how well researched all of the trial stuff was, it was just such a fun read. I think for me personally, the thing that I really connected to is this notion that siblings get different versions of their parents, particularly when a parent gets sober, and how that affects one kid getting a sober version of the parent and one kid having experienced a parent when they were in more of an addict or in use. I really connected with that. My dad got sober when I was 10, and my brother was 13, my sister was 15, so I really felt like, 'Oh, I understand that.' And even if you don't have experience with sobriety, everybody, I think can understand that their parents change as people and you are getting them at different stages of their life. As you become an adult, and you look back, you realize, 'Wow, that had such an effect on who I am, and who my siblings are, and also the way that I think of my siblings and the stories that I tell.' Then the idea of getting to work with Regina. Regina is like on the Mount Rushmore of writers to me. Tomorrow Studios was so committed to the project throughout all of these years and just so believed in it. So we're very much indebted to them and grateful to them for helping us see it through, and now we got to make it, which is just crazy! REGINA CORRADO I have a very big family. Each one of us has a different version of the sobriety. My favorite is, 'He wasn't sober.' (Laughs.) You think you had one version of, 'Oh, no, he kicked it.' Everyone's got the real scoop. That's my favorite piece of it. So we connect a lot on the family aspect of this, which is really fun to explore and continue to explore, because the exploration doesn't end. This series is presented as a spiderweb of mysteries where we have the central mystery of Adam's death but also other mysteries including of the sisters themselves, Adam as a person and his job, Ethan's secrets and the detective and her past. And once you think you know something, something else happens to steer you in another direction. Going into this, how did you go about crafting how you were going to explore these different mysteries and present the varied pieces of this overall puzzle we watch throughout the series? MILCH All the characters have a secret pride and a secret shame. At the heart of a lot of the mysteries in the show, which you've done such a beautiful job elucidating how you think you know you're solving one thing and then another thing, is a lot of these characters have secret shame and [exploring] to be seen and to be known once your secret shame is revealed. And to ask, can I still love myself? Can other people still love me? All the characters are asking that of each other at different times. So I think so much of the plot is the emotional and psychological unraveling [and] our exposure of the characters to each other. And the web that you talk about is understanding that they're all in it together and their fates are really intertwined, which is the truth of all of us. We spent so much time thinking about the past and the care of each character that having gotten to know them so well, and then getting to understand the actors and what they were bringing to the characters as we approached every moment of revelation, we understood what that might give us access to in the past, the character, and how that might then come to light in that present moment. That was a lot of fun. CORRADO I think also the shame that one thinks is going to do you in, sometimes has that surprising liberation attached to it. I think that was a theme Olivia and I were very interested in exploring and talking about is that we carry this darkness around, and then when you finally expose [it], whether voluntarily or not, there is a freedom to live in a different way. And we can say that that that applies to every single one of our characters too. The narrative centers on these unreliable narrators, given it doesn't seem like anyone is really trustworthy and there are lingering secrets with everyone involved. Can you talk about creating Chloe and Nicky and the conversations you had with Jessica and Elizabeth in who you wanted them to be? CORRADO I think that they are both very different in their process, both incredibly smart and invested in layering and I think sobriety, particularly for the Nicky character. It's complicated. And it's also complicated for how old they are. I think the conversation was always, how do we make them more interesting and the more courageous choice as writers and as actors? What is the most uncomfortable path we can take and can we bear telling it this way? And I think that they were both very committed to that. I think Elizabeth and Jessica were just delightful to get into it with, because they always showed up on set with something that they had been grappling with. It wasn't like they came in and they were like, 'I got it.' They were like, 'Well, what about this? I have this question.' It's hard work, because when you're honest about it, it's uncomfortable. MILCH There was so much mutual vulnerability that was being brought to the process, and that's what makes it messy in the best way, because it makes it human. I think part of what you were pointing out with the web of all of these characters is that nothing is clean. The unreliable narrator, you're never 100 percent honest with yourself, let alone other people. Both Elizabeth and Jessica, they're so smart, and they're such pros. They've been doing it for so long that I think there was so much excitement and they were so down to go to that place of vulnerability. They weren't afraid of the moments of messiness in the characters. That excited them the most. That's the best you can ask for with creative collaborators. We spend a lot of the show taking the time to understand these characters and their choices and peel back their layers. I think it humanized them because you may at first not have sympathy or even know whether you like them based on what we think we know about them. CORRADO But you hope that those two things can exist at the same time. Your heart is big enough that you feel for them. That's the trick of it: to be unlikable in some instances and moments and then all of a sudden break somebody's heart when they're watching you suffer. You also explore Nicky and Chloe's childhood and upbringing and how the both of them had different experiences, especially given their difference in age. Can you talk about how their childhood shaped how they conceived themselves and each other and what you wanted to get across with their backstory? MILCH I think all of us are products of our mother and father, or lack thereof, and our childhoods. It was so important to us, particularly with the sisters, to go back to those original wounds and those original traumas. I think so much of the show is about the stories that we've told ourselves about who we are, about who our siblings are and about what happened. It was really important for us to be able to start interrogating some of those memories and charting the course of our characters, also tapping back into them and understanding them in a different way. I think that happens for a lot of us. I think it's so potent and so powerful to just even see those glimmers and those moments of childhood, because it makes you understand that inside of us we all have the kid version of ourselves still. Getting to access that rawness and that pain directly is so important for our characters and then so important for our audience. We know there's volumes of story about our characters before we met them. So that was something that was so special for us to be able to do. And I think really starts to complete the picture. As you get to know the characters, you start to understand more and you start to understand how they didn't understand each other at a certain point, how they sort of moved away from each other. CORRADO I feel like to meet their parents it all becomes abundantly clear what happens: It's the perfect alcoholic family (Laughs.) As Chloe and Nicky work together to protect Ethan, their bond grows, but it is a slow progress and almost felt like their relationship was strongest when there were secrets. Can you talk about the progression of their relationship and the complexities of that sibling relationship? CORRADO I think it's a push and pull, like five steps forward, six steps back. I think they ultimately have have destroyed the trust between them, and there is this slow rebuilding. But the question remains, can they actually move on from these things that they've done to each other, which are very deep and unforgivable in some ways? Can we forgive, but can I live with you and move forward? MILCH Or how do you embrace the totality of a person, including that that person was capable of hurting you and harming you in that way? Can you hold the truth simultaneously, that they can love you and that they can hurt you so much? That's really family, right? I think when you're with your siblings, you revert back to being kids immediately, and you have all of the stuff that's happened between you in the present. And so I think that Jess and Elizabeth do such an amazing job of getting at that dynamic where there's so much distrust, so many secrets between them, and yet, the second they get with each other, it's the bickering, and it just comes out. We always talk about the moment on the terrace when Guidry, the cop [played by Kim Dickens], comes out, [and they're like], 'She's such a bitch!' Siblings unite talking shit about an outsider. So I think that was also very important to us to find those moments of humor and levity and the dynamic that is unique to sisters. Adam may have been murdered but he's very much a central character. We learn he went with Nicky's sister, is abusive and involved in a shady business. How did you view Adam and the motivations he had with the choices he made when it came to Nicky and Chloe, Ethan and then his career? MILCH Adam also was always so important to us — not necessarily that there were redeeming qualities about him but that we understood him. He was complex and nobody's all bad. In the eighth episode, you meet his mother and get that glimpse into a little bit of what he came from and what he was trying to leave behind. You're sort of starting to understand how does a kid who has a pretty broken background start to try to piece themselves together and have a sense of control? Even when they have demons that either have been passed down to them or have been developed as coping mechanisms. For us, Adam was somebody who really viewed himself as having a profound sense of integrity and belief that there are ways things ought to be. And as you piece the story together, the understanding that when he was with Nicky, it was such an affront to the way that he thought things were supposed to go. When he says in his sort of apparition ghost figure to Chloe in 107: If it wasn't then it would have been another time she [Nicky] was gonna kill him. We also wanted to show that, yes, Nicky was terribly wronged and horrifically set up, and her child was taken from her, but she also was a drunk. Nothing is totally black and white or has 100 percent moral clarity. When he's with Chloe, this is also a life he didn't sign up for. We have that tension between the two of them, of her comfort in the spotlight and his thinking, 'Okay, now I'm with the right sister. This was who I was supposed to be with.' And then, 'Oh no, wait, this also isn't the life that I want, and this is also a life that lacks integrity, and now I'm at this job that she wanted me to be in that is corrupt.' Just trying to tap into the frustration and the resentment and the anger that he felt, never justifying the choices that he made with that anger but trying to know that the underpinnings of it were real feelings that he was having, and how clearly toxic it can be when you don't have the capacity to process those feelings in ways that are that are healthy or safe. That was super important to us as we were building that and, of course, an actor like Corey Stoll, it's very rare to find somebody who could really bring all of that to light. So we were very fortunate to have Corey help tell that story with us. CORRADO We did also want to explore that he was very aware of the fact that he was very damaged and dangerous. And we went through different iterations of how we could share that, whatever that inner struggle was, and we ended up doing it the way we did. We felt like it was very important to fill that color in, because it's very easy to demonize a character, and then when you demonize them, you write them off. So it was so important to understand him and, as Olivia said, not to justify or to excuse but sort of say, 'This guy is tortured. He wants out too.' Each time this violence happened, he swore it would be the last. Ethan goes through it in the series. His dad is murdered; he's accused of the murder; he has a close relationship with both Chloe and Nicky and in the middle of that dynamic. But then learns that his situation could've been different had Adam never lied about Nicky putting him in danger and he's left to reevaluate his life. By the series' end, where does that leave him? Do you think there's any resentment there with him and Chloe? MILCH There's so many heartbreaking realizations about what he's been through. As you said, there's sort of this onion that's being peeled back and I think when you first encounter Ethan, you think, 'This is kind of a spoiled, wealthy kid. He's sweet. I like him. He's a little bit awkward.' And Maxwell Donovan, who plays him, is just so amazing. But when he does get arrested, you think he's capable. He's tall. He could have maybe taken his dad on. And it's very important to have that kind of all play out as you encountered him as a character and looked at him in a new light. But I think exactly as you're saying, there's so much confusion and there's so much that's unknown for him about the truth of his life. There are stories that you tell kids to help simplify things, especially when there's been trauma that has happened to kids when they're little. And I think Ethan was told a certain story that was convenient and direct, even though it was painful, about what happened with Nicky and then he went on to live a very privileged life. Then at this moment of peak adolescence, the rug gets pulled out from under him. In a certain sense, he's going through something quite similar to what Nicky and Chloe are going through; Reexamining his childhood and reexamining the truth of what happened to him and what he can believe. I think all teenagers have that moment where they look at their parents and they realize, 'You are fallible figures. You are not just abstractions of security and authority. You are people capable of making mistakes and of lying and of doing the wrong thing.' And that is unnerving, but you have to sort of process that in order to become an adult. I think he gets the most extreme version of that and the feelings he has toward Nicky of what does it mean to get to know her and then the questioning of: Was I supposed to stay with her? Would I have made more sense if I had grown up in Ohio with Nicky? I think a lot of people, when they find out things about their childhood, start to ask those kinds of questions. How different would I be if it had been different? But I think you were very smart to pinpoint. I think that there is a lot of resentment and anger toward Chloe, particularly at the end, as he sort of realizes a lot of this was a lie, even if some of that was not her fault or her intention. CORRADO What I think Alafair [Burke] set up for us beautifully, too, was the use of the internet as a place to put his anger that does not bring it into real time. It was actually unusually a healthy outlet for him, so he was able to to voice that: accusing of her hypocrisy and all of the things that he hated about her [Chloe] and he wanted to hurt his father. I think that that, to me, is one of his most interesting aspects as a character, because he has that one very sweet facade, but is capable of a lot of things. Like what is there underneath all of that? It's revealed that Nicky was the one to kill Adam. But why do you think she didn't share that especially given Ethan was arrested and on trial for the murder? MILCH I think there's a question you always ask yourself when you're thinking about characters' choices: What if it all went according to plan? We don't believe that Nicky came there with the intention of murdering Adam. She says, 'I'm getting my sister and I'm getting my son, and I'm getting out of here.' So it really was self defense. It was, 'If I don't defend myself, he's gonna kill me. And I know he's capable of that, and he feels justified in doing that, because he's gonna say I was crazy. He's gonna make up some story about what I came here to do.' I think in the aftermath of that, when she gets that call from the police, there's two ways that call is gonna go. She thinks, 'Oh, my God, are they calling me to say we know that you've murdered Adam Macintosh and we're gonna come arrest you?' But they call her and say, 'You now are the legal guardian of your son' and that is the thing that she's wanted more than anything in her life and here it is. So in a weird way, this spur of the moment decision that she had to make gives her the thing that she wants most. And how is she going to deny that to herself? But I think the thing that Elizabeth does so beautifully and is always at play with Nicky is that anxiety and that fear [of] 'I'm going to be found out.' The second she gets to be with Ethan, it's such a balm and salve to her soul of what she's wanted for so long, and she gets to be back with her sister, which as much tension as there is, I think they both did really miss each other. If she turns herself in, she's going to jail. She doesn't get to be with them anymore. How could she choose that after just getting them back? I think she thinks she would never let Ethan go away for it. But is there a way to salvage the possibility that they can all be together? It's not rational but none of it is. That was always Nicky's North Star; getting to be with Ethan and her sister and protecting both of them. And then ultimately Chloe decides she's going to figure out a way to protect her sister and protect her son. CORRADO I think she could find out if Chloe was the enemy or not because she [Chloe] had betrayed her trust and taken so much from her. Coming in with the truth was probably, in her mind, a ticket right to jail. They worked some shit out. At the end, Chloe and Nicky imply that they're going to tell their story in a book after all. What did you want to get across with their decision to do that? CORRADO This is also a way of healing. They're going to tell this story, and they're going to do it together, and the money is going to be life changing, and they'll have a whole new set of lies they need to sort. But it begs the question of what story are they going to tell? It feels like they're forever bonded by secrets and their relationship is strongest when there are secrets. MILCH I think that's exactly right. At the heart of many families, the secrets are what bonds you together. That question of, what story are they going to tell for us? That's sort of the story of the show. It's this love story with these sisters but it's, what story have you told yourself? What story are you telling together? What story are you telling the world and all of those different versions? That's a big question for how they go forward. At the end of the series, we see Jake (Gabriel Sloyer) lying dead on the beach. It seems to be hinted that he was killed by Bill and Gentry, can you confirm that? MILCH To confirm? (Laughs.) CORRADO Confirm or deny (Laughs.) I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something, but it seems there's another mystery to solve! MILCH I think we very much wanted to deliver a very satisfactory ending for the first season and have it feel like you know what happened, like the mystery is solved. But I think that obviously the truth, particularly around these ladies in this family, is things happen. So there certainly is no definitive answer to that. For now. (Laughs.) We also see Detective Guidry aware that despite Bill being arrested for Adam's murder, that's not what actually happened and knows Nicky has something to do with the murder. Is that something that she just will have to keep to herself going forward or do you see a world where she tries to still expose the truth somehow? MILCH You know, you are asking so many wonderful questions about what it might be like to say, continue to tell this story, which is certainly something that we've given thought on our own. And should we be so lucky to continue to get to explore! But yes, I think Guidry, like [with] so many in this story, there's sort of the version that is out in the public, and then the private truth. Even though at the end of the season, so many secrets have been revealed and so many mysteries sort of have been solved, there's now this new set of lies agreed upon, and secrets and choices that have been made that are setting things in motion. She knows something that isn't out there, and what is she going to do with that information? I think that cat and mouse between Guidry and Nicky is such a fun and satisfying dynamic and relationship in the season. So Nicky gets away, but for how long? Well my other question was going to be whether you envision continuing the story for Chloe and Nicky, but I suppose I got my answer. MILCH AND CORRADO (Laughs.) Given the series is called , I think while watching the series the answer to who is actually the better sister can change and be hard to answer. But what is your take on who is the better sister and why? MILCH I think you nailed it. It depends on any given moment. That was, for us, what we were always interested in exploring. That's also true in your relationships, it depends on the day, and we all fuck up, and we all hurt each other, and then we're all the person who needs something, and we're the person who shows up. That was a real guiding light for us in telling the story: All of us are trying to sort of be better than our worst selves, and we don't always succeed. These two sisters think things about each other. The world thinks things about them. And, at different moments, one of them is trying to do the right thing, and one of them has made a mistake, and yet they sort of keep finding each other. CORRADO It was a great opportunity for other characters to comment on how fucked up they were (Laughs.) Like, 'Oh, these sisters…' The surrogate for the audience is not who's better, it's who's worse? (Laughs.) *** All eight episodes of The Better Sister are now streaming on Prime Video. Read THR's interview with Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
