Kerrry Washington and Joel Kinnaman in 'Imperfect Women.' Apple TV Logo text [This article contains spoilers through episode three of Imperfect Women.]
Joel Kinnaman’s Robert Hennessy gives the title of Apple TV‘s Imperfect Women a run for its money. In the second episode of the adapted psychological thriller, the alcoholic widow of Kate Mara‘s Nancy crosses a line that should never have been crossed when he sleeps with Eleanor, his recently murdered wife’s longtime best friend, played by Kerry Washington. Yet it’s a transgression audiences might be able to overlook if Robert shared the same decades-long longing for Eleanor as she does for him. Or if in episode three’s “Monster,” he didn’t recoil at the touch of Eleanor’s hand on his arm as she relays her grand plan to put out a joint statement denying their involvement and not immediately “go public” with their romance after Robert’s daughter Cora catches them in the pool together and exposes them on TikTok.
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It’s that move, and Robert’s subsequent explanation that he’s been advised by his attorneys to cut all communication with Eleanor, that calls into question his declaration that he’s not a monster earlier in the episode when Eleanor finds a letter he’d written to Nancy admitting he was aware of the affair he pretended not to know about. It’s one that dredges up sympathy (if little more than an ounce) for Eleanor as well, who, through held-back tears, tells Robert she believed the connection between them was finally made real after all these years. It also provides a motive for Robert as Nancy’s killer, which is exactly what the writers were going for.
“We had a lot of fun making the show and constantly modulating what the audience was going to think,” Elisabeth Moss, who’s an executive producer and who stars as Nancy and Eleanor’s friend Mary, tells The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below. “There are times when we wanted to push them being more suspicious of Eleanor, times when we wanted to push them to be suspicious of Robert, and really going back and forth with that, not only in the shooting, but in post and playing with that throughout the season and constantly changing it.”
Below, Mara, Moss and Washington discuss not judging their characters’ questionable behavior, whether the women at the center of the series are actually friends and what the show has taught them about secrets.
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Elisabeth, this series began with you optioning Araminta Hall’s novel. Did you always see yourself starring, and was Mary the character you were initially most drawn to portraying?
ELISABETH MOSS Yep. I wanted to play Mary. I knew I wasn’t going to be Nancy. I knew I didn’t have what it was going to take to be Nancy, so it was between Eleanor and Mary. I was very much in the middle of playing June [in The Handmaid’s Tale] at the time. It was 2019, and I continued to be in the middle of that for the next six years. There was something about Mary that I just felt was different. I was very attracted to that idea, and I’m very, very happy with the choice. I also loved the idea of being part of an ensemble. I loved the idea of being able to go to a great actress and say, “Hey, will you lead this show?” I loved being able to collaborate in that way with another actress. And then of course, to have a third was even more exciting. To be able to split the show between us was something I hadn’t done that I was very, very interested in.
What was the experience like of finding your chemistry as these women who are worn-in friends, but also, in some ways, don’t know a lot about each other?
KATE MARA It was really easy for us to find our way, even though we didn’t have the time to actually cultivate this chemistry or bond before we started filming. We got really lucky. I think we all had a feeling that it would work, and it was so effortless from day one.
KERRY WASHINGTON I always think a big part of chemistry is respect because when you have that, then there is the freedom to spark together. There was so much respect and admiration here. The chemistry was immediate.
MOSS We’ve all been doing this for pretty much around the same length of time so when you watch someone’s career, you get an idea of what’s important to them and who they might be, especially when you’re watching another woman lead a show and do press for it. We had some personal crossover as well with friends, and I think that that helped to have that feeling of, “I think this is a woman I could be friends with. I think these are people I could go to dinner with.” So there was a little bit of luck that that ended up being true, but there were definitely a lot of things we could look at and go, “I think this is going to work.”
Kate Mara (right) with Elisabeth Moss (left) and Kerry Washington in Imperfect Women. Courtesy of Apple TV+ Having Lesli Linka Glatter be a part of this show is a reunion for you, Elisabeth, but she mentioned, Kerry, that you two have seen each other out and expressed wanting to work together. What was it like having her on this project, particularly directing the pilot and setting the tone for the series?
WASHINGTON When Lesli Linka Glatter said yes, we were like, “We have a show.” She’s such a legend. Such a legend, and she can do anything. At the time she took this on, she was the president of the DGA. She does not have to slum it with anybody. It felt like such a great affirmation that we were aiming for something really special, and the team just kept growing and growing.
By the time audiences get to episode three, it seems likely they might start to question whether these women are actually friends. What would each of you say to that?
MOSS I think so. There’s obviously drama that happens as part of a TV show that is maybe a bit more extreme than you would get in your everyday friendships — I certainly hope so — but that makes it a little bit more entertaining. There are so many moments in our lives where I really feel like there’s a connection and a support there that Mary and Nancy have that Nancy doesn’t get from anyone else. And Eleanor and Mary — some very, very complicated things to talk about, perhaps, in the future — but I think there’s definitely a real friendship there. You know how there’s that thing of sometimes that person you can have that fight with is the person you’re actually closest to and you’re safe enough to have that.
WASHINGTON The exciting thing is that people are going to ask that question. We want people to be having those conversations about what friendship is and when do you cross the line? What makes a good friend, and when is it beyond repair? Those are questions we had on set all the time, like, “Is this okay?” So I think the idea that people will be asking that question and having those conversations is exactly where we want people to be.
MOSS And whatever you think in episode three, as far as their friendship and what’s happening, it’s going to be different in episode four, different in episode five, definitely different when you get to six, seven and eight. So there’s no one answer to that question. It’s just going to change every episode anyway.
In episode three, Mary judges Eleanor pretty harshly for her choices with Robert. Did you wrestle at all with judging your own characters?
WASHINGTON I think it’s a really important part of your process as an actor to figure out how to have compassionate understanding for the choices that your character makes, because if you’re judging them, you’re outside of them. For me to really be in the body of the character, I have to understand the why. Even if I don’t agree with it, I have to really wrap my heart around the why, otherwise I’m doing the character a disservice because I’m looking down at them as opposed to being in them or letting them be in me.
MOSS Yeah, you have to understand where they’re coming from. You have to see why they would do something, or you can’t play it. There’s no virtue in judging the character. We’ve all played probably more villainous characters than this, and even then, it does not help you at all to play that by judging them.
WASHINGTON No, it’s more fun to go, “Oh wow, that’s a really interesting decision I’m about to make; let’s figure it out.”
What did working on this series teach each of you about grief?
MOSS I think more, perhaps, than grief, we get into talking a lot about the power of secrets and the power of secrets in friendship and how it’s that fear of being judged, that fear of someone thinking that you’re not going to talk to them anymore, that you’re not going to be their friend anymore, that you’re going to look down on them, that keeps these women from being honest with each other sometimes. And those, unfortunately, become fatal secrets. And although I hope that I don’t have to ever use any of that lesson in my real life, that is something that we talked about a lot and definitely explored in the show.
Episode three is titled “Monster,” and this idea of feeling like a monster and not wanting to be perceived as one comes up repeatedly. Robert says he’s not a monster. Should audiences believe him?
WASHINGTON Keep going. Keep watching. We’re not going to answer that.
MOSS Cannot. Cannot. But that’s the idea. We had a lot of fun making the show and constantly modulating what the audience was going to think. There are times when we wanted to push them being more suspicious of Eleanor, times when we wanted to push them to be suspicious of Robert, and really going back and forth with that, not only in the shooting, but in post and playing with that throughout the season and constantly changing it. Once you have settled on it and you’re like, “he did it,” “She did it,” We want it to be like, “Oh, we have to change that now.” And that was really fun for us.
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Imperfect Women releases new episodes on Apple TV+ every Wednesday.
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