BettyGilpin, DamonLindelof, and the cast of MrsDavis explain how the show's absurd premise paves the way for a provocative series about religion and AI.
A renegade nun with an innate ability to ride motorcycles undertakes a quest to destroy the Holy Grail. An all-seeing AI communicates to the world via Bluetooth earpiece. A cowboy enters a contest at a Medieval festival called “Excalibattle,” where he must keep his hand on a giant sword for hours on end. These abnormal situations don’t even scratch the surface of the absurdity found in Peacock’s new sci-fi series Mrs. Davis.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. There will be spoilers for the first four episodes of Mrs. Davis. Damon, you and Tara have talked about how once you got Betty, a successful dramatic and comedic actor, for the show, you turned the humor up for Simone. Was that a three-way collaboration between you two and Betty to build Simone?
Betty Gilpin: Sometimes, a modern writing overcorrect is that for a woman to be badass, she has to always have the answers and always have status in the scene, and be super-sarcastic and dry all the time. She can have nothing vulnerable about her to make up for all the years of female characters in mass media sobbing in cardigans with no answers and only vulnerability.
When you first read for the role of Jay, which we later learn is a shortened nickname for Jesus, what’s the first thought that came to your mind? When you’re reading for the part of Wiley, you see this cowboy-like figure jump off the screen. As you started to read it more, what’s something subtle about Wiley that kind of caught your eye?
Gilpin: So I think I had a pretty cliché idea of what a nun was like in my head. I think in film and TV, we’re used to seeing either one-dimensional pious figures who are sort of meek and silent, or horror movie nuns who are eating children with blood coming out of their eyes. And speaking to these three different women, I found, huge shock, that they’re three different women. [laughs]
Hernandez: Like you, we were such fans of San Junipero and his additional Black Mirror episodes. Not only did … we have him behind the camera for the episodes he directed, but as a partner for us, a producer-director on the series. He is someone that has demonstrated in his work this ability to infuse tech into the story in a way that doesn’t distract from the story and feels like it only enhances the themes.
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