‘Woman. Davis Stars Betty Gilpin and Elizabeth Marvel on Finale – IndieWire

(Editor’s Note: The following interview contains light spoilers for the “Mrs. Davis” series finale – Episode 8, “The Final Intercut: So I’m Your Horse”.)

Because “Mrs. Davis” starring Betty Gilpin and Elizabeth Marvel, their mother-daughter relationship began at the end of the Peacock limited series’ Holy Grail mission.

“That scene was brilliantly but hastily written over a weekend while Beth and I were 3-8. we studied the outline of the episode so we knew what was going to happen,” Gilpin said of the first scene he shot with Marvel, which happens to be the climax of the series finale. “I haven’t shot it properly before, but I’ve never done it before, where you shoot the most important scene of the show.” Regarding working on the unpredictable sci-fi dramedy adventure created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof, which explores both people’s relationship with technology and religion, Marvel added, “It was just a free-for-all every day in a way I never knew it would be. actually. what comes.”

Despite not having a full picture of where the show was headed, a nun’s journey to stopping an all-powerful but deceptive piece of artificial intelligence, Marvel knew that the strict Celeste, a securities expert, and Simone (Gilpin) she plays her mother. it meant leading with love. “The mother-daughter relationship is so fundamental, I always thought that would be in this story,” the actress told Gilpin on the IndieWire Awards Spotlight. “The problems with parenting are strangely similar to the problems we all struggle with around AI. Since AI does not come from a neutral source, someone has to create it. And how does that affect the ripple effect it has on everyone, and the responsibilities that come with it? All these questions are somehow intertwined.”

He feels guilty for contributing to a young Simone getting an arrow in the liver, and Celeste’s heavy-handed approach to Simone’s continued protection, as described by Marvel, “she’s going to shut down the whole universe, she’s going to control the whole universe, including her appearance, the work, everything available is under his control, including controlling his daughter’s safety as much as he can.”

Gilpin, however, said that despite being a nun and trying to embrace a humble life of religious commitment, “Simone is more like her mother than she would ever admit. With his relationship with his parents nearly broken and the man he loved nearly dying, Wiley discovers that loving someone doesn’t guarantee safety, or forever. There is a risk of losing them or betraying them. That there is always this underlying thing that may not last forever. That’s how she found a guy who was there for her every time she closed her eyes, no matter what, without risk, much like how Celeste had set up rules and conditions in her life to avoid risk and vulnerability. and pain.”

As Simone and Celeste grow in self-awareness throughout the show, they realize that the appeal of Mrs. Davis (also the name of the AI ​​antagonist) is that she “tries to give the person in front of them what they want. them,” Gilpin said. “And I think when we realize that, ‘Oh, it’s not this evil supercomputer, it’s just a reflection of who we are,'” the mother-daughter duo is able to close the series with a deeply moving scene that ties all its aspects together. “Mrs. Davis” together.

“The fact that she’s representing Mrs. Davis is the device of having another thing in Celeste’s ear, it allows Celeste and Simone to go under the guise of, ‘Oh, it’s story A, and like story B.’ ) “Anyway, I love you and I’m sorry,” Gilpin said. “It allows them to slip these messages to each other under the door that they probably wouldn’t have been able to have in person, just have a bald conversation, which is amazing.”

Watch the full Awards Spotlight conversation between Gilpin and Marvel in the video above.