'The Girlfriend's Olivia Cooke & Robin Wright Must "Like" Their Characters, "No Matter How Evil"

New York Post

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00:00You guys are both known for playing these wickedly delicious characters in some other shows.

00:05Alicent, House of the Dragon, Claire, House of Cards. First of all, how did it feel to break

00:09free of the House of label? And then also, how did those roles help to prepare you for playing

00:14these two dastardly women? Well, you kind of moved into the House of Sanderson. The House of

00:20Sanderson, yeah. That's a whole other division of the show. I elbowed my way in. Elbowed her way in.

00:26It felt good. I think what's great about both of these characters, it's so far from how I would

00:36operate as myself, who operates under the guise of a lot of guilt and shame. So to sort of like rid

00:44myself off that and be as raw of a nerve as possible is fantastic. When watching the show,

00:51I was thinking of the quote from Robert Evans, which is, there are three sides to every story.

00:55There's your side, my side, and the truth. And I'm wondering as actors, if you guys ever ended up

01:01feeling like you were looking for the truth in between, in the gray area of both of their sides,

01:07or as an actor, did you just decide to align yourself with your character's point of view?

01:13The latter. I think you have to, you know, you have to, you have to like the character you play,

01:18no matter how evil they are. You have to believe in their choices and their psychology behind why

01:26these decisions are made. Whether you're white lying, exaggerating the truth, bold face lying,

01:32or doing something as horrible and deceptive that Laura does to Cherry.

01:39With space, I can completely understand the two sides of the story and two versions of the story. But

01:46I think when you're in it, I have to only believe and empathize with my character. Otherwise it becomes

01:54a bit murky and unbelievable. I had the takeaway that I think Cherry is probably crazier than Laura

02:01overall, but I think Laura does crazier things to Cherry directly. Do you agree with this? And

02:08what is the biggest red flag thing that you think each character does?

02:14That's a great insight. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. That's that. Do you know what I think is going

02:20to be really interesting is I think your opinion that what you've just said is totally valid. And I

02:25think a lot of people share that, but I think a lot of people also think the opposite. And that's

02:28what's, uh, that's what's so exciting about, about the show is that people, it will give people,

02:33you know, chances to root for different characters and talk about it. And, uh,

02:38and, and I think the show's structured that way that it kind of encourages it because it's like the

02:42two perspectives. I know for Howard, the most unforgivable thing is, uh, he can't forgive Laura

02:49for lying to their son about Cherry, uh, about, sorry, to lying to Cherry about Daniel's death.

02:56I need to see him. I'm driving up today. Okay. There's no need to come back, Cherry.

03:02I'm so sorry.

03:06Daniel's gone. He died this morning.

03:10Because one, it's a horrible lie. It's, you know, our son and two, it's like the worst thing

03:16you can do to, to our child, you know? Um, so that's the, that's, that's where for me,

03:23it's gone too far. And where we see in the story that that's where the shift is for Cherry. It's

03:28more that she's, she's slide about lots of things throughout about who she was and all like, you

03:38know, all the stuff with her ex-boyfriend. It's just a realization that throughout he's

03:42been like, Laura is for want of a better word, she's going crazy. Like mom's losing it. She's

03:49kind of like, is she, what's going, is there something wrong with her? Like, are we, do

03:53we need, do we need to see it? Cause you would, you, it's like, we need to see us get her seen

03:57by a shrink or like a doctor to see if she's got, I don't know, anything. I mean, my, like

04:03my dad has dementia and when he was first suffering, it was, things were going wrong and you'd be

04:08like, well, what is this? I mean, obviously Robin's much younger than that. So like the Lord

04:12does, she's a lot younger than that, but something like that, where there's a real problem

04:16here. And to go through all of that and then realize that actually she was right. We gaslit

04:23her really without knowing, I suppose. Cherry certainly was, but we inadvertently were. There's

04:31going to be a huge amount of guilt there. There are so many transgressions that go back

04:35and forth. What is your personal favorite thing that your character does? And what do you think

04:39is the deepest red flag thing your character does? You have a lot.

04:43I have a lot. I mean, I mean, snooping, I think that's my favorite. I, I, I love a snoop.

04:52I do love a snoop. I think we all love a snoop. I wouldn't go to the extent where I'm like trying

04:57on my mother-in-law's outfits and stuff. But like, you know, if you're sat at someone's desk,

05:03I'll definitely like look through the drawers and just be like, I can't help it. I can't help

05:08it. I'm really nosy. I mean, the worst one is defiling your gallery. I think just like your,

05:14your livelihood. And you know, there's a fine line between, in, in most of these actions,

05:21when Laura decides to tell Cherry what she tells her when Daniel's in the hospital,

05:28you could weigh that as, well, doctor said 20% chance if best. So it's unlikely that he is going

05:37to make it through the next few hours. I'm so sorry. I'll leave you to say your goodbyes.

05:45As a parent, you're probably thinking it's over. So I might as well preempt and just tell her it's

05:53over. Yeah. And then you are beautifully surprised, but she's put herself in a pickle and has dismantled

06:01her own life after Cherry started the dismantling with lies. So then it just escalates to a point of

06:09whose side are you on? And that's what we wanted to build is for the audience to decide. And you

06:15will waver back and forth. Given that your characters are so close to the situation, you know,

06:19I love that the story uses unreliable narration and also examines, you know, personal truth versus

06:25objective truth. Do you think there's a scene or something that sticks out to you a moment where you

06:29look at it and you say, I think Cherry's version is probably closer to what actually happened or on

06:34the flip side, I think Laura's version is probably closer to what happened.

06:38Yes. For me, there's one moment that stuck out was when we see the two perspectives on the scene

06:45where Cherry goes shopping and she's buying actually Daniel's, uh, suit that he's going to be buried in.

06:53When Laura, you know, when it's from Laura's perspective is you think that, you know,

06:58Cherry's been going out partying and, and shopping for some, you know, the latest fashionable dress.

07:05So sorry. You've been waiting long.

07:07No, not at all.

07:12Come in.

07:13So that switch was really, really impactful when you saw it, where, what, what was actually happening

07:20was that she was buying, you know, um, the, the, the suit that he was going to be buried in.

07:25All of these things, you know, any action taken out of context is going to reinforce a bias that you

07:31already have. And so I think, but audiences will enter the same headspace that Cherry and Laura are

07:41for each other. Um, and if they have a theory about who's, who's in the right or the wrong stuff

07:49is just going to reinforce that, I think it's, it's going to divide people.

07:52Yeah.

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