You Had a Concussion, and You Wanted to Carry On: THR Presents Q&A With The Girlfriend Stars Robin Wright, Laurie Davidson
Robin Wright is no stranger to psychological thrillers and intense dramas (hello, House of Cards), but after Prime Video’s The Girlfriend series, on which she directed, executive produced and starred, she needs a break. “I’ve never experienced this,” Wright said during a THR Presents panel at the Directors Guild of America. “The amount of time…
Robin Wright is no stranger to psychological thrillers and intense dramas (hello, House of Cards), but after Prime Video’s The Girlfriend series, on which she directed, executive produced and starred, she needs a break.
“I’ve never experienced this,” Wright said during a THR Presents panel at the Directors Guild of America. “The amount of time and the grind that it’s been — it’s been four years from beginning to end — so I’m going to take some time off for a minute. It was so much fun to make.”
On how she got to wearing three hats during the production of the series, Wright explained that Imaginarium Productions brought the project, based on Michelle Frances’ novel of the same name, to her initially. “We hadn’t sold it yet, and they said, ‘Do you just want to direct the pilot and create the vision of the show?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I would love to.’ But we couldn’t sell it. Everyone turned us down. And then Amazon greenlit us at the last minute when we were in that crunch window, where we were going to lose cast and we’d have to shelve it. … Then we couldn’t get anyone to play Laura in that crunch window time, so the producers just said, ‘Why don’t you just play her?’”
The cast was rounded out by Olivia Cooke and Laurie Davidson for the show that follows Laura’s (Wright) reaction when her son, Daniel (Davidson), brings home a new girlfriend, Cherry (Cooke). It is shot from two perspectives (Laura’s and Cherry’s), which prompted the cast and crew to film two POVs back-to-back, sometimes confusing them as to which one they were filming.
“You had to be on your toes,” said Davidson on the panel. “There were definitely times where we’d be rolling and we’d be like, ‘Wait, whose perspective are we doing? Is this Laura or Cherry?’ … I had some moments where I may have played the wrong one, but we could use it in the edit.”
The dual perspectives is what attracted Davidson to the project in the first place. “I can’t think of another show that does it like this, and the unique opportunity to play scenes twice and to get to tell the same event but from a different side, it’s just so interesting,” he said. “History is written by victors, and that’s such a big part of our show. It’s so easy to say that something didn’t happen. We are living in a time where you can just say, ‘That’s fake news, that didn’t happen,’ and that’s what’s so interesting about this show: That it’s so dependent on who you believe at any one moment. What I liked about Daniel is that he believes both of these women, and it’s only throughout the series that distrust creeps in.”
The show features some intense scenes (we won’t spoil the ending) that include violence and blood, but it was during a more calm and intimate scene between Laura and Daniel, in which they share a beer in a sauna, that Wright suffered a real concussion.
“It was a real sauna in this house, and it had been on, and the rig had gone up and then it was turned off and wood swells,” explains Davidson. “We were doing a scene, and I don’t know if it was during a take or something, but the lighting rig fell and hit you in the head. It was a big impact and there was blood and you had a concussion and you wanted to carry on. We were like, ‘No, Robin.’ It took four people to convince you that it wasn’t [OK]. You were an absolute trooper. You were looking at me like, ‘Am I OK?’ and I was like, ‘Come on, Laurie, use your acting!’ It was a tough day.”
One scene that didn’t make it into the final cut was one that was deemed NSFW by early testing groups. In this scene, Daniel puts a spoon down Cherry’s underwear. “When we did the first screening, we had everybody fill out the cards and say what they hated and liked. And it was a body of 27- to 37-year-olds, mostly, and they said, ‘It’s too much sex! We don’t like it. We don’t want to look at it,’” said Wright. “I was obligated in the edit to cut that stuff.”
Davidson added: “There was a funny moment when we were doing the spoon thing, and if you can imagine, I’m behind Cherry and the spoon is going down, and all you can see is my arm. I think Robin was saying, ‘Laurie, it’s like up and down motion!’ I was like ‘Yes, mom, I know how to do that! I’m actually making circles, which some women prefer!’ There were a lot of embarrassing moments like that. Conversations you don’t want to have with your mother, or your director, or your onscreen mother.”
Watch the full interview above. This edition of THR Presents is sponsored by Prime Video.
