Brittany Snow Teases ‘Hunting Wives’ Season 2, Unpacks Her ‘Beast in Me’ Role and Hulu’s True-Crime Take on the Murdaugh Family

[This story contains spoilers from Hunting Wives, The Beast in Me and Murdaugh: Death in the Family.]

There are few actors having a better year than Brittany Snow. A former child actor who rose to fame on the CBS daytime soap Guiding Light in the late ’90s and on the NBC family drama American Dreams in the early aughts, Snow has re-entered the cultural zeitgeist for the first time since starring in the trilogy of Pitch Perfect films, the last of which premiered in 2017.

The actress began the year with a short stint in the second season of The Night Agent, where she played Gabriel Basso’s FBI partner who was tragically shot and killed during a mission gone wrong in Bangkok. She then transitioned to a starring role in The Hunting Wives, portraying a liberal transplant whose life is upended after crossing paths with the licentious leader of a band of affluent East Texas housewives. This week, she can be seen back on Netflix as Matthew Rhys’ elegant gallerist wife (who is more than meets the eye) in The Beast in Me, while also playing a journalist investigating a powerful South Carolina family in Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death in the Family.

For Snow, who admits that having four shows launch in one calendar year is serendipitous, the work she has done of late has allowed her to play against type. “A lot of my career is definitely defined as being the good girl who people like, and I was very excited to play someone who is morally gray in a lot of areas,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter.

The most complex of those characters would be Sophie O’Neil, the married mother she plays in The Hunting Wives who begins a lesbian love affair with Malin Åkerman’s Margo Banks — who happens to be married to the governor of Texas (Dermot Mulroney). After the soapy drama series became a viral hit over the summer due to its unapologetically provocative and steamy content, Netflix, who had initially acquired the show from Starz, quickly ordered a second season, and is now just days away from beginning production in North Carolina.

“The type of woman I was trying to play in season one was someone who was very stunted, very caged, very stoic. She didn’t know how to process emotions very well because she wasn’t really being true to herself,” Snow says of Sophie. “Now in season two, that door has been opened. She’s killed someone. The crazy is let out a lot more because she’s a danger to herself. I’m very excited to get to play someone who now doesn’t necessarily know how to keep herself enclosed.”

In a wide-ranging chat below, Snow answers all of THR’s burning questions about the three shows she has on the air right now. (Warning: Spoilers ahead!)

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The first season of The Hunting Wives was so effective that straight women were questioning their own sexuality when the show launched all of you into the zeitgeist over the summer. What have you made of the success of the show?

It’s been so surreal. We didn’t think anyone was going to see it because it was originally for another network [Starz], and we were just having fun. So to see the response has been so humbling and crazy. But what’s really been nice for us is that people have responded to the shock of it all. Here’s two women — I’m in my late thirties, Malin’s in her forties — and we’re doing things that are a little over the top and not necessarily seen [on TV], and people are feeling powerful because of that. The things I get choked up about and respond most to are people saying they feel represented, especially in the queer community. I feel like our job as actors is to make people feel like they’re being seen.

Who are some of the most surprising celebrity fans who have approached you since the show’s debut?

So many. When we were at the VMAs, Ariana Grande came up to me and Malin, and it was surreal because we didn’t know she was talking to us. She’s so cute and petite, and she was like, “Come over here to hang out with us!” We took a picture together, and I just thought, “What is my life?”

Your chemistry with Malin Akerman has become a major selling point for The Hunting Wives — so much so that fans even speculated if you were dating at one point — and the two of you now represent this iconic lesbian TV couple.

It’s an honor. I just feel very, very grateful people have responded well to it and that they feel represented. I think that maybe it is a good marking of our acting and our connection that people think we’re together. And if people want to surmise that, great. I’m definitely all for it. (Laughs.) I welcome it.

Do you feel pressure to keep your onscreen spark heading into season two? What exactly do you attribute to your chemistry?

I don’t really know if we’ve put that pressure on ourselves because it did come so innately to us, so we wouldn’t want to mess with a good thing. You’re right — we are such good friends. We care about each other so much because we respect each other. We have fun. She’s the type of girl I would regardless be friends with. We just click. So I don’t know if I want to manufacture that or think about it too much. I think that type of friendship will not go away. We’ll be in each other’s lives forever; I will probably have her as a best friend for the rest of my life. So I think what people are responding to is like, “Oh, they genuinely get along and love each other.”

You’ve said Malin’s openness to nudity helped you on set. How specifically did she help you feel more confident when filming your intimate scenes?

I think that’s a specific case, but in the overview of our experience, Malin is a very calming presence, and she’s someone who doesn’t overthink as much as I do. We’re sort of our characters in that way. She’s very clear in what really matters and what doesn’t. I’m more into the details of things: “What if this happens?” and “I hope we can do this well.” So with the intimate scenes, she reminded me that we’re having fun and it’s about us doing this crazy thing. We’re never going to do something like this again later in our lives. That perspective really helps when it comes to those scenes, because it’s not that big of a deal, and I don’t need to get tied down in the minutiae of it all. I think that’s why we balance each other out really well.

Are there any things that are still off-limits for you when it comes to intimate scenes?

Definitely. There were things that were off-limits from the beginning as well. I’m much more controlled than I thought I was going to be, in terms of what I wanted to show. Also, I didn’t want shots in there that were going to be for shock value. It needed to feel real and true to life, but I wasn’t wanting shots for no reason that were gratuitous. So maybe in season two we can have a little bit more agency. Maybe it doesn’t need to be so bright in the scenes. (Laughs.) That’s all I ask at this point. Can we just turn off a lamp and shut a curtain? Sophie needs to pull down a curtain, for my sake. (Laughs.)

Do you know if there will be the same amount or more sex in season two, given that the second season will be made by Netflix as opposed to Starz (where there is more erotic content)?

I wish I knew to get myself in the gym or something, but I don’t know. All I know for sure is that we want to see more Margo and Sophie because they really are so problematic, and they are the reason that this show is crazy. So I don’t know what they’re going to do, but I know you will see more of them.

A lot of viewers couldn’t believe Sophie’s actions in the finale, and how much she was willing to throw away for this woman she had just met. What did you make of her decisions at the end of season one, and what does it tell you about where she is headed?

I think she’s making these decisions because she’s never necessarily chosen that life. She’s a very stunted woman who has put herself in a box, and now that this cage that she’s put herself in has been opened, she’s really living for herself for the first time. You see in the flashback episode that that was the path, in a sliding doors type of way, that she could’ve gone down. She chose the safer route [with her husband Graham, played by Evan Jonigkeit], which she didn’t necessarily want, but she’s afraid of herself, so she chooses the safer route.

I think the decisions she makes at the end are a reflection of how she is a dangerous person. Now in season two, you’re going to see the type of person she really is. Her decisions were [made from the perspective] of someone who is a lovestruck teenager falling in love for the first time. A lot of people can hopefully relate to that — maybe not to her decisions, but [in that situation] you’re not thinking clearly, and obviously you’re going for the person you love.

What was the most difficult one of Sophie’s choices for you to wrap your mind around?

The one that I really did not like — and I was very clear with [creator/showrunner] Rebecca [Cutter] about this — was that she has this really intense conversation with Graham, and they’re talking about their divorce and if they ever really loved each other. There is love there, and it’s very nuanced because there is a friendship and a loyalty there, and they have this beautiful scene that was originally much longer, and we’re crying. Then she goes directly to Margo’s and has sex with her! (Laughs.) I was like, “Where is her child in this?!” She didn’t even get a snack in between — she just went straight into that. I was like, “Can there be a buffer in between?” But no, she didn’t write that. (Laughs.)

Have you visited the writers room for Hunting Wives season two yet?

I did! I asked to go in, and I wanted to pick their brain and see where it was going. I’m not a writer or a producer, so I can’t offer them my opinion necessarily, but I shared some ideas, and they can take them and throw them out, as I’m sure they did.

Rebecca has described Hunting Wives as “anti-prestige” TV. She knows the kind of show she wants to make: a soapy, small-town drama with some satirical political commentary — and a whole lot of sex. The series has also taken on the culture wars in a way that was embraced by both sides. How much will season two be leaning into what worked season one in that respect? Do you know if the writers are planning to lean even further into hot-button issues?

It’s above my pay grade to say definitively what’s going to happen because I am not a writer, but I do know that Rebecca is so much smarter than I think people realize. She knows what she’s doing — she’s always known — and the political aspect is very important to her as well. And showing in a fun way behind the curtain of a lot of things that are going on — I don’t think that’s going to stop, because I do think that was a part of her ethos of the show from the very beginning. I actually know that’s not going to stop. So I appreciate when people realize that’s a huge reason why it works.

Rebecca has said she has a multi-season plan for Hunting Wives. How many seasons do you hope to play in this world? Do you think Sophie can even survive that long?

I don’t know! With her decision-making skills, I’m not sure how she’s surviving by now. (Laughs.) I think I would be so happy and honored, and the girls — Jamie [Ray Newman, who plays Callie]; even Katie [Lowes, who played Jill] who’s dead, but we want her to somehow resurrect; and Malin — we say we would do this show for as long as they’ll have us. I’ll do this until Netflix kicks us off.

In The Beast in Me, Claire Danes (who plays Aggie) and Matthew Rhys (Nile) said that they only had three scripts before filming, so they needed to take a leap of faith and hope showrunner Howard Gordon and his creative team would find a satisfying conclusion to this story. How much did you know about Nina’s role in this story before signing on, and at what point did the team clue you in that your character was going to be a key part of taking Nile down?

I read only the first two scripts when I got the audition for Nina. I knew because of the people involved that I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to make sure my audition was perfect, and I was grateful to be a part of it at all. Once we started creating the character arc, I had a lot of questions for [executive producer/director] Antonio [Campos], Howard and Claire. Like, “But who is she, really?” They were writing [the scripts] as they went, so they weren’t sure. I had to play Mad Libs, because I had to fill in a lot of blanks. Luckily, a lot of the things I was thinking about and that I suggested, they took into account.

I had a conversation with Daniel Pearle, who was our producer and writer, around episode five or six where I said, “I’m really used to being a woman who is underestimated, and it would really mean a lot to me if Nina could have some redemption in terms of how much she’s underestimated in this show as well. Let’s make her a little bit smarter than people think she is.” I think he took note of that. I’m not saying that’s the reason they wrote it that way. I think they always had that in their back pocket, but because I advocated for myself, they knew I could rise to the challenge. I really appreciated that Nina had so many layers to her where, at the end of the show, you’re left with many more questions than answers about her.

Nina tells Aggie early on that she worked at Nile’s late wife Maddie’s foundation for nine years, but Nina always seemed to know she could never compare to Maddie in Nile’s eyes. There are moments throughout the series where Nile seems to undercut Nina personally and professionally, and she has to suppress what she really wants to do or say. How did those interactions inform your understanding of Nina and Nile’s marriage? Do you think they really loved each other?

That was a question I was asking Antonio from the very beginning, because I wanted to make sure their marriage was something that a lot of people could maybe relate to, and also be foreshadowing what’s to come, even though we didn’t necessarily know what was coming. But I said to Antonio, “I think she’s playing house in a lot of ways,” which turned out to be correct. She’s putting on this façade that she has it all together and has always been very wealthy. Little by little, you start to peel back the layers and understand she’s a survivor. She’s working on a primal instinct to stay alive and get what she wants, just like everyone else in the show.

It’s ambiguous to the viewer, and I hope it poses questions. Was she morally altruistic in her decision, or was she doing it for her own survival motives? I think their marriage is transactional. They’re both very fucked up people that meet eye to eye in a way where you can understand why they’re together. The scene you’ve seen where they’re fighting and then [having sex in episode five] — you understand these are two very primal people who see eye to eye, and I’m not necessarily sure that’s love. That’s a sparring partner.

There are two big fights that Nina and Nile have that seem to lay bare the festering resentment in their marriage — their argument in episode five that leads them to have sex and results in them accidentally conceiving a child, and his confession in episode eight about killing Maddie and then Nina slapping him across the face and ultimately catching him on tape. How did those fights help you understand Nina’s decision to turn on Nile in the end?

It’s fascinating because it was written as it was going along, [but those moments] were all these puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly at the end. Every time he undercut or undermined her, she saw herself as less of a partner, and she was disappointed in herself for choosing this type of role. Whether it was because of the art show [where Nile made Nina back out of a deal with Aggie’s artist ex-wife, played by Natalie Morales, because of a conflict of interest], or because of how he speaks to her, or because he doesn’t have enough respect for her to tell her where he is, everything lends itself to the ending where she takes matters into her own hands. She’s not a woman, as you can see in the flashback episode [seven], who likes to be messed with or undermined. She’s not a classy girl that came from money. She’s quite the opposite.

In the finale, Aggie — who has already been on the run from the authorities after Nile framed her for the kidnapping and murder of Teddy Fenig — ambushes Nina at her gallery and tries to convince her that Nile killed Maddie and was also responsible for Teddy’s death. Nina doesn’t shut Aggie down and is clearly thinking about how she can lure Nile into a confession when she returns home later that day. How did you think about playing that final fight?

Antonio and I wanted to make sure it was clear — at least to me, if not the viewer — from the very beginning that I was going to be recording him the whole time. What was really hard about that scene is that I am manipulating him from the very beginning. I’m very small; I’m very contained. I don’t want to anger him. I have to say what I need to say and get him to admit to it, but I have to play him in a way I know will work, which is [that] I can’t make any sudden movements. It’s almost like we were playing a jaguar and a prey situation … but all of that has to slowly build.

There is a direct understanding — and Antonio and I talked about this a lot in preparing for the scene — that she’s recording him, but she’s also hoping it’s not true. When people watch it again, I hope there is that [sense] — and maybe people can relate to this — where you know your person is maybe cheating on you, but you’re praying throughout that you’re wrong. I think that really is what Nina’s hoping for, and yet the admission that she gets, she’s luckily recording the entire time.

There’s admittedly an opacity to a lot of Nina’s decision-making by the end of the show. Off the top of my head, I still have a bunch of unanswered questions: Why did Nina look like she was trying to seduce Aggie, who is a lesbian, at multiple points in the show? Did Nina know Nile had killed Maddie years ago? What does Nina’s life look like — with her and Nile’s new baby! — after the screen fades to black? I don’t think there are any easy answers to those questions by design.

I think she does have reasons for how she acts towards Aggie. She uses sexuality as a technique to get what she wants. Because she’s a survivor, she’s known how to do this. So by the end of the show, you’re starting to recognize that maybe this was her plan all along. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe she always knew she could get what she wanted, which was a baby and money and power. But we have to believe — and what I believe — is that she didn’t know that Nile had killed Maddie. I don’t think she would let herself believe that, and that was a really hard thing to play. Maybe subconsciously she did, but not consciously. So I was having to play the fact that maybe she’s not as innocent as she seems, and yet she chose not to know about the murder.

Then for Murdaugh: Death in the Family, you spent a lot of time with Mandy Matney, the journalist you play in who is also an executive producer, and she has been nothing but effusive in her praise of your performance. How did your many conversations with her inform the way you thought about playing her as a character?

It was such an invaluable asset to have the real-life person you’re playing be around you all the time. You can ask her questions right away from little things down to, “How was your desk when you were at The Island Packet?” to “What was your thought process going up to this house, getting information from this source?” What I told her when we had our initial conversation, which led to many more lunches, dinners and drinks, was, “I’m not interested in doing an imitation, and I will never be you. I will be a version of you.” I studied her mannerisms, her behavior and specific voice, and then tried to come up with something that was the most like her essence. The fact that she’s responding to that and thinking I did an okay job means the world to me, because it’s so much pressure to create a character while you’re doing the scenes in front of the real-life person.

Most true-crime stories are solely focused on the crime, but much like the real-life Matney, your character is the audience’s eyes and ears into the Murdaugh family. What do you think Murdaugh does differently in the true-crime genre?

I think the difference between a documentary and a narrative show is that you get to use actors to bring forth the empathy and sensitivity to these people you wouldn’t necessarily get in a documentary or a news article. A lot of times, these people were reduced to headlines. But this is showing the underbelly of what [Matney] went through — the adversity that she was met with, the judgment, and why this person had such an instinctive pull to this story. What’s great about doing a show like this is that you get to show the emotional environment these people were in. What was different about this type of show is that we were very victim-focused, and we really wanted to shed a lot of awareness and light on the victims — Maggie, Paul, Gloria, Stephen Smith, Mallory [Beach] — and give them full, dynamic lives.

You are a self-professed true-crime junkie and have even revealed you tend to fall asleep while listening to stories about murder. You are certainly not alone in your love for the genre, but the influx of programming about true crimes has led to difficult conversations about the morality of telling these kinds of stories. What is your take on the ethical concerns of the true-crime genre, particularly as you tackle a case that is very much still in the public consciousness?

I think there’s a very fine line between glorifying the crime and spreading awareness of what happened and giving voices to the voiceless. Making it salacious and glorifying it is a totally different thing that I am glad Murdaugh didn’t do. Part of the thing for me sometimes — and I’ve realized this lately — is I watch true crime, and I know this sounds crazy, but sometimes it makes me appreciate life more. It makes me appreciate that’s not my life, and I can be aware of these things. Whatever problem I’m going through, it’s not that [bad]. There’s a duality to [true crime] that sheds a lot of light on the things we do have. Not to say that’s the reason we should watch them, but for me, it does do that a little bit.

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The Beast in Me and The Hunting Wives are now streaming on Netflix. Murdaugh: Death in the Family is now streaming on Hulu.