When The Façades Break Down: Brad Ingelsby on Mare Of Easttown | Interviews

Well, Craig came later. We had Gavin O’Connor [as director at first], and then our schedule got bumped, and it became clear it just wasn’t going to work. We got delayed, and it was a little crazy.

But with Kate, I just sent her the first two scripts through her agent. I never expected she would respond, my God, she’s iconic, but I think we just got to her at the right time. She was interested in doing something new; she wanted to take on a role that she hadn’t ever played before. She told me she’d never held a gun in any role she’d ever had, which shocked me given how many roles she’s played over the years. I think the appeal was, “this character is not like me at all. And that’s appealing to me.” She’s so great. I think about all the therapy scenes and what she’s able to do emotionally in the context of one scene is pretty incredible.

And it’s Kate Winslet, and she’s a small-town cop, and you completely buy her as this person, which is a disappearing act as far as I’m concerned. That’s not easy to pull off, and she does it effortlessly.

Craig gets all the genre elements, but he also knew that this was a show that had to appeal emotionally and had to be about these relationships. He just understood that inherently and we had such a great cast. I can’t speak enough of Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Evan Peters, the entire gallery. We just got fortunate. I can write all the crappy dialogue in the world, but when they say it, it makes sense, you know?

Did you guys talk sympathetic characters at all? Because what I love about Kate and her performance is, it’s grumpy, it’s dowdy, she’s highly unvarnished, she’s incredibly cynical and bitter, and the show and the performance are very unapologetic about that. However, even though you don’t seem to make any concessions about making her “more likable,” we still totally empathize with her. That’s one of the unique magic tricks of the show in my mind because most shows would make that concession.

Well, I’m happy to hear you say that because Kate really embraced all that too. Mare is someone that is at her worst with the people that are closest to her. She doesn’t know how to be nice to her family members. But yet with Beth in the opening episode, a woman who’s going through this thing where her brother’s a chronic drug addict, she’s incredibly empathetic. And that’s something we played with: Mare can be empathetic to people who aren’t close to her, and that’s a really interesting thing, right?