In the Peacock limited series All Her Fault, Marissa (Sarah Snook) goes to pick up her son Milo (Duke McCloud) from the home of her new friend Jenny (Dakota Fanning), only to learn that it’s not Jenny’s home and Milo isn’t their home. As the search for this missing boy begins, everyone becomes a suspect, including Marissa’s husband Peter (Jake Lacy), his siblings Lia (Abby Elliott) and Brian (Daniel Monks), and longtime friend and business partner Colin (Jay Ellis).
Awards Buzz spoke with members of the cast as well as executive producers Nigel Marchant, Gareth Neame, and Joanna Strevens, creator Megan Gallagher, and director Minkie Spiro about the experience of making this show. Beware spoilers for the series.
Elliott, best known for her work on The Bear, reflected on her transition from comedy to something much darker:
“This is something that I’ve never really done before. It’s a thriller, it’s edge-of-your-seat. Coming from comedy, this is actually the kind of thing that I love to watch, just because sometimes comedy feels like work to me, and watching it feels like work. I read thrillers. I’m interested in thrillers. This character was very dynamic. She’s in recovery, is a drug addict, she’s a sibling, she’s a younger sibling. She’s trying to make her presence known and trying to use her voice. I think she sometimes feels like no one is listening, and that’s why she’s impulsive and loud, and that really drew me to her.”
Ellis echoed those sentiments after past parts in Insecure and History of the World, Part II:
“It’s really interesting. I love the idea of being able to stretch myself and being a little afraid and going to do something different and challenging myself. I haven’t done a hard drama like this, I haven’t done a thriller like this, at least not in the TV space. In the feature space I have. It’s fun, it’s a different muscle. Being able to step into different material with different players, it’s a lot of fun. It’s why you get into this thing, at least why I did. To be able to stretch myself and try stuff and hopefully find something about my craft along the way.”
Monks shared how this is a major breakthrough both for him and for representation on television:
“For me, it was an absolute dream come true. Most of my career has been on stage in theater. That’s not necessarily by choice. It’s also because I have a physical disability, and those spaces have been a bit more inclusive, in my experience. I’ve been able to do these really meaty roles on stage and feel really creatively fulfilled, but then a lot of my TV roles and screen roles have been much smaller. I’ve been so grateful for them, because I’m grateful to even make a living as an actor and make a living doing what I love, but then when this came along, it just seemed kismet. The character was written as 35, I was 35 when I got the tape. He has a physical disability from a spinal cord injury. That’s me. He lives with his older brother and sister-in-law and baby nephew. I did that for two years. It just felt like, oh, this is almost made for me.”
Lacy, recently seen on The White Lotus and Apples Never Fall, addressed how he always seems to portray guys who aren’t all that nice:
“The opportunity has presented itself to play these characters that are layered and complex and have very full, private lives, and then over the course of some story, you see how much of that seeps out into the public. Whether it was a comedy and that was the case or a dark drama, then that’s the case, that’s really the thing that I’m chasing or pursuing, getting to play these characters that are multidimensional and you don’t quite know who they are or what they’re after or where they’ve come from, so I’m just happy to have those opportunities to play these characters.”
Fanning commented on how her TV husband, Richie (Thomas Cocquerel), shouldn’t be seen entirely as a villain:
“It’s not even that he’s bad, it’s just showcasing the differences between men and women in a partnership, and what men just don’t see. It’s not that his character is just the worst, he just doesn’t see it. My character Jenny just cleans it up before he can even notice. I still had an affection for Richie, and maybe that’s just because of Tom because he’s such a great guy and we had a lot of fun doing those scenes together. My character is just feeling super unsupported and not able to get the help she needs from him.”
All eight episodes of All Her Fault are streaming on Peacock.
