I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to work with women
crack that performance and go deeper there. That wasn’t interesting to me.
“I think watching someone become something is inherently interesting... Mildred is becoming herself over the course of this series and this first instalment is just the beginning of that story. “The playing field was completely open to us,” Sarah adds. “There was nothing we couldn’t do or explore, because it was all invented, there was no story about her so it could be up to us and that was a pretty thrilling prospect”. Sarah, who was also an executive producer on the series, says all credit goes to Ryan for making it such a female-driven project. She explains: “Ryan is always so interested in telling the stories of people who live more on the fringes of society and, credit where credit is due, the stories of women have sometimes been more on the periphery.
“I can feel it moving closer to the centre but it’s not there yet. So when you have a story like this, with so many diverse stories about very diverse women all in one place, it’s a real world to inhabit... a delicious one and one that feels very empowering to watch as a woman. There’s something you can identify with in all of the characters, and I think that’s a really rich place to spend some time.” For Cynthia, 54, it was the chance to step into the shoes of a very different character that appealed. She says: “It was such a departure for me because – at least in the last 10 years – I’ve been playing a variety of characters, particularly on film, that are complicated or twisted or sometimes malevolent, and that makes some really fascinating characters. So to be offered something like Gwendolyn, who is just kind of a ray of light in this very dark show, I was really surprised by it, but I was also delighted because it’s so different to what I usually play.”
British star Sophie, 52, likens navigating her multi-faceted character to driving a fast car.
“I loved the challenge of seeing if I could turn those sharp corners, without crashing into a wall,” she explains, adding: “And that’s what it was like, sort of switching very quickly into each character. For me it was a complete buzz, you know, I love that sort of thing...”
However, one thing the star isn’t a huge fan of, is watching herself on screen.
“I don’t like to watch myself, so I’ve only watched the first four episodes,” she says. “I stopped when I come on... so I watched the first four and thought it was absolutely fantastic, I’ve never seen anything like it and then my husband and my daughter watched the rest for me...”
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collects mementos from relationships.
A tie belonging to Lucy’s boyfriend Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar) becomes the latest addition when he breaks up with her because they are “in different places”. Adding insult to injury, Lucy also loses her job at the Woolf Gallery managed by New York art doyenne Eva (Peters), who famously “discovered Cindy Sherman in a laundromat”. A chance encounter with Nick (Montgomery), who has been self-financing the construction of a boutique hotel in the shell of an old YMCA, encourages Lucy to create a pop-up exhibition entitled The Broken Hearts Gallery.
Fellow New Yorkers arrive with bizarre keepsakes, expanding the collection to hundreds of trinkets.
With an increasingly smitten Nick at her side, Lucy salves emotional wounds and becomes a cause celebre of the city’s vibrant art scene.