• About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Clarence Moye
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily - The Oscars, the Films and everything in between.
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily - The Oscars, the Films and everything in between.
No Result
View All Result

Susanne Bier On Seducing the Audience for HBO’s ‘The Undoing’

by Joey Moser
February 16, 2021
in ADTV, ADTV Feature, ADTV Main
0
Susanne Bier On Seducing the Audience for HBO’s ‘The Undoing’

(Photo: Niko Tavernise/HBO)

Susanne Bier wanted to keep you guessing with HBO’s The Undoing. I admitted to the Emmy winning director just how much I yelled at my television every week with the twisty murder mystery and since the limited series was HBO’s most-watched show of 2020, I’m sure other people were doing the same thing. Not only is The Undoing a courtroom drama, but it’s an emotional rollercoaster held together by the wits of its stellar cast. Susanne Bier knows how to make every twist land with a heavy hammer thud.

Not only did The Undoing reveal much about the American justice system to Bier, but she wanted to explore the realm of privilege to a heightened degree. These New Yorkers are at a different level of wealth, but Bier wanted to ground it with Nicole Kidman’s Grace. With the camerawork and cinematography, she almost invaded the mind of her leading lady and it allowed us to stay with her rather than judge her choices.

With a show like The Undoing, you never want to give away too much away too quickly. Bier has delivered pulse-pounding work with Bird Box and The Night Manager so she knows how to manipulate the audience’s perception with a look or a cutaway glance. If you get this invested in a pulpy thriller, you have the director to thank for it.

(Photo: Les Karner)

Awards Daily: I read about how involved David E. Kelly was with the project. I think he’s one of the few men who can write complicated characters. What was that collaboration like?

Susanne Bier: I think we work well together. He writes very sharply. It’s very effortless and very crisp, his writing. That’s incredibly fun to work with. He’s not one of those writers who writes endlessly. His dialogue is very much about the characters and the interactions between them. It’s very visceral and muscular. That’s why he writes women well. He doesn’t have that preconceived notion that sometimes male writers have when they write female characters. They lose that muscularity.

AD: Any time his names pops up on screen, you know the writing is going to be good.

SB: You do.

AD: This show had me guessing someone new at the end of every episode. I thought it was Noah Jupe’s character even before the hammer reveals comes up. How much of confusing the audience is direction, how much is performance, and how much is the writing?

SB: It’s all of the above. David and I had a lot of fun with it. It’s very conscious balance to pull things. If you pull it a tiny bit too much, you lose something. It’s the balance of not lying and not doing something untrue. Still you need to seduce the audience into thinking the reality might differ from what you assume.

AD: Was that the hardest with Hugh [Grant]’s character? He’s so slippery, and I kept coming back to him and then immediately leaving him. 

SB: Yeah. It was so tricky. When do you think he’s a creep? When do you like him? How do you feel about him as a husband or as a dad? That was also a big thing. I want to say for Hugh it was a very fine dance where he was terrified of stepping too far. It’s funny that you bring that up because my parents watched it every week and my father–who is going to be ninety–shouted at me over the phone, ‘It has to be him!’

AD: (laughs)

SB: Sorry, dad, I’m not telling.

AD: Is this the most vocal reaction you’ve had to your work? Bird Box was kind of like that but it hit all at once. The Undoing kept building and building week to week.

SB: Bird Box grew like crazy but this was week to week. The Undoing is the only HBO show to grow every week. I got messages from people I hadn’t talked to for fifteen years and they were kind of fishing for details.

(Photo: Niko Tavernise/HBO)

AD: One of my favorite things about the camerawork, especially in the beginning of the series, is that it focuses a lot on Nicole Kidman’s eyes and we stay very much with her. Tell me about that choice because it helps the audience stick with her amid all this chaos. 

SB: That was our main goal. Essentially, we are experiencing what she is experiencing. Her confusion about who had done what and who to believe. She even begins doubting herself. That’s very aligned with the audience’s experience, especially in particular the lies her life has led. The fact that Grace wanted to trust Jonathan and then she would step further into everything and realize the truth. We were trying, very consciously, to align the audience’s experience with her experience.

AD: I feel that’s hard to do with the everyday lives of these characters. In the first episode, they are quite literally auctioning off a glass of water. Did you want to explore privilege in America? I read that The Undoing shed some light on the American justice system for you. 

SB: I want to say that this kind of wealth you can’t fully grasp it.

AD: It honestly feels so otherworldly. 

SB: It’s bizarre. You can say Donald Sutherland’s character is wealthy enough with those kind of measures. Grace and Jonathan are super wealthy and live in a brownstone, but they are trying to have a normal life. It’s not like they have a house full of maids. There is a sense that they are more like the rest of us. It’s important for Grace to somewhat lead a normal life, and I think that’s why we can identify with them. With Grace, we can connect with her because she doesn’t dress like the rest of the moms. She made a conscious decision to remove herself from that world a bit and that’s how we understand and identify with her as a character.

AD: Now that you mention it, we do see Grace in the kitchen making breakfast for her family in the first episode. 

SB: Yes.

AD: I really admired that you directed the entire series. You did that with The Night Manager too. Was there ever a question with that?

SB: I guess I feel that need to put that director’s vision onto it. I don’t really see that limited to one or two episodes. It’s shot like a film.

AD: Yes. 

SB: It’s not like we took our time between episodes. We could film a scene from episode two in the morning and then one from episode five in the afternoon. It’s structured in a way if one person directed everything.

AD: I’m so excited for First Ladies. There is a musical called First Lady Suite that I love that isn’t produced very often. When I heard about that, my brain went to that project. What can you tell me about it? 

SB: The whole world of those women is interesting. They are in such a unique, colorful position and they have so many expectations which they didn’t necessarily define themselves with. How they navigate those expectations and change the world for what they believe in is fascinating.

The Undoing is streaming on HBO Max.

Tags: HBOhugh grantNicole KidmanSusanne BierThe Undoing
Joey Moser

Joey Moser

Joey is a writer currently living in Columbus, OH. If you would like to talk to Joey about cheese or Julianne Moore, follow him on Twitter or Instagram.

Next Post
The Whole World Is Watching Emmy-winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen in ‘Chicago 7’

Writers Guild Nominations

Sign up for Awards Daily's Breaking News

* indicates required

Berlin Dispatch – Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

by Zhuo-Ning Su
March 4, 2021
0

DGA Preview – All Directors Great and Popular

DGA Preview – All Directors Great and Popular
by Sasha Stone
March 4, 2021
14

Berlin Dispatch – Azor / All Eyes Off Me

by Zhuo-Ning Su
March 4, 2021
0

Colman Domingo On Cutler Being a Brother to Levee and a Friend to Ma for ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’

Colman Domingo On Cutler Being a Brother to Levee and a Friend to Ma for ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020): (L to R), Glynn Turman as Toldeo, Chadwick Boseman as Levee, Michael Potts as Slow Drag, and Colman Domingo as Cutler., Cr. David Lee / Netflix)

by Joey Moser
March 4, 2021
3

‘Raya’ Bravely Confronts the Dangers of a Divided Nation

‘Raya’ Bravely Confronts the Dangers of a Divided Nation

(Photo: Disney)

by Clarence Moye
March 4, 2021
2

Diane Warren, Laura Pausini Deserve To Be “Seen” and Recognized For Their Beautiful “Io Si”

Diane Warren, Laura Pausini Deserve To Be “Seen” and Recognized For Their Beautiful “Io Si”

(Photo: Netflix)

by Kevin Dillon
March 4, 2021
0

‘Promising Young Woman,’ ‘Mank’ Among Nominees for 23rd Costume Designers Guild Awards

Promising Young Woman is Disturbing, Original and Unforgettable
by Clarence Moye
March 4, 2021
9

Watch: Scott Wheeler Discusses the Makeup and Prosthetic Work Behind ‘One Night in Miami’

How ‘One Night In Miami’ Screenwriter Kemp Powers Used an Iconic Friendship to Explore Competing Ideas of Activism and Masculinity

Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios

by Shadan Larki
March 3, 2021
1

Producers Guild Preview – News of the World Remains the Only Big Studio Offering in the Oscar Race

The State of the Race – A Trial Separation Between Critics and the Oscars
by Sasha Stone
March 3, 2021
59

The Globes Ratings Plummet – Hollywood and Film Awards Need a Wake-up Call

The Globes Ratings Plummet – Hollywood and Film Awards Need a Wake-up Call
by Sasha Stone
March 3, 2021
94

Berlin Dispatch – Petite Maman / What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?

by Zhuo-Ning Su
March 3, 2021
0

Predict the Producers and Directors Guild Awards

Predict the Producers and Directors Guild Awards
by Sasha Stone
March 3, 2021
4

Leslie Odom Jr. On Creating Art Alongside the Impact of Sam Cooke’s for ‘One Night in Miami…’

Leslie Odom Jr. On Creating Art Alongside the Impact of Sam Cooke’s for ‘One Night in Miami…’

(Photo: Patti Perret/Amazon Studios)

by Joey Moser
March 4, 2021
0

Join us Facebook

AwardsDaily Crew

  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Clarence Moye
  • Contact Us

ADTV Crew

  • ADTV Home
  • Megan McLachlan, Co-Editor
  • Clarence Moye, Co-Editor
  • Jalal Haddad, Senior Contributor
  • Joey Moser, Senior Contributor
  • Kevin Dillon
  • Shadan Larki
  • Ben Morris
  • David Phillips

Follow on Twitter

ADTV Twitter

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertising on Awards Daily

© 1999-2021 AwardsDaily.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Oscar Predictions
    • Best Picture
    • Best Actor
    • Best Actress
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Podcasts
  • FYC Gallery
  • Interviews
  • All News

© 1999-2021 AwardsDaily.com