‘The Girlfriend Experience’: Carmen Ejogo on the Finale’s Added Relevance in 2017 and If Bria’s Story Should Continue
[Editor’s Note: The following interview contains spoilers for “The Girlfriend Experience” Season 2 finale, Episode 14, “Relapse.”]
Gun violence is an institutional problem in American culture, but as the latter days of 2017 are filled with reports of sexual assault, harassment, and worse, there’s something cathartic about watching a woman go buy a gun and fire off a few rounds at the men who are holding her down.
Sunday night’s Season 2 finale of “The Girlfriend Experience” is an experience unto itself, as Bria, played by Carmen Ejogo, uses the favored tool of the patriarchy to fight back against it. Be it the cops, the organized crime lords, or her inattentive would-be boyfriend, Bria was manipulated, intimidated, and ignored by every man around her in Amy Seimetz’s half of the season.
“Bria is like this simmering pot that’s been ready to boil over the entire season, and I think that Amy really successfully figured out how to let everything boil over,” Ejogo said in an interview with IndieWire.
Read More:‘The Girlfriend Experience’ Review: Season 2 Tells Two Separate Stories with One Exceptional Punch
Even if her last-ditch efforts were more of a desperate release than a long-term solution, one of the tools of the system turned against the system itself provided ample context for timely interpretations of the episode itself — especially given who’s doing the shooting.
“In terms of payback, or in terms of a sense of retribution, or in terms of a sense of who’s manipulating who and all these questions that are kind of ruminating in the culture generally right now when it comes to gender politics and male/female interactions, I think [the finale is] so satisfying just topically,” she said.
“I think as a woman, if you’re in any way conscious of what’s happening to most women most of the time, this is always subject matter that’s going to be in you and ready to emerge in terms of story. It just happens to have become something incredibly topical and something everyone’s talking about at the same time.”
Ejogo said when she first read the script, she was “very satisfied” and struck by how well Seimetz tied together Bria’s journey in the ending. Her story didn’t need any outside context to add weight, but the climate in which it’s airing certainly does just that.
“I can talk to older women, I can talk to young girls, and we all have a common knowledge of the kind of sexual harassment and sexual politics that swirl around us every day in our lives,” Ejogo said, noting how ridiculous it is that women make up 50 percent of the population but are still treated like a cultural subsidiary.
“In making the show when we did, Amy and I knew exactly what we were aiming for, and if the audience caught up to it or didn’t, we still felt like we had to make the story that resonated to the subset of people that would get it. Given the wider conversation that’s now happening, I think there are a lot more people who are going to be [watching] open-eyed about what these episodes really look like and have the capacity to explore them with the kind of depth we hoped.”
Though Ejogo has already signed on for her next project — “True Detective” Season 3 alongside Mahershala Ali — she can see a future for Bria.
“These were always intended as capsule shows: The second season is the beginning and ending of Bria’s journey,” Ejogo said. “That being said, the idea of Bria being fodder for a continued journey, I think she’s complex and interesting enough that I’d like to see her entire life onscreen.”
Ejogo said she prefers to “keep it moving” as an actress, always looking for new parts and fresh challenges, but she would be willing to play Bria again.
“I feel very satisfied with where it left, but I can totally understand why people might want to see more — of where it goes next,” she said. “I would definitely be open to this character having a longer shelf life. Typically, that’s not how I look at things, but this is a special character. I can see there’d be a lot more to mine that would be satisfying for me as an actress.”
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