Making of ‘Mrs. Davis’: Lively roundtable panel with 6 creative Emmy contenders [Exclusive Video Interview]
When “Mrs. Davis” director and executive producer Owen Harris read the pilot script for the Peacock limited series, he had one response. “I sent an email straight back to my agent saying, ‘What the f–k have I just read?’” Harris tells Gold Derby in our Making of “Mrs. Davis” video roundtable exclusive interview. “And then I quickly followed it up with, ‘But I love it. It’s amazing. We have to do this.’ And I think that sort of everyone had a similar reaction.”
Co-created by Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez, “Mrs. Davis” is a show that defies easy classification. Broadly, it’s about a nun named Simone (Betty Gilpin) who is tasked by an artificial intelligence program called Mrs. Davis to find and destroy the Holy Grail (yes, the actual Holy Grail) in exchange for the elimination of Mrs. Davis itself. The twisty conceit – which includes Simone’s magician father (David Arquette), her wannabe rodeo cowboy ex-boyfriend (Jake McDorman), and her husband, Jesus Christ (yes, the son of God is an actual character in “Mrs. Davis” and played by Andy McQueen) – all but invites a blending of genres and tones few shows dare to attempt.
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“One of my early references was Monty Python,” Harris says. “I felt it was channeling something like a piece of social commentary, but wrapped up in this wonderful sort of unbridled silliness, but smart and sharp and insightful. And then you sort of sit down and think, ‘What does a show like this look like?’ And then you realize that you need to involve people that are far smarter at figuring that out than you are.”
Among those who helped Harris, Lindelof and Hernandez bring “Mrs. Davis” to life are production designer Emma Fairley, costume designer Susie Coulthard (a frequent collaborator with Harris), cinematographer Joe Anderson, composer Jeff Russo and fellow director and executive producer Alethea Jones.
“I was in Vancouver, shooting something else at the time. And I was really busy. And my managers were like, ‘You should take a look at this script.’ Because they knew that I was really looking for bonkers stuff,” Jones says. “I read it and I remember putting the script down and just walking into my husband’s office and being like, ‘I don’t know what I just read.’ And he assumed that’s a bad thing. But then I started trying to explain it… I just remember it was really exciting to me. I directed three episodes, and started bringing in some Indiana Jones stuff, which was just what episode four was – there was so much homage to Indiana Jones for me and that was just such a fun sandpit for me to play in because that’s what I grew up watching. To get the opportunity to do that was a highlight of my career.”
SEEBetty Gilpin interview: ‘Mrs. Davis’
In interviews since the show debuted earlier this year, everyone involved has praised Gilpin for her performance. “Mrs. Davis” marks the first time the three-time Emmy Award nominee has been the lead of a series, and her performance runs the full gamut of emotions. “This job asks 100 percent of me and I immediately was like, ‘I’ve been waiting my whole life for this,’” Gilpin said during the show’s red carpet premiere in April.
“She is brilliant. She makes me a better director,” Jones says of the star. “I don’t know if I make her a better actor. But she certainly put me in my best game. She’s so emotionally available. And it’s not like she can fake cry at the drop of a hat. She is just able to click into a moment and access the emotional vulnerability in that moment so quickly and so readily.”
“I think the greatest compliment I can give her is I can’t actually imagine what ‘Mrs. Davis’ would be like without Betty Gilpin,” Harris adds.
Anderson, who shot multiple episodes of the show – including the pilot and the finale – compares Gilpin to Buster Keaton. Fairley and Coulthard say they thought of Katharine Hepburn.
“She’s so great,” Fairley says. “Not many people can pull that kind of thing off, you know?”
All episodes of “Mrs. Davis” are streaming on Peacock.
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