Alyssa Milano's New Lifetime Movie Will Make You Uncomfortable—On Purpose
As I sat and watched an early screener of Alyssa Milano's new Lifetime movie, Tempting Fate, I lost track of how many times I actually said out loud, "Oh shit." In fact, there's so many twists and turns I probably said worse than that. But when I meet up with Milano to talk about the movie and tell her this very story, she smiles in delight. "It's really captivating, right?! This movie could have gone in a very exploitative, sensationalized direction, but there was a lot of depth and nuance. Plus, there's the scandalous aspect of it."
She's not kidding. Tempting Fate is based on author Jane Green's New York Times best-selling novel of the same name, and tells the story of what happens when wife and mom-of-two Gabby (Milano) is tempted by another man. It's the kind of story that has been done a thousand times before, but under the direction of Kim Raver (Grey's Anatomy) and Manu Boyer, it draws you in faster than one of Hannah Brown's rose ceremonies on The Bachelorette.
Milano wanted to put her own spin on the character, and for that reason, didn't read Green's book ahead of filming. "I get really nervous reading books that people love and then going in and playing those characters," she says. "I think I would obsessed over making sure I was giving the fans of the book what they felt they needed rather than giving the character what it needed to be a successful character."
What the character is though is a flawed, multi-dimensional woman coming to terms with a not-so-honest husband, teenage daughters, and a life not quite as fulfilling as she'd like. "What struck me most is this is someone that was truly accountable for their actions," she says. "Gabby's like, 'Yeah, I made a choice, my entire life blew up, and I gotta put the pieces back together even though I know it's never going to be what it was.' We don't really see that so much in films."
And you don't see many actors like Milano, who are willing to pull back the curtain on the process, and what happens when life imitates art and vice-versa. Here, the impassioned activist opens up about all of that and more.
Glamour: Why did the role of Gabby appeal to you?
Alyssa Milano: I enjoy playing characters that are flawed. Gabby makes a really bad choice and her life explodes, and instead of romanticizing or glamorizing it, we sort of sit in it. It’s uncomfortable to watch. There’s something really lonely about her because everyone practically abandons her, even her kids. I though, how do you convey a sense of abandonment and loneliness in something that’s only 90 minutes? I just know that I wanted to convey a certain element of vulnerability and rawness that was super grounded and kind of fucked up.
Do you think there’s a message in this film?
AM: I don’t know if there’s a message as much as there is a sort of a what-if factor, where you could put yourself in the shoes of that character and go, well, what if? What would I do? Or what would my husband do in that scenario? I don’t know if there’s a lesson, although I guess there’s a lesson in everything if you can get something out of it. I don’t think we instinctually put something in there.
Perhaps don't go and get a vasectomy without telling your wife.
AM: Yeah, betrayal! And also, what is betrayal? Like, is it just infidelity? Is it just going to get a vasectomy without telling your spouse? I think that’s an interesting question that’s different for everyone, and for Gabby, that was the ultimate betrayal.
Eventually Gabby ends up pregnant with another man's child. She says, “I could never get an abortion.” Because of what's happening in our country right now, does that scene carry more weight for you? And do you wish there was more dialogue around that moment?
AM: I think any time you’re able to convey social, political issues in art and storytelling, it’s an important thing to do, because it kind of de-politicizes [the issue]. It’s good for the social movement aspect because it humanizes it. You then understand the process of what goes in to making a decision like that. I think that that’s really important. I don’t wish there was more [dialogue about abortion] in the film because I think it deals with it in a perfect way, especially because Gabby talked about wanting more kids. Also, it wasn’t like (Milano deepens her voice) the Republican party is going to pull back Roe v. Wade, let’s deal with that in our Lifetime movie. We never had that kind of conversation. But I'm glad it’s in there, for sure.
There's a lot of very personal and intimate scenes in the movie. What are some of the conversations you had with co-directors Kim Raver and Manu Boyer about those moments?
AM: Kim is an actress so she understands the level of rawness that we have at all times. I felt incredibly protective and safe to allow myself to go to those places, which does not happen a lot. Or often enough. You have to realize, people talk about how sex scenes are so hard to do and there’s a crew of 75 people around and you gotta take off your clothes and blah blah blah. That shit’s easy for me. The thing that’s hard for me is crying in front of all those people and allowing that intense vulnerability of maybe the birthing scene...imagine doing that shit in front of all those people? That’s the part that feels intimate to me, so to know I have an actress [as a director] that understands that intimacy and that place you need to get to…
It's beyond helpful.
AM: Yes. It’s not that I love sex scenes, it just is that it becomes a choreographed dance that’s very technical like a dance would be, and then you have to bring the emotion to it. But the crying scenes...I can’t, at least, fake them. I didn’t go to acting class. There’s not some technique I use or anything like that. I just have to go to a dark place. So to know that Kim knows what that dark place feels like, it’s such a dream to have that kind of support.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Tempting Fate airs on Lifetime this Saturday, June 15, at 8/7 c
Originally Appeared on Glamour
