Emmy Talk: ‘The Affair’ Star Maura Tierney on That Lucinda Williams Singalong, & Helen’s Guilt in Season 3

Photos: Showtime

Warning: This interview contains storyline and character spoilers for The Affair.

Maura Tierney already has a Golden Globe trophy for her Season 2 performance as wronged wife Helen Solloway in Showtime’s The Affair, and there’s one scene from the sophomore season that epitomizes why she nabbed the Globe and also earned an Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Emmy nomination.

Season 2 added the perspectives of Helen and Joshua Jackson’s Cole Lockhart — the wronged husband in the titular extramarital relationship — to the storytelling. And in the season’s fourth episode, Helen lets go of all the resentment, anger, sadness, loneliness, and fear she’s been managing (all while remaining the primary caretaker of her four children with Noah), and with some wine and a perfect song from Lucinda Williams, creates an instant classic you-go-girl scene.

Tierney talked to Yahoo TV about that Episode 4 gem, how fun it was to go deeper with her character in Season 2, and how Helen will spend much of Season 3 – which jumps ahead in time several years – dealing with lingering feelings for Noah and lingering guilt about that fatal accident with Scotty Lockhart.

The scene … Season 2, Episode 4, Helen just letting out every frustration she has with her drunken singalong to Lucinda Williams’ “Changed the Locks.” It’s up there with Peggy’s walk into McCann Erickson with her cigarette and box of stuff in the final season of Mad Men. It’s in the hall of fame of kick-ass female TV moments.
Oh, that’s so nice. That’s really, really nice to hear. Thank you. I really appreciate it.

How did you prepare for it? It seems like a scene that you would have to get into a certain frame of mind for.
It was a little bit the opposite. I was a little anxious about it, and I think if I overthought it, if I overthought what I looked like, I had to not go there, that kind of stuff. One issue I did have, though, there’s all these issues with editing and sound. Our sound guy, who’s a very, very talented man, Adam, was like, “You can’t have any playback in the room. You have to wear a little [earphone], and the music is just going to be in your ear.” I was like, “Well, I can’t do it. I can’t do that.” It was a big battle, because editing-wise, it’s a lot easier for them if the music is only in my ear, but I was like, “I have to have the music in the room, or I know I’ll be too self-conscious to do this.” I was sort of like, “Okay, I just have to say f*** the sound department right now, but I need to hear music.”

Did you know “Changed the Locks” before this episode?
Oh, I did. I’m very familiar with her work. I’m a big fan.

Did you know you helped make it a hit, almost 30 years after it was originally released? Williams charted for the first time on a Billboard song chart with “Changed the Locks” after Episode 4.
Get out of town! That’s [credit to] Anya Epstein, the writer, not me.

I think everyone involved deserves credit for it, and for the fact that it had a resurgence as an anthem for general female kick assedness.
That’s a nice thing. I’m particularly happy about it, let’s say. I just feel lucky, super lucky. It was a great turn for the character. That character could have gone any number of ways, and the writers decided to do that. She could have really been a woman scorned in a different way, and that they went that way, I think was super fun and lucky for me to be able to do.

Related: Emmy Talk: ‘The Affair’ Star Josh Jackson on Cole’s Point of View

There is a lot of sadness, especially a little later in the episode.
Yes. I really think that line at the end of that, which people don’t talk about … people talk about that drunk scene, but when Helen says to Noah, "How come you get to f*** up and I don’t?” I think that says a lot about parenting, mothers versus fathers, the expectations of women as parents versus the expectations of men as parents.

Season 2 was much richer with the added points of view of Helen and Cole. For you, was it more fun or dramatically different to play Helen in Season 2 in those circumstances?
It was nice for both Josh and myself to open up the storytelling. For all of us, actually, all the actors. It was kind of like twelve characters. Who’s looking at who? It gave everybody, I think, a chance to expand.

Did it change how you thought about Helen at all, getting to know her more?
Yes, it did, because I do think that in Season 1, she was a sort of perfect person, this overly-perfect person, who is super tolerant and forgiving and blah blah blah. I liked that person, but then you see someone who’s maybe a little controlling and a little bit manipulative [with] her parents’ money and a little bit not supportive of [Noah’s] creativity, and you see her as someone that probably contributed to the vulnerability of their marriage. I think that’s very real. I was married for a long time. You go along and you go along. Sometimes you just don’t notice, and then you look and you go, “Oh, wow. How did I get here?”

Related: ‘The Affair’ Star Josh Jackson Talks Cole’s Point of View

That’s almost the theme for Helen in Season 2, isn’t it?
Yes, and then she has to figure it out. I think what’s great about what they wrote is she doesn’t really shirk any of the responsibilities. She owns up to it. Isn’t that what we all want to be? Someone goes, “Wow, this is what I did wrong, and I’m learning and better for it.” I think the writers really wanted to make Helen the most self-aware character, and she is, until the end, when she sort of abdicates everything out of selfishness.

But she also has children to think about. She lets Noah take the blame for the accident that killed Scotty, but in the end, she is the one still who is mostly responsible for the kids and keeping them together and keeping their lives on track.
Absolutely, but is that okay to make that choice? My children are more valuable than this thing? I don’t know. That’s what I like about the show. It’s interesting to me to think about all those things.

Do you feel like Helen had the biggest evolution across Season 2 of all the characters?
I think Helen and Cole, only because we hadn’t seen them yet. I also think what’s interesting about this show is a lot of times, the characters are portrayed most negatively through their own POV, which I think we do do as humans. We see ourselves in a harsher light than other people do. I think we get to see these parts of these characters that Cole and Helen are feeling, so that was new, and I really liked that.

What can you say about where we meet up with Helen in Season 3?
It is three years later. She has a boyfriend. She’s with Vic, Dr. Ullah [Omar Metwally]. They have an interesting relationship that is clear, but unclear at the beginning of the season. Everyone has moved on in a way. All of the characters are in a different place. There’s a new love interest for Noah. Again, the characters are continuing to diverge, their stories are getting more separate. My character is struggling. I think she’s got a tremendous amount of guilt. I think what happens in Season 3 is her love for Noah turns a little bit into an obsession, and he’s over her, but she creates this scenario in her head. It goes a little bit dark in terms of Helen’s obsession with regaining her relationship with her ex-husband. She’s looking for some sort of redemption or forgiveness.

Do you think it’s also because of the way that the relationship ended?
No, I think she really feels a tremendous amount of guilt, and it’s like, how is this human processing this really bad thing that she did? She did something terrible, and she has this big lie out there in the universe, and she’s told no one. I’ve only worked for two days, but it’s like, how do you live with that guilt? What’s that process?

They’re still the only two who know the truth that she was driving the car when Scotty was killed, she and Noah?
I believe so. I pitched to the writers, I said, “Does Helen ever find out that [Alison] pushed [Scotty]? Does she ever get any information?” I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not. I would like to see that scene, between those two women, see those two characters talk about that.

That secret, if it does exist or continue only between she and Noah, does that create a bond in her mind with him, too?
I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s really interesting. I’ll use that today. That’s smart. That’s definitely interesting and true.

Do you think there’s any chance for Helen to a peaceful future?
I think that’s what the writers want to do. The answer is I don’t know, but I think that’s the goal. The goal is to have the character struggle with any kind of way of figuring out, can she live with this?

The Affair Season 3 premieres Sunday, Nov. 20 at 10 p.m. on Showtime. Past episodes are available to stream on Showtime Anytime, Amazon Video, and Hulu.