IR Interview: Melissa Fumero & Aja Naomi King For “Grosse Pointe Garden Society” [NBC]

The Inside Reel

Actresses Melissa Fumero and Aja Naomi King talk to The Inside Reel about approach, psychology and characterization regarding their new NBC series: “Grosse Pointe Garden Society”.

Transcript

00:00You guys take on different characters and how, you know, because the psychology, especially

00:23in this is so specific with each of them, both for Bertie and Catherine.

00:28Can you talk about looking at each of them, what you love, what was a challenge to sort

00:33of accomplish, but how they all work together as a whole.

00:37Melissa, if you want to start and then Asia.

00:40Sure.

00:41Yeah, I was, I'll be honest, I was a little intimidated with Bertie.

00:46And when I first read the script and was auditioning for her, she just seemed very complex.

00:53I didn't want her to feel like a caricature because there's this mask she wears, this

00:59sort of persona that she puts on a bit when she's in public or with other people that

01:07is part of who she is in second nature, but it is also like a wall.

01:13And then there's like the real her underneath.

01:16And so, yeah, I did have to kind of figure that out and figure out her physicalities

01:23and how to sort of bob and weave between the two.

01:26But it's been so rewarding and so fun.

01:29She's such a fun character to play.

01:31And it's been wonderful to get to do, you know, be big and funny and a little ridiculous

01:38and then also show the like softer, vulnerable kind of lost side of her too.

01:44So for any actor, I think playing that duality is a dream.

01:47Oh, we rented out the Detroit Zoo for Addie's.

01:50The entire zoo?

01:51That's the only way you get the hands-on experience with the elephants.

01:53Remember when it was just like Nerf guns and pizza in a backyard?

01:56How does that get you any cred on TikTok?

01:58Every birthday, they just go bigger and bigger.

02:01Oh, what's Zach's theme this year?

02:02Outer space.

02:03Oh, so like renting out the planetarium?

02:05Well, knowing Melissa and Connor, they'll put the kids in orbit in some tech billionaire's

02:09rocket.

02:10Dakota's friend Isaac is doing that for his bar mitzvah.

02:12What?

02:13Yeah.

02:14Mazel.

02:15It's like the only reason I'm even there is to feel bad about myself.

02:17It's not the only reason.

02:19They already hired a guy to set up the bounce house.

02:22Your son, dummy.

02:23Oh.

02:24Anyone have a daisy grubber?

02:25Oh, here.

02:26Take mine.

02:27Haven't I taken enough from you?

02:28Always here for you, Alice.

02:29Nevermind.

02:30I love this character.

02:31I love Catherine.

02:32I was going to say, like, I feel like there's a rhythm to all the characters that I play

02:47and like, and her rhythm and timing has just been really interesting for me to discover

02:53like how she holds herself in the world, how she carries herself as a mother and a wife,

02:58but more as a woman who I feel like is realizing in the midst of this show just how stifled

03:03she's been in her life because she's put forth this image of perfection out in the world

03:10and it's suffocating her.

03:13And I feel like because of the friendships she's able to form at the garden club, she's

03:17able to learn how to be more vulnerable and more real with herself and yeah, it's been

03:23fun to really just dive in and investigate just the pressure of being a mom and living

03:28in this community where everyone seems so perfect and wanting to live up to that.

03:35But then also wanting to defy it at the same time and then just the relationship that forms

03:42between her and Bertie, I like to say that they become a bit of a power couple, which

03:47I really love about them and yeah, and just diving further into her origin story of why

03:55she is the way that she is and we have some phenomenal guest stars who come along the

03:59way to help tell that story that I wish I could tell people about, but I will very soon

04:04because I think that's coming up in this next episode if I'm right.

04:08I hope I'm right.

04:09Yeah.

04:10Right?

04:11Okay.

04:12Yeah.

04:13Yeah.

04:14These characters are all so fully fleshed out and real human beings that I think people

04:20can easily relate to and see themselves reflected in and that's what makes this show so like

04:26charged and exciting to watch.

04:30You think that's what your fight was about?

04:32Oh, you poor thing.

04:34He said I take him for granted.

04:37That's not what it was about, girl.

04:40But it's true.

04:43Brett didn't go buck wild on dating apps because you forgot to thank him for a ride to the

04:47airport.

04:48In the wise words of my great aunt Rose, you get over someone by getting under someone

04:53else.

04:54What?

04:55No, come on.

04:56Alice.

04:57Why didn't he say anything?

05:06You're married.

05:07Tia Rose also had a lot of thoughts on fidelity.

05:09And this all speaks to you, Melissa, for Birdie is it's about perspective and perception with

05:14these characters, how they're seeing, how they want to be seen.

05:18And that all goes into the physicality, as you said, Melissa, the, you know, the emotionality,

05:23but also the stakes that they feel, the tension that they feel.

05:26Can you talk about perspective and perception with these kinds of characters, both as the

05:30group, but also as the individual?

05:33Yes, I mean, I think if you were to look at the group of them, you would, especially when

05:38you're looking at all four characters together, it's you right there have the haves and the

05:43have nots, so to speak, with the representation of the have nots being with Ana Sofia and

05:49Ben's character, and then the haves being Melissa and myself.

05:53And just that idea of nothing is always as it seems, you know, because they have such

06:01disparate seeming lives on the outside, but they're so linked to one another because they

06:06are dealing with very similar tension in terms of how they want to be perceived by their

06:13families and friends and the world in terms of what they, who they aspire to be.

06:19You know, there's a lot of longing in these characters, longing for certain careers or

06:24certain relationships.

06:26And it's just, it's really beautiful the way you get to see all this human interactions

06:31with one another and then have this wild murder center of it entangling their lives.

06:40Oh God, I'm such an idiot.

06:48Oh.

06:53It's not the size of your stamen, it's how you use it.

06:58Carburetor.

07:01Why do you keep saying that?

07:03It's stuck in my head.

07:05It's so weird.

07:07It's just the carb part Brett's trying to find.

07:11Melissa, did you want to add anything to that or should I, I can let you go.

07:15Yeah.

07:16I mean, I don't think I could have said it any more perfectly than Asia just did.

07:19Yeah.

07:20It is, it is this sort of outside inside.

07:22I love the, there's, you know, the show is really visually beautiful, especially with

07:27the garden.

07:28And it's also this metaphor, I think, for the theme of the show of like all this beauty

07:33above the surface, but underneath there's dirt and there's rot and there's secrets.

07:39You know, there's some ugliness.

07:41And so the show really weaves that throughout its stories.

07:45And it's just, it's just brilliant.

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