Better Sister | Prime Experience 2025 - video Dailymotion

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00:00Hi, we're the Better Sister Team, and this is the Prime Experience.

00:20I was reading the script, reading the book. Elizabeth was reading the scripts, reading the

00:24book. We kind of knew about each other, that we were both sort of, you know, thinking and

00:29trying to figure it out, where we're going to do it, and so that is kind of how it all

00:35began.

00:36Good summary. We read really good material, and we got sent these books, and we got called

00:45by Craig Gillespie, who directed our pilot, who, you know, sort of pitched us on the characters

00:51and the world that we were going to access, and then we read the book, yeah. So we sort

00:55of knew, big picture of what was going on, and then we got to talk to all of our producers

01:01and these fine ladies about all the ways that they were going to adapt it and expand it and

01:07grow it and breathe more and more life into it. And it seemed juicy from jump to me. I

01:13mean, really, like, that the sisterhood was the central relationship of a whodunit show.

01:18I just felt like it was really unique in that way.

01:23I think any time is a good time to adopt an Al Fairberg book. No, but I think the second

01:27we read it, we felt like, well, we got to do this. You know, I mean, it really grips you

01:32in that way. I think exactly as Elizabeth said, the sisterhood as the central story. I think

01:36both Regina and I are so drawn to stories about family, about sisterhood, and this idea of what

01:42does it mean to have different experiences of your parents? How does that determine who you

01:45are in the rest of your life? And I think that Al Fair gives you this incredible foundation to

01:51jump off from, and then you're able to explore. The more we got to know the characters, the more

01:54that we started collaborating with Elizabeth and Jessica, the more that we were able to find every

01:59moment that they might be in in their life and explore what is their past? What's going on just

02:04outside of the story that we had? And Al Fair was such an amazing support in that. She was no ego,

02:10totally no preciousness about allowing us to really build out this world. And it was just

02:16such a joy to get to do that. And we all had a little bit of fun.

02:19We love dysfunction.

02:21Yeah.

02:21That's great.

02:24And we did, we had to expand just because, you know, different characters come up and we,

02:29we took some liberty as we went forward, but we really honored what she gave us for sure. Yeah.

02:37There was so much already, right, that was created before Elizabeth and I, you know,

02:42were even a part of this project. So there was so much to mine, from the amazing scripts to the

02:48book. And then there was nothing but an open channel of collaboration, you know, anything that

02:55we felt that we wanted to add or adjust, or like this, it feels more me, or this doesn't feel quite

03:02authentic to what I'm trying to do with Chloe or, you know, what Elizabeth was doing with Nikki,

03:08everything was like allowed. And at least conversation, we had conversation and we,

03:13sometimes we would argue about what we thought. And it was also like nutritive,

03:18to the experience, I guess. And we would figure out, okay, well, maybe that was a good idea. Maybe

03:22it wasn't, but we talked it out and now we're like moving forward and we have more information and

03:26there's something new that's been discovered somehow. So the collaboration was just like

03:33top level, top notch. Anything was, everything was acceptable to talk about. And even if it was

03:39like, there was no bad ideas, you know, it's mentionable, it's manageable, you know, that's

03:43yeah, I've been lucky enough. I'm honored to have had access to AA to been, I've been to meetings,

03:59I've been to Al-Anon. I have friends and family who worked out program whose lives are really helped

04:05by it. And I felt a responsibility to sort of represent it. I truly think it's an incredible

04:12program, but what it gave to the character was I knew from how it works that you have to own all

04:21your bullshit when you go through that program. So if she was committed, which I believed that she was

04:26to a daily decision to stay sober and really needing these meetings, that it meant that she

04:34had put out into the world, her own trauma already. She'd done the work that Chloe had not done.

04:41Right. So when I show up in Chloe's world, I'm very at peace with, I'm not saying these things for

04:47the first time. I'm pretty, I'm working, I've worked through, I've done my forgiving. I've done my,

04:52of myself and of my father and my mother and of her and of my ex. And, you know, I like, I've,

04:59I've been doing a lot of work. So I come to the scenario, frankly, with some moral superiority.

05:09And it allowed me to poke at her a lot and break her down and ask her to like,

05:16join me in doing this work. Right. Like let's co-create some breakthroughs.

05:22It really grounded Nikki as a character for me in my mind. Like she actually,

05:27she has a support system and she has said these things out loud. She made peace with her mother

05:31before her mother passed.

05:34The family stuff was always in the forefront for us. That was always what drove the train.

05:39And, you know, a lot of the work that we do is very personal. It may not come out and we can sort

05:44of channel it into the characters, but we are extremely honest with our own damage and our

05:49own journey. And I think that that was very big part of this process as was the,

05:55the AA monologues were really, we worked so specifically on trying hard and maybe sometimes

06:03we didn't achieve it, not being expository. And Elizabeth just was able to cut right through that

06:09and make it so real. And, but there are a lot of things we love when the class stuff came up.

06:13We love when the race stuff came up. So it was a constant evolving thing. I don't think we ever

06:18had that. Do we get to do this? We're going to do that. It was sort of like Olivia said,

06:21it's a live thing.

06:22Yeah. And I think the family is the primordial unit. It's the first organizing principle of

06:28your life. And I think everything else is extrapolated from that in terms of community,

06:32that who you belong to at work, who you belong to in your social circle, what class you view

06:36yourself as being a part of, how you view your experience in the world based upon your race.

06:40And I think that when you start to realize that there is an illusion of separateness,

06:44we think we go through life as individuals, but the truth is we are so deeply enmeshed. And so

06:49we united actually in our experiences, as much as we try to pull apart, we actually get brought back

06:54together. And that's the real story of the show. And I think we always knew that it's heart,

06:59two sisters diverged in the woods, brought back together by murder. And the real story of the show

07:04is how do they find each other again in truth, not in the lie, not in the illusion that they are

07:10different, but actually that they are one. And what does that mean to find that hope and love

07:15and forgiveness, despite everything you've done to each other? And for us, I think that was always

07:19the guiding light.

07:20Wow.

07:23I remember this deep need for connection that these two women have for connections with each other,

07:33and that they have put these walls around that. And they, this entire journey is about breaking

07:41through and reconnecting.

07:46Well, I mean, I just started shitting on you pretty quickly.

07:52And I just took it.

07:54Yeah. And then you gave it back a little, and then we just were like, this is what it's supposed

07:59to make. Sometimes all you can do is like, you don't quite know what's going to happen

08:05until you get on set, right? You do a bunch of preparation, you learn your lines, you think

08:11about the emotional, you know, things that's happening for your character, what's happened

08:15in the past, where you were in the present, all this stuff. You might have, like, I have

08:19journals of stuff and like my script is covered in crazy person notes, like that kind of thing.

08:26And then you get to set and you just go, well, that's going to throw out the window.

08:29We're doing something different. She just did something crazy. I don't know how to respond

08:32to that. Go with it. You know, a lot of it is just, in my opinion, is just like being available

08:38to hear, listening, listening, listening to what's happening, and really responding authentically

08:44from the character's heart, you know? And if you know that, if you know where you're,

08:50if you know that character's heart, then you just react. And it's just kind of all happening.

08:55So I know that's like a, it's like not, not only giving you an answer, but it's just,

08:59that's kind of the energy of set. It's kind of chaos and it's kind of blasting out of cannons.

09:05You just don't even know what's happening.

09:07I think also we were, you know, the characters are a little careful around each other in the

09:13beginning because they have to be. And we're just getting up to speed on the whole thing.

09:18So we were a little careful, not like it sort of was channeled naturally, I feel like to be like a

09:27little careful, like, what can, what can I say? What can we get away with? How, how far can I push

09:32a thing? Because I don't, I want to do be, I want to do it in service of what this relationship is

09:38supposed to be. But I also with my own sisters note, like there's just, there's very few things

09:46that I know in my relationship with my sisters that they could do where I would like never want

09:52to talk to them again. I mean, sleeping with my husband probably is one of them. Pretty close.

09:58It's pretty close.

09:59But we, we were technically broken up.

10:02I mean, so like, I guess it's fair game.

10:06You said it.

10:07So it was also, it's a little bit of that too of like, you know, I don't know, we, we had a deep

10:12mutual respect and trust very fast. And so I felt very free to really create with Jessica a sense of

10:21history. Like we had like, okay, but we're also kind of getting to know each other, which is true.

10:27That's what was happening.

10:28Yeah.

10:29The feeling of love and support and care. We had such an amazing team, many women and many men and

10:37others. And it was, I think the, an energy, which is maternal, which is loving, which need not

10:43necessarily come from a woman specifically, but it is rooted in a deep sense of nurturing and caring

10:50and support and wanting to foster growth. That was what was present on the set. And that was really,

10:56I think the thing that we derived from all of our partnership together. And the thing that we

10:59really believed in most was how do we create an environment where we can do the best work and

11:05where we all feel safe and loved. And that is, you know, I think when you lead with a feminine energy,

11:11again, need not necessarily coming from specifically a woman, but that I think is what

11:15you, you get access to. And I think we had a lot of that on our side, which was very special.

11:20I never thought about it as all women. I just thought these are professionals that we are so

11:26lucky to work with. And then, you know, you, everyone points it out and you're like, wow,

11:29look at this. We're all very complimentary though, too. I will say it's like, everyone's secure in

11:36their role. Right. So like, you're the like, laughing, like, you know, Regina is like, let's

11:44go. Like, she'll know the plot. And like, we were very secure. Like, yep, I'm Nikki. There's no doubt

11:55about it. And there's no doubt about it. And everybody was there for their, like, it just

12:00was, everyone knew how to do their job was secure. And this is what, and everybody complimented

12:06everybody in a really great way. So there was very, it was very frictionless. Yeah. I just felt

12:11like a lot of busy moms who wanted to get shit done. Yeah. Yes. It was that. And also, I think when

12:20you were talking about like, it's like a female sort of energy or sensibility, whatever, it was

12:25like a sense of humility, I feel like. And there was zero egos. And that's, whatever, everyone has

12:34one of those. But for whatever reason, everybody sort of threw those out the window. Yeah. And

12:39everyone was very humble to let's make what, what does it need? What does it need to, to be the best

12:47possible product? And if that means cutting out all my lines, cutting me out of the scene,

12:51cutting her, it doesn't matter. Like, it didn't matter. Nobody cared about that. It was just,

12:55it was, it was a macro view of what we were doing and much bigger look of like, oh, this was the,

13:03you know, this is the group mentality all moving in the, in the same direction. And we had a lot of

13:08chai and snacks. Yes. We were well fed. Very well fed. That was, yeah, so much. A lot of food,

13:15a lot of food trucks. So much ice cream. So much ice cream.

Better Sister | Prime Experience 2025

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