SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
In your household, who schedules doctor's appointments? Who cleans up after meals? Who books the babysitter or pet sitter when you're going out? In many families, those responsibilities fall to Mom, and a new limited series on Peacock injects them with life-or-death urgency.
SARAH SNOOK: This is a thriller. This is - it opens with a bang, and I obviously can't spoil anything, but once I knew what the plot twist was, where it was going to go, it was a bit hard to say no. It was such a juicy, juicy story.
PFEIFFER: That's Sarah Snook, probably best known for her role as Shiv Roy in "Succession." Now she stars as Marissa Irvine in "All Her Fault." It's based on the novel by Andrea Mara. Marissa and her husband, played by Jake Lacy from "The Office" and "White Lotus," seem to have it all - a gorgeous waterfront home in Chicago, money for what seems like anything they could possibly want and a happy little boy named Milo. But then...
SNOOK: We open the show with every parent's worst nightmare, turning up the address where her son is for a playdate and finding out that her son isn't there. It's the wrong address. And the phone number that she was given to call the person whose playdate she was organizing with is - it's now unlisted. It doesn't work.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ALL HER FAULT")
DAKOTA FANNING: (As Jenny) Uh, should you give her a call?
SNOOK: (As Marissa) Yeah. Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF OUT OF SERVICE TONE)
AUTOMATED VOICE: We're sorry. You have reached a number that is...
SNOOK: (As Marissa) It's not working. The number isn't working.
And so, from there, we kind of - we unravel and we try and work out what happened. But also, in doing that, we work out what the flaws maybe were in the family dynamic in the first place.
PFEIFFER: I like to go into movies, books, plays, shows, knowing absolutely nothing. So I did not know going in that this was a missing child theme.
SNOOK: Yeah.
PFEIFFER: And that first episode, I actually felt my chest tightening as it became clear the kid is gone.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ALL HER FAULT")
SNOOK: (As Marissa) Who picked up my son from school?
PFEIFFER: That was very effective at that ratcheting sense of panic.
SNOOK: I'm similar. I quite like going in unwittingly, not knowing anything. But for this, I feel like, particularly for parents, it's my (laughter) - it's almost like a PSA. Like...
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
SNOOK: ...Hey, just so you know, it's a little intense. Remember, it's a TV show, and it's all going to be fine. But yeah, definitely in that first episode - and that was for me when I was reading the book, that that's how the book opens. And yeah, it's a page-turner. I couldn't stop.
PFEIFFER: You mentioned, especially for parents - I believe that during the filming of your final season of "Succession," you were pregnant with your first child. Is that right? She's a...
SNOOK: Yes.
PFEIFFER: ...You have a daughter. She's now...
SNOOK: Yes.
PFEIFFER: ...Maybe 2 1/2 or so?
SNOOK: That's right on, yeah. Yeah, great work.
PFEIFFER: What, if anything, do you think you brought differently to your role in "All Her Fault" now that you're a parent than if you'd done the series before you had a kid?
SNOOK: Yeah. I think, you know, imagination is a great thing, and imaginatively, I would have been able to go there but I think having had a child, just the deeper understanding of what that relationship is, what that feels like, but also, you know, in terms of what we explore for the entire show, the intricacies of where women tend to pick up the invisible labor, and just kind of like knowing what that is or knowing how that feels or knowing where that could happen. You know, I, fortunately, have a great husband who's - and we find that our work is fairly even, but also because we have robust conversations about it, and that's not always the case.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter) Right. Right, I mean, this is a story that deals with the intertwining of parenting and marriage and gender roles in marriage, expectations for men versus women when running a household and raising kids. There's at least twice in the show where a husband tells his wife, you're amazing, and that does not feel, to her, like a compliment.
SNOOK: No. It feels like it's kind of patronizing in that point. It's like, yeah, she is amazing. She's doing amazing. But, like, one of my favorite lines is Dakota's, where she says I'm tired of being amazing. It's like, that's not the point. Like, I know I am, and I know I can do it, but let's share the load here.
PFEIFFER: Yes. That's Dakota Fanning who plays another working mom who's really struggling with her husband's role in their partnership.
SNOOK: Yeah. Yeah.
PFEIFFER: This is a thought experiment question in a way. But if your character, Marissa Irvine, in "All Her Fault," had been a more solidly middle-class or blue-collar wife and mother, how might this have been a different story or how might you have played that part differently?
SNOOK: I think we certainly play with class in this story, in "All Her Fault," and partly that's because most of these working moms are relying on nannies for child care in the spaces that they can't be there because of their work. Maybe in a middle-class household, there's less reliance on nannies and more reliance on, like, group child care. And I don't know how that operates in America...
PFEIFFER: Yeah. Same way.
SNOOK: ...To Australia and how - the differences there (ph). But I guess the point there is that you have to rely - like, you have to really invest in and trust the community around you. And if that trust is compromised, it makes parenting really difficult. Like, we really need to be able to parent in a group, in a context of a village, and if you can't trust the people around you, then you're really sort of left adrift. You know, in our particular story, that's where the questions then need to go on the inside...
PFEIFFER: Right.
SNOOK: ...More internal questioning of who to trust.
PFEIFFER: I saw you on stage in New York, on Broadway earlier this year in "Picture Of Dorian Gray." It was absolutely mesmerizing. And it seemed like the role was almost an athletic endurance event. You're the only actor. You're on stage the whole time playing multiple characters.
SNOOK: (Laughter).
PFEIFFER: This series felt to me like a different athletic endurance event in that you're so frequently shocked and devastated and grieving. How strenuous was that, and how do you sustain your emotional energy for it?
SNOOK: Yeah. I mean, yeah, you're right. It is a different kind of athleticism, I guess (laughter), like, just the emotional Olympics. Let's put her through the ringer. Let's see what she can do.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
SNOOK: I mean, it's certainly part of the attraction of the role, just to sort of see if I can rise to the challenge, see if I can make something feel, you know - how high can we go and still remain grounded. Hopefully, we've achieved that. But I do remember, yeah, writing on my script on the first read through, going, like, must find different ways to cry...
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
SNOOK: ...Because Marissa is crying in most of the scenes, which we - you know, we had to temper as well and, like, cut back. But it is - it's - the sustainability of that is tricky, and partly, it's all about balance. Like, I feel like you can't really stay in that grieving space for three months straight because your body and your brain and your - just your eyes and the actual ability to make tears just revolts. It just doesn't do it anymore.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
SNOOK: It's just not available. Like, you can't (laughter)...
PFEIFFER: Yeah.
SNOOK: You got to go through cycles. So, like, intentionally putting yourself through a cycle of, OK, I was sad here, but we're breaking now, so I'm going to play some ukulele. I'm going to make a joke with Jake. I'm going to play around. I'm going to have my daughter visit me on set. I'm going to, like, break it up so that it's - you have a place to go back to rather than stay in...
PFEIFFER: Yeah.
SNOOK: ...The whole time.
PFEIFFER: Yeah. Someone I worked with pointed out today that you're halfway to an EGOT. You got an Emmy for "Succession."
SNOOK: (Laughter).
PFEIFFER: You got a Tony for "Dorian Gray."
SNOOK: Yeah.
PFEIFFER: Good shot at Oscar, since you are likely to do movies. And so someone wondered, do you sing?
SNOOK: (Laughter).
PFEIFFER: Is a Grammy a potential someday?
SNOOK: You know, I do sing. I don't think I am a Grammy-level singer, though.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
SNOOK: I mean, that's someone like Cynthia Erivo, you know? Like, that's - that is - I'd be hard-pressed to find an angle into the Grammys. But I'll take it if there's availability, you know?
PFEIFFER: So maybe EOT, not EGOT.
SNOOK: Yeah. Yeah, or TOE. I think...
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
SNOOK: ...You can always do it that way.
(LAUGHTER)
PFEIFFER: Sarah Snook's new series on Peacock is called "All Her Fault." Sarah Snook, thank you for talking about this.
SNOOK: (Laughter) No, thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF TAEMIN SONG, "BONES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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