Inspired by the real-life upbringing of co-executive producer Kyle Richards (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) and set during the rise of feminism in the ‘70s, the Paramount Network half-hour series American Woman follows Bonnie (Alicia Silverstone), a mother who’s struggling to raise her two daughters after leaving her husband. While discovering your own independence in a world reluctant to give it is never easy, Bonnie has the help of her two best friends, Kathleen (Mena Suvari) and Diana (Jennifer Bartels), to make her way through it all.

During this sit-down interview with Collider, co-stars Alicia Silverstone and Mena Suvari talked about the appeal of this project, what interested them in their characters, how the story and character journeys grew, over the season, the transition of changing showrunners during the season, what they enjoy about the friendship between these women, and how these women are inspirational.

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Collider: Alicia, what was the appeal of this project for you?

ALICIA SILVERSTONE: When I read it, I loved my character. I just thought, “What an exciting, juicy part that some lucky girl gets to do.” And then, they said they wanted it to be me, and I was like, “Oh, okay.” I went and met with them and had questions, and the answers they gave, gave me the chills. I got really inspired by (show creator) John Riggi and very inspired by (co-executive producer) Kyle Richards’ stories about her mother. My character is inspired by her mother. It just felt like a really exciting, juicy part to sink your teeth into, and then the world kept growing. Reading it, I wasn’t really thinking about this woman’s emotional journey, which she has to go through. She gets her whole world taken out from underneath her, and then has to fight to put her life back together and survive. The ‘70s were such an interesting time. We’ve come a long way, in many areas, but in some areas, we haven’t. I was so excited about the journey that I would get to go on. The world we’re in was so incredible.

Mena, what was your reaction, when you read this?

MENA SUVARI: When it came to me, I just got the pilot, and then I was able to sit down with John Riggi and (co-executive producer) Jinny Howe, who talked a lot about the inspiration for this show. I had never met Kyle before, and I didn’t know much about her life, but right off the bat, I was really interested in it being a female-centric show. And then, for me, personally, I was just really looking forward to taking on a character like Kathleen because it just felt like I was able to work a bit more in the comedic space, and I’d always wanted to do that. Not only are these characters well-rounded, but with Kathleen’s journey and with how dynamic it was, it was just something that I had never really come across before.

As the season played out, did the story grow in ways that you didn’t expect?

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SILVERSTONE: I don’t know. I”m a mother, and where you spend your time is so crucial. I’d done a show, years ago, that was an hour-long show, and the time commitment was so involved. With this, I knew that I was going to maybe get like a day a week [off] because of the other ladies’ storylines, so I said to the producers, “Okay, it’s only three months. I think I can handle it.” But once we started shooting, I was like, “I never want this to end!” I just didn’t. And then, when I was doing it, I was just so inspired, every day, by the storyline and with what my character got to do. Our show has an amazing beginning, a good solid middle, and the end is off the charts. It’s really exciting, what happens. I was particularly moved by Mena’s storyline with Cheyenne Jackson. It’s such an interesting thing that’s going on, with the heartbreak. They’re both struggling so hard. He’s gay, at the front of it, but she doesn’t know he’s gay. She’s not quite fulfilled, and he’s not quite fulfilled, but they both love each other so much. The way they act it is so beautiful. The way it’s written is so beautiful. It’s really moving. I really loved that. So, that was a fun surprise for me. I’m not in those scenes, so I got to just enjoy them, and they were beautiful.

SUVARI: Once I was given the pilot, and then they talked about where Kathleen’s journey would go, I was just really lucky. It’s just gotta be really crippling, if you’re not enjoying what you’re already a part of. There’s so much trust involved with taking on a project, but I loved it. This was the first time I had like a real Season 1 experience, sitting down and having a table-reading, every week. And so, it was really awesome to see what they were coming up with. I really admire the way that they structured everything, and there was so much. I was really blown away by how much they address in just 22 minutes. They did such a beautiful job with the storylines for these characters and these really deep moments, but then there’s always an uplifting moment that brings it around. I just felt like that’s such a delicate dance, but obviously you can do it with people like John Wells and John Riggi behind it.

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Did you have a panic attack moment, at all, when you had a change in showrunners, from John Riggi to John Wells, before you’d even finished the season?

SILVERSTONE: We had John Wells as our producer, all along, and we all love John Wells, so much. He’s so talented and he has so much experience and he comes with such a pedigree, that having that transition, he just took the reins. That was really solid. Had it been something else, I think we would have all been terrified because we all loved John Riggi so much. But because it was John Wells, it felt very smooth.

What do you guys enjoy about the friendship between your characters?

SUVARI: One of my favorite moments is a moment after Kathleen’s had this really traumatic experience and her friends come to her rescue. She shares this moment in her life, and it’s something that her friends have never known. She’s finally honest with herself. She looks to Bonnie and she says, “I’m not as strong as you.” And then, Bonnie says, “I’m not as strong as you think.” And Diana interjects and says, “Wait a minute, we’re all strong!” That’s just such a beautiful moment because it captures this dynamic of all three women. It centers around Bonnie and this completely new world and situation that she finds herself in, and then it incorporates how her friends are dealing with things in their own way. With Kathleen, there’s so much about her not being true to herself and honest with herself, and she’s always keeping up appearances. I thought it was interesting how, to a certain degree, they do that with one another, but then they have these moments where they just really open up to one another, and you see how and why they complement each other. It’s done really beautifully.

How did you think these women will be inspirational for people?

SILVERSTONE: There are a few underlying strong themes. The show, in general, is about freeing yourself and liberating yourself, and we all need that, all the time. You have to keep re-upping your check with yourself. I think that my character, Bonnie, starts as a trophy wife whose job is to be this beautiful, seductive like pussycat. The man comes home and the drink is ready, and that’s the role. That’s the contract she made. So, when he crosses her, what she should have done, or what she was supposed to do, was keep her nose down and just accept it and move on. He says, very clearly, “I’m the husband. I say the rules. This is the way it’s gonna be.” She’s supposed to just shut up and accept her life. Her life is paid for and everything is taken care of, if she walks the line, but she loses it. She sees red, gets a knife and is like, “No way, I’ll kill you first!” Her response was very trailblazing, for that time.

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Bonnie takes this leap without thinking, for a second, about the fact that she’s just risked everything. Now she’s lost her home and her finances, so she’ll be on the street, literally, but then she starts to realize that she can claw her way back up to survive. All of us are very lucky, but there are people who are really, really struggling, day to day, just to get food on the table, so you can relate to that aspect. We can also relate to that bigger things that we all might have in common. Even though we might be able to get food on the table, there are the daily struggles of life that are so painful and I think that a woman watching might say, “I don’t know what’s on the other side of this door, but I’m willing to walk through it. I may never get what I want and need, but I can’t accept this anymore.” To still take that journey is such bravery. We don’t look at that a lot in life because most people don’t choose that path. Most people just keep going because it’s easier to just stay stuck, or you’re so stuck that you don’t even know. You’re like, “Well, this is good enough. With Bonnie, and all of the characters, this whole show is about the idea of, “Who am I now, and what am I gonna do? How do I go about finding it?”

There’s a beautiful moment with Mena’s character, where she’s having to like figure it out and she has this big revelation about what she’s capable of. She finds her power. Everybody is doing that. I think there’s so much inspiration in the show. This is a love letter to women. It’s a love letter to moms, single moms, and every kind of mom. There’s also this idea that we have to be perfect. We all struggle with that. Watching Bonnie is really refreshing because she’s sometimes a terrible mother, but she’s trying really hard. It’s so exciting, as an actress, to get to be impulsive and unpredictable, wild, sexual, and very clever. The way she speaks and carries herself is so entirely different than I do. It’s really inspiring. It was inspiring for me to play because I get to be in that world and I know that every woman, and probably every man, will find their struggle in this story and be able to relate to it because it’s so relatable.

Is it fun to get to live that way for a bit, even if it’s only through a character?

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SILVERSTONE: Oh, my god, it’s so much fun! I love her! Sometimes she’s more active than others, but when she’s really active, she’s on fire. She’s so powerful and fearless, but totally terrified, at the same time, and I love that. She’s a constant contradiction of herself. She’s very reserved, but incredibly sexual. She’s really, really passionate and fiercely protective of her children, and then a terrible mother, at times. She’s just doing the best she can, and she’s going for it. She’s a wild firecracker.

What's it like to have Kyle Richards and her family, as a resource?

SILVERSTONE: The only information I got from Kyle was when I asked, “Is your mommy still alive? Can I talk to her?” And she was like, “No, she’s not still alive.” And so, Kyle told me stories, in that first meeting, where I was talking about potentially doing this with them. Kyle told stories about her mom that were so exciting. We see some of that stuff in Season 1, and hopefully we’ll get to see more of it later. This is a mother who does things where you’re like, “What is she doing? How could you do that?!” But then, she’s doing those things with such commitment and passion. This is just such a fun show. The stories are so rich.

American Woman airs on Thursday nights on the Paramount Network.

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