Adapted from JP Delaney’s best-selling novel, the HBO Max limited series The Girl Before follows Jane (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) as she moves into what appears to be the house of her dreams, high-tech and minimalist in nature, designed by an architect who has a very clear set of rules that the occupants must follow, with no exceptions. But as Jane learns about Emma (Jessica Plummer), who not only lived in the house three years prior to her arrival but to whom she also bares an eerie resemblance, she begins to question what Edward’s (David Oyelowo) true motives for the house and for her really are.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Oyelowo, Mbatha-Raw, Plummer and Ben Hardy (who plays Simon, Emma’s partner when they move into the house) talked about why they were interested in exploring this story, how they felt about their characters, exploring the different relationships, and the experience of working in the house. Mbatha-Raw also talked about how much information she’s made aware of as part of the MCU, and Oyelowo talked about when he might direct again.
Collider: There’s so much to play within this, with the individual journey for each character, with the character relationships, with the personal trauma, and just unraveling all of these mysterious elements of the story. What most appealed to you, as an actor? What were you most interested in exploring?
GUGU MBATHA-RAW: For me, personally, I loved the fact that there were two female leads. That, to me, was fascinating, the idea of how it went back and forth in time between Emma and Jane, and both roles were equally complex and nuanced. And for Jane, to explore for me, I was really interested when (director) Lisa Brühlmann mentioned that she wanted to explore the idea of control. That weaves through the whole show and every character. For Jane, it’s about the restraint of her emotional life and controlling her grief. I’m quite an exuberant person at times, so to be able to plug into that challenge of Jane, who is very self-contained and has had this heavy trauma in her life, and how she processes that through this journey with the house and her relationship with Edward, I just thought there was a lot to chew on, emotionally and psychologically and visually, with the wonderful aesthetic of the house and the show itself.
DAVID OYELOWO: For me, it was just a character, the likes of which I haven’t been afforded, really. He’s someone who presented the challenge of, can you make him someone whereby you understand why these women are drawn to him, but you understand why it took three years for another tenant to come along, after the initial tenant? There was clearly something questionable about him and the house, and that’s a tricky needle to thread. I was also really drawn to the idea of playing out to separate relationships in two separate timelines whilst also showing that thing that I actually believe we all have. You do take people to the same restaurant because you really like that restaurant, or maybe you use some of the same pickup lines. When you see them juxtaposed with each other, it’s super creepy, but there was something fascinating about seeing that through this character. Getting to work with Gugu, who is someone I deeply love, as a friend and as an artist, was attractive to me. And then, the scripts were just so good. I read a lot of scripts, and this was easily one of the best set of scripts I’ve read in a long, long time.
Jessica and Ben, how did you guys get involved with this? Did you go through an audition process for these roles? How much did they tell you and what did you have to go on?
BEN HARDY: I auditioned and I think there were two episodes to read. I did a Wikipedia search because I didn’t have time to read book, but I wanted to learn as much about Simon as I could about. So, I auditioned, and luckily I got the part. It was just something that I was very fortunate to get. I was very thankful to be a part of it and to get the part. It’s a brilliant thriller. I thought that, as soon as I read the novel afterwards as well, and then reading the scripts. It was just a great show to be a part of.
JESSICA PLUMMER: For me, the audition came through by my agent with the fact that Gugu was playing Jane and that they were looking for somebody that looks similar to her. I remember getting a picture of her from Google, putting it next to my face and thinking, “I’ve got this. I’ve got this in the bag.” You know, we don’t actually look that alike. We did a photo shoot together recently, with our faces right next to each other, without the curly hair, and we’re not that similar. But when we were in character, there were so many times I would catch her on set and be like, “Oh my God, this feels really weird because that is me. I’m looking at myself right now.” Even on Gugu’s birthday, people were saying happy birthday to me. That’s how much we looked alike. So, I had the audition over Zoom. We were in our third lockdown, at the time, in the UK. It was a typical Zoom audition. Everything that could have possibly went wrong, went wrong – the connection, the doorbell ringing, my child falling off of the trampoline and screaming. Everything went wrong. But I remember getting the phone call from my agent and it was late. It was nine o’clock because it was working hours in America. He called me and I literally screamed my whole house awake. I was so excited. It wasn’t until we started shooting that we all met everybody face to face because the read-through was on Zoom.
Gugu and David, how did you guys find the experience of having each other there, as scene partners? This is such a weird dynamic because it’s so emotional, but they also can’t express that emotion with each other. Were there times when you felt you really needed to rely on the other person?
MBATHA-RAW: For me, having David to work with was just such a gift. Coming, as we were, into this from the pandemic, all of our rehearsals and read-throughs were over Zoom. And then, you get to set and you’re meeting people in costume fittings with a mask on. Knowing that I had a shorthand with David, with such an emotionally complex character, and with everything else going on in the world and all the stresses of strains of starting an intense job, just made me exhale and know that I had a strong trust and an amazingly dynamic scene partner. I knew we would be able to really just play the ping-pong of the scenes. Having worked together before, especially in the circumstances of the pandemic, that was huge for me, with a role like this.
OYELOWO: I couldn’t agree more. We had scenes that, to be perfectly frank, were more intimate than scenes I’ve done in other projects I’ve been a part of. That also requires an immense amount of trust, to be able to do those in a way where you feel safe. We’ve all been in circumstances with filmmaking that are not ideal. That is a part of our business that is getting a lot more attention, but a lot of it is built on trust. Especially if you’re playing a relationship that is not just about being in love, but is also about dysfunction, you really want a higher level of trust because that’s when you can push it. We could talk about stuff between takes and when we were away from the set. We had copious amounts of conversations over the phone. I know Gugu, as a person. We’ve done a few projects together in the past, so I have a sense of her threshold, which is very high for pushing the boundaries, which was really wonderful for me.
Ben, with the way this all plays out, how did you feel about your character? How did you work on figuring out the layers of him that you wanted to play?
HARDY: I like to look at the whole scope of it. I wanted to think, how can someone start here and end up here? And there’s a lot of backstory work involved, to see where Simon is when we actually first meet him. He’s already very obsessive, and Emma is his obsession. It was tricky because I wanted to play someone who I could actually get on board with and find a logic to his actions. For me, it was all about working out what happened in those three years, after Emma’s death and then pursuing Jane. For an actor, it was such a rewarding experience. I charted his whole life and worked it all out. I spoke to a therapist as well, just to explain the whole situation of the story and say, “What do you think this guy is suffering with?” When you say suffering, that’s some psycho-dynamic therapy talk, but I found that really interesting. I don’t necessarily think he is a psychopath, personally, but it’s hard because I’m looking at it all through this jaded lens because I wanna be on board with him. Months later, when I watched it and saw the whole thing consecutively, episode after episode, I said, “Oh, he was really in the wrong there. That’s not what should have happened.” But at the time, I had to have the logic in my head for what Simon was doing. In the moment, the two options, in terms of Emma, were to either let her go away with this other man, and the pain that I will feel because of my own past experiences will be so unbearable that it’s essentially the end of my life, or I can finish this situation here because she’d be better dead to me than she would be alive. Now, I sound like a psychopath, but that’s the psyche you have to explore and find some kind of logic in, even if it seems rather illogical from the same perspective.
Jessica, what was it like for you to explore these two relationships, with Simon and Edward? Did you see them both as toxic? Do you feel like she maybe should have just been on her own to try to figure her own mess out?
PLUMMER: I desperately wish Emma just took a break from the dating world, I really do. Her relationship with Simon and choosing to end it was more than just wanting to not be in a relationship with Simon. For her, Simon represented and reminded her so much of the other things that had happened to her because of the connections that he has to those things. As much as she tried to move forward with him into 1 Folgate Street and try to forgive him, she needed to cut everything loose and just start over again. But then, there’s this guy, and he is secure and direct, and knows what he wants, and has provided this house of safety for her. She’s immediately drawn to Edward and how he makes her feel. I definitely feel like she could have left it a bit longer than a few days, but that’s just Emma. I feel like she probably has a habit of doing that with relationships, back to back, out with one and in with another. The driving force throughout all of these decisions was just wanting to heal herself and wanting to not face the trauma, but just get rid of it.
We hear about how a location and setting can be another character in a story, but so much of this story centers around and in this house, and it’s such a major character in the show. What was it like to actually be there? How did it feel when you were working in it?
MBATHA-RAW: Walking onto the set for the first time, it really did take my breath away, in the same way that it does in the show. We’d been visualizing it and there’s so much mystery around Folgate Street, so to actually be inside that space was very powerful and really affects you, as an actor. One of my favorite scenes that I have in the house, just by myself, is when Jane is moving and dancing in the house, and the music Housekeeper comes on. The idea of how a space can work on your subconscious is really, really fascinating. And the of fun things, technologically about the house were really cool to play with, in terms of Housekeeper and how much it’s watching and observing its inhabitants.
OYELOWO: The house was a good 20 to 30% of my character. I walked in there and I was like, “Okay, this is gonna do a lot of heavy lifting for me.” Just in terms of who he is, why he is the way he is, and the effect he’s having on these women, you see that moment that Gugu was just describing, of the house beginning to draw her in and her interaction with the house. That is very akin to the effect Edward is having. And then, there are points where the house starts to act out and almost feel like it’s trying to spit you out. You see that it might my character, as well. It’s an overused phrase, but especially under circumstances like this, the house is a character and the location is a character, for sure.
PLUMMER: It felt very cold because it was freezing. It was a set that was made and they did such an incredible job. It was breathtaking to work in. I became so attached to it that when I came back, after we had finished shooting in the house and they had half knocked it down, I cried. I felt like I had lost one of my cast members and they were no longer with us. Similarly, for my character, it was this place of safety and it felt familiar. We shot the majority of our scenes in that house, so I became incredibly attached to it.
HARDY: It was, a hundred percent, a character in itself and it was bloody freezing. It was also so expansive and open that you almost felt agoraphobic in there. It was really quite powerful. We’d go in there at 7am, just as the sun was rising, and we wouldn’t come out and see the light of day until 7pm. You just felt like you were sucked into this world, and it really informed the show and all of us, and definitely myself, in the portrayals of our characters.
Gugu, you recently confirmed that you would be returning for the second season of Loki. Once you’re part of the secret club of the MCU, do they give you more information? Did you know that you could be returning for another season? Do you get told anything about your character, or do you just hope they remember you when they’re ready to send the next script?
MBATHA-RAW: I do know the vague plan, not that I can divulge anything today.
But they tell you enough that you’re not completely in the dark then?
MBATHA-RAW: Yes.
David, I really enjoyed The Water Man. Are you hoping to direct again soon? Are you always thinking about what the next project could be, in that sense, or are you taking your time in figuring that out?
OYELOWO: I am. A bit like with The Girl Before, I’m drawn to the thing that I’m not able to stop thinking about. That was the case when I came across The Water Man and when I came across The Girl Before. You figure out how you are going to insert yourself into it because you want it. It’s like falling in love. You go, “Okay, I now can’t see my future without this thing or this person in it.” That’s the case for me, when it comes to directing. That next thing hasn’t presented itself, but I will know it when it comes my way because I won’t be able to stop think about it. It’s demand my attention, in much the same way that this did.
The Girl Before is available to stream at HBO Max.