The series comes from 'Desperate Housewives' creator Marc Cherry & centers on three women in different eras who experience infidelity.
Infidelity, murder, housewives and socialites -- Marc Cherry, who previously brought us Desperate Housewives and Devious Maids -- is back with a juicy new show, and it’s pushing stars like Ginnifer Goodwin and Lucy Liu to new and sometimes “scary” limits.
Called Why Women Kill, the upcoming CBS All Access series centers on three women in different eras who experience infidelity -- a ‘60s housewife, an ‘80s socialite and a lawyer in 2018. Goodwin and Sam Jaegar portray the ‘60s couple, Lucy Liu and Jack Davenport represent the ‘80s and Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Reid Scott explore a throuple relationship in 2018.
Dishing on the darkly comedic drama at the 2019 Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, California, on Thursday, Goodwin shared that although the role shared some similarities to her Big Love character, it was taking her to darker places than ever before as an actress.
“I’m drawn to excellently-written material and in that way, I can draw comparisons between Big Love and Why Women Kill, and I do see similarities in the character, but the thrill for me is that I’ve been challenged beyond my boundaries,” Goodwin explained. “I’ve been given an opportunity to go to places emotionally and psychologically that I haven’t been before. Some of those places are really dark, so thank god I’m in the 1960s and can take it off at the end of the day like my girdle!”
Meanwhile, Liu, 50, discussed her love for doing comedy and how making people laugh is “probably one of the most powerful things you can do.” She signed onto the series thanks to a letter from Cherry, who had been toying with the idea for the series for many years.
“It was wonderful opportunity to work with Marc Cherry, who I met a long time ago at the Emmys,” said Liu, who previously starred in Elementary. “He sent me a wonderful letter saying he’d always wanted to work with me and he’d created the perfect role. What I love about Simone is the fact that there’s the overindulgent lifestyle she lives and she doesn’t make excuses for how she behaves, and yet there’s something dramatic about how she’s living the life. And there’s still the comedic value of the audience seeing that in an entertaining way.”
The cast still have the final three of the 10 episodes to shoot, with Goodwin sharing that things will get gnarly as her character faces experiences she's thankful she will never have to go through in real life.
Luckily, the 41-year-old actress, who is married to her former Once Upon a Time co-star, Josh Dallas, has the couple’s two young boys (Oliver, five, and Hugo, three) to come home to after such scenes.
“They are three and five -- we are at the most delicious stages,” she gushed to reporters, following the panel. “They make me belly laugh every day. At every age, I’m like, ‘This is my favorite age,’ then I’m like, ‘No, this is my favorite age.’ But right now, they definitely are my favorite age because they’re such individuals and have so much to offer.”
Indeed, Goodwin’s little boy sounds like quite a little comedian -- even if it’s unintentional! Goodwin revealed that after bringing her kids to work to observe her in action, weeks later all the talk of infidelity on-set appeared to have left a mark on young Oliver.
“Weeks go by then my eldest starts walking around apparently saying to people, ‘All men are capable of infidelity,’ -- repeatedly,” Goodwin laughed. “Thank god he doesn’t know what it means, but he knows the reaction he was getting from adults was terrifying. I’ve got to pick some better days to bring my kids to work!”
See more on Goodwin and Liu below.
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