Kerrigan’s prescient storyline is set against the backdrop of the corruptive influence of dark money in the upcoming 2018 U.S. mid-term elections. It centers on two characters: Erica (Anna Friel), a powerful and commanding finance director of a Republican super PAC, and Anna (Louisa Krause), a self-assured A-level GFE provider. Mutually beneficial blackmail leads to a complicated sexual relationship which takes Anna, normally controlling in her vocation, to new emotional territory.
Seimetz’s parallel, but unconnected story takes place in New Mexico and centers on Bria (Carmen Ejogo), a high-end escort who goes into a Witness Protection Program after she narcs on her abusive, kingpin-of-some-kind boyfriend. Taking her estranged stepdaughter into custody with her while trying to revive her career as a sex worker, Bria’s already-upended existence is further challenged when the U.S. Marshal put in charge of her (Tunde Adebimpe, actor and lead singer of TV On The Radio) threatens to pull support. Harmony Korine co-stars in a rather amusing supporting role.
Unconnected narratively, both stories play with notions of identity, power dynamics and control. Aesthetically, they’re very different too, though both play with ideas of dispassion and alienation. Kerrigan’s show is hyper-minimalist, voyeuristic, austere and even purposefully artificial. Seimetz’s series tackles isolation, confusion and self-discovery among many of the related themes.
“There’s a degree to it where I’m not trying to represent reality and I did so to underscore the performative nature of politics and personal relationships,” Kerrigan described. “We want to push things in our work and push boundaries, but in terms of filmmakers, experiment. I find episodic television becomes schematic and predictable. Ultimately if those shows continue to continue, they die a slow death, so I think the anthology format is a great way to counterbalance that.”
Seimetz says her story was heavily influenced by Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell To Earth” starring David Bowie, about an alien out of time who inadvertently arrives on the planet.
“I was treating each of the environments of New Mexico like she’s an alien entering these very strange landscapes,” she said. “Treating all the characters like they don’t belong.”
And of course, Kerrigan’s storyline features the benefit of being acutely politically relevant. “I wrote it in 2016 and rewrote it when Trump won the election,” he said. “Things were crazier than fiction at that point. But it wasn’t that different. I just pushed elements of corruption more into the foreground. I think what Trump has shown is that we operate in a society that’s dominated by money and corruption. I kept very open to shooting in case something happened too. I was constantly monitoring [politics] because I didn’t want it to get dated. I had to try and predict what might happen.”
The narrative freedom that Starz and Soderbergh offers cannot be understated. Seimetz describes a time when her boss came to visit. At lunch, Semeitz asked him if he wanted to come set. “No,” he said. “Cause if you’re a director and come to set you can’t help but make suggestions and taint the other director’s decisions.”
“That’s why the show functions in this unique perspective is that we didn’t have someone telling us what the show should be,” she said. And that’s what it’s like to be a director. “You’re on your own.”
“The Girlfriend Exeperience,” is a seven-week run with both thirty-minute episodes aired over the course of an hour. After episode one, that airs this Sunday on November 5th, Starz will put the entire series online to bingewatch if one so chooses.
“After episode one, that airs this Sunday on November 5th, Starz will put the entire series online to bingewatch if one so chooses.” – still accurate? Not seeing the episodes on the Starz app, Xfinity or Amazon, so this may be incorrect. They did do that for season 1, so the information may have been crossed. Great and insightful interview though!
Thank you! Did that turn out to be wrong? Was what they told me. Apologies if it was off.
Ya that’s why I was confused too, Lodge’s comment implied that all 14 would be available so that you could watch all of his in a row if you desired. When did the actual interview take place? My guess is that something changed on Starz’ end, deciding to air it in pairs rather than release the whole show. No worries