The Toxic Relationships and Ensemble Cast of Hulu’s Tell Me Lies

We were joined by the Tell Me Lies cast and EP/showrunner/writer Meaghan Oppenheimer to talk about how the structure of the show allowed them to dive into each character separately to find what everyone has to hide. During the discussion, they emphasized aspects of control in their toxic relationships. Meaghan specifically talked about how the hardest part about structure is juggling so many characters as she arced out the season by each person’s emotional beats and relationships rather than by plot points.

For lead Grace Van Patten, her character was about Stephen overcoming her emotional wall and past trauma, slowly chipping away to the point where she no longer has control of her emotions. She wanted to build their initial meeting to have an element of danger and downfall. Her favorite movies about toxic relationships, like Blue valentine and Urban Cowboy were movies where there are parts where audiences root for them and parts where you tell them to run.

As her foil, Jackson White described his character as someone who externalizes everything. He noted that by projects onto his friend group, Stephen is able to manipulates people around him. Both leads emphasized that the two characters meet each other at a perfect time, one while she was closed off, him doing the same but externally, to a point where they complemented each other.

Watch the full conversation below.

Q&A on the Hulu seres Tell Me Lies with cast Grace Van Patten, Jackson White, Sonia Mena, Catherine Missal, Alicia Crowder, Branden Cook, Benjamin Wadsworth, Spencer House, and executive producer & showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer.

The story of a young woman's obsession with a man who is good at being charming.