Actresses Melissa Fumero and Aja Naomi King talk to The Inside Reel about approach, psychology and characterization regarding their new NBC series: “Grosse Pointe Garden Society”.
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00:00You guys take on different characters and how, you know, because the psychology, especially
00:23in this is so specific with each of them, both for Bertie and Catherine.
00:28Can you talk about looking at each of them, what you love, what was a challenge to sort
00:33of accomplish, but how they all work together as a whole.
00:37Melissa, if you want to start and then Asia.
00:40Sure.
00:41Yeah, I was, I'll be honest, I was a little intimidated with Bertie.
00:46And when I first read the script and was auditioning for her, she just seemed very complex.
00:53I didn't want her to feel like a caricature because there's this mask she wears, this
00:59sort of persona that she puts on a bit when she's in public or with other people that
01:07is part of who she is in second nature, but it is also like a wall.
01:13And then there's like the real her underneath.
01:16And so, yeah, I did have to kind of figure that out and figure out her physicalities
01:23and how to sort of bob and weave between the two.
01:26But it's been so rewarding and so fun.
01:29She's such a fun character to play.
01:31And it's been wonderful to get to do, you know, be big and funny and a little ridiculous
01:38and then also show the like softer, vulnerable kind of lost side of her too.
01:44So for any actor, I think playing that duality is a dream.
01:47Oh, we rented out the Detroit Zoo for Addie's.
01:50The entire zoo?
01:51That's the only way you get the hands-on experience with the elephants.
01:53Remember when it was just like Nerf guns and pizza in a backyard?
01:56How does that get you any cred on TikTok?
01:58Every birthday, they just go bigger and bigger.
02:01Oh, what's Zach's theme this year?
02:02Outer space.
02:03Oh, so like renting out the planetarium?
02:05Well, knowing Melissa and Connor, they'll put the kids in orbit in some tech billionaire's
02:09rocket.
02:10Dakota's friend Isaac is doing that for his bar mitzvah.
02:12What?
02:13Yeah.
02:14Mazel.
02:15It's like the only reason I'm even there is to feel bad about myself.
02:17It's not the only reason.
02:19They already hired a guy to set up the bounce house.
02:22Your son, dummy.
02:23Oh.
02:24Anyone have a daisy grubber?
02:25Oh, here.
02:26Take mine.
02:27Haven't I taken enough from you?
02:28Always here for you, Alice.
02:29Nevermind.
02:30I love this character.
02:31I love Catherine.
02:32I was going to say, like, I feel like there's a rhythm to all the characters that I play
02:47and like, and her rhythm and timing has just been really interesting for me to discover
02:53like how she holds herself in the world, how she carries herself as a mother and a wife,
02:58but more as a woman who I feel like is realizing in the midst of this show just how stifled
03:03she's been in her life because she's put forth this image of perfection out in the world
03:10and it's suffocating her.
03:13And I feel like because of the friendships she's able to form at the garden club, she's
03:17able to learn how to be more vulnerable and more real with herself and yeah, it's been
03:23fun to really just dive in and investigate just the pressure of being a mom and living
03:28in this community where everyone seems so perfect and wanting to live up to that.
03:35But then also wanting to defy it at the same time and then just the relationship that forms
03:42between her and Bertie, I like to say that they become a bit of a power couple, which
03:47I really love about them and yeah, and just diving further into her origin story of why
03:55she is the way that she is and we have some phenomenal guest stars who come along the
03:59way to help tell that story that I wish I could tell people about, but I will very soon
04:04because I think that's coming up in this next episode if I'm right.
04:08I hope I'm right.
04:09Yeah.
04:10Right?
04:11Okay.
04:12Yeah.
04:13Yeah.
04:14These characters are all so fully fleshed out and real human beings that I think people
04:20can easily relate to and see themselves reflected in and that's what makes this show so like
04:26charged and exciting to watch.
04:30You think that's what your fight was about?
04:32Oh, you poor thing.
04:34He said I take him for granted.
04:37That's not what it was about, girl.
04:40But it's true.
04:43Brett didn't go buck wild on dating apps because you forgot to thank him for a ride to the
04:47airport.
04:48In the wise words of my great aunt Rose, you get over someone by getting under someone
04:53else.
04:54What?
04:55No, come on.
04:56Alice.
04:57Why didn't he say anything?
05:06You're married.
05:07Tia Rose also had a lot of thoughts on fidelity.
05:09And this all speaks to you, Melissa, for Birdie is it's about perspective and perception with
05:14these characters, how they're seeing, how they want to be seen.
05:18And that all goes into the physicality, as you said, Melissa, the, you know, the emotionality,
05:23but also the stakes that they feel, the tension that they feel.
05:26Can you talk about perspective and perception with these kinds of characters, both as the
05:30group, but also as the individual?
05:33Yes, I mean, I think if you were to look at the group of them, you would, especially when
05:38you're looking at all four characters together, it's you right there have the haves and the
05:43have nots, so to speak, with the representation of the have nots being with Ana Sofia and
05:49Ben's character, and then the haves being Melissa and myself.
05:53And just that idea of nothing is always as it seems, you know, because they have such
06:01disparate seeming lives on the outside, but they're so linked to one another because they
06:06are dealing with very similar tension in terms of how they want to be perceived by their
06:13families and friends and the world in terms of what they, who they aspire to be.
06:19You know, there's a lot of longing in these characters, longing for certain careers or
06:24certain relationships.
06:26And it's just, it's really beautiful the way you get to see all this human interactions
06:31with one another and then have this wild murder center of it entangling their lives.
06:40Oh God, I'm such an idiot.
06:48Oh.
06:53It's not the size of your stamen, it's how you use it.
06:58Carburetor.
07:01Why do you keep saying that?
07:03It's stuck in my head.
07:05It's so weird.
07:07It's just the carb part Brett's trying to find.
07:11Melissa, did you want to add anything to that or should I, I can let you go.
07:15Yeah.
07:16I mean, I don't think I could have said it any more perfectly than Asia just did.
07:19Yeah.
07:20It is, it is this sort of outside inside.
07:22I love the, there's, you know, the show is really visually beautiful, especially with
07:27the garden.
07:28And it's also this metaphor, I think, for the theme of the show of like all this beauty
07:33above the surface, but underneath there's dirt and there's rot and there's secrets.
07:39You know, there's some ugliness.
07:41And so the show really weaves that throughout its stories.
07:45And it's just, it's just brilliant.