

MAKING MARY | Brenneman’s character’s huge loss “becomes a catalyst for reinvention,” Warner previews. There is definitely stuff that we will never get to unless she decides to share it with us.” “She really spoke to me as someone who had the capacity for a hugely other life, a capacity for secrets that were locked to herself, in a way… She has this extraordinary humanity, this subtle strength.

“What Lily brings to you is restraint,” the EP says. “If anyone is going to shepherd this, it’s going to be her.”ĮNLISTING EMMA | After Rabe turned in what Warner calls “an extraordinary read,” the American Horror Story alum was cast as Emma/Karen. “She’s known for a certain kind of female-driven mystery thriller,” Brenneman notes. She credits executive producer Bruna Papandrea - who also had a hand in The Undoing and Big Little Lies - with helping secure a new home for the series. But this is a completed, 10-episode thing,” Brenneman says. “This was very unique in my experience, because certainly I’ve had pilots not picked up, or movies that have gone straight to streaming or video.
#Tell me your secrets cast series#
The series eventually would not go forward at TNT, despite all episodes having been filmed, but Amazon picked it up a few months later. THE WAIT | Tell Me Your Secrets was originally greenlit as a pilot at TNT in 2017 and ordered to series at the cable network the following year. “These characters did sort of drive themselves, and this is a show driven by women and really revolving around women and society’s judgment of them and these feminine ideals.” THE APPROACH | Though women in peril is certainly one of Tell Me Your Secrets‘ throughlines, Warner says she “almost didn’t think gender” when writing the story. Tell Me Your Secrets SEason 1 Amy Brenneman Interview THE CAST | In addition to Rabe, Brenneman and Linklater, Tell Me Your Secrets‘ cast also includes Enrique Murciano ( Without a Trace) as Emma’s counselor, Pete Elliot Fletcher ( The Fosters) as Mary’s son, Jake Charles Esten ( Nashville) as Mary’s husband, Saul Emyri Crutchfield ( Fargo) as Emma’s new friend, Jess and Richard Thomas ( The Waltons, The Americans) as Bodie, the unofficial mayor of the town where Emma lands. And while we don’t want to give away too much ahead of time (seriously, there’s a big ol’ twist we did NOT see coming), we did chat with Warner and Brenneman to glean some nuggets you need to know before you watch. The dark drama’s 10-episode first season drops in its entirety on the streaming service Friday. “She’s almost as vilified as the man she loved.” “I love the idea of a woman forced into Witness Protection because of, essentially, the public’s reaction to her,” Warner adds.

Emma, who went by “Karen” before the Feds changed her name and relocated her to Louisiana, is starting over and grappling with the horror that she might have aided and abetted - or even maybe committed? - such a heinous act. We enter the story years after Mary’s daughter, Theresa, disappears. “I love the idea of: Can you have complete intimacy without complete knowledge?” “I was always really fascinated by relationships where you can love someone but not know these huge truths about them, and our capacity for secrets,” series creator and executive producer Harriet Warner ( Call the Midwife) tells TVLine.
#Tell me your secrets cast serial#
There’s John ( The New Adventures of Old Christine‘s Hamish Linklater), a serial predator who takes a job that capitalizes on his criminal past.Īnd then there’s Emma ( The Undoing‘s Lily Rabe), the former girlfriend of the serial killer who might have murdered Mary’s daughter - only, thanks to blocked memories, Emma can’t remember much about whether or not that actually happened.

There’s Mary, played by The Leftovers‘ Amy Brenneman, a traumatized mom who desperately wants to know the whereabouts of her long-missing daughter. Tell Me Your Secrets isn’t just the title for Amazon’s latest thriller: It’s also amantra that’s likely running through the minds of all of the series’ major characters throughout Season 1.
