Starz’sThree Womenfollows characters on a crash course to radically overturn their lives. Lina (Betty Gilpin,GLOW) is a decade into a passionless marriage when she embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming and transforms her life, while Sloane (DeWanda Wise,Jurassic World Dominion) enjoys her committed open marriage with Richard (Blair Underwood) until two sexy new strangers threaten their aspirational love story. Maggie (Gabrielle Creevy), meanwhile, weathers an intense storm after accusing her married English teacher (Jason Ralph) of an inappropriate relationship.
Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies)plays writer Gia Lombardi, who connects with all three women to tell their story even as she deals with her own grief. Showrunner Laura Eason adapted Lisa Taddeo’s novel of the same name, working closely with the original author to ensure the authenticity of the stories. While changes inevitably had to be made,Three Womenis a storytelling triumph and is nowavailable to stream on Starzin its entirety.
Three Women Intimacy Coordinator Claire Warden Addresses The Value Of Sex Scenes & Biggest Industry Misconceptions
Screen Rant interviews Claire Warden about establishing trust with the Three Women actors and the importance of each character’s sexual journey.
ScreenRantinterviewed Laura Eason to break down the events ofThree Women. The showrunner shared what she hopes women take away from it, now that the finale has been released, as well as how certain personal stories shaped the narrative. She also explained the importance of making sure the sex scenes were there to serve a purpose in terms of storytelling.
Laura Eason Hopes Three Women Helps Others Be Authentically Themselves
“It will encourage them to be a little more brave to share parts of themselves that they felt they needed to hide for various reasons.”
Screen Rant: What do you hope that women take away fromThree Women?
Laura Eason: I think all of our characters make the really bold choice to put themselves at the center of their story and prioritize going after what they want and what they desire. We find all of our characters, all of our three women, at the end of the story - four women actually, all in a better place, for having done that. For having pursued what they wanted, even though it was hard, even though it was challenging, even though there was pain along the way, as well as pleasure, they end in a better place.
I hope that message resonates for people. I also hope people have found things in the show that they really related to, that spoke to them, that make them feel less alone, and that also will encourage them to be a little more brave to share parts of themselves that they felt they needed to hide for various reasons. Because I think being able to be more authentically yourself does lead you to a better place, and that’s one of the things I really hope the show says to people.
It Was Important To Make The Author A Character In Three Women
Screen Rant: In the book, the author is not a character, obviously. Can you talk about the decision to bring in the character of Gia?
Laura Eason: It was a big conversation from the very earliest days. I was brought on to work with Lisa Taddeo as the creator, and I was the showrunner, and she had a notion early on when she was going to write the pilot, and I came on to supervise the writing of the first episode, before we knew that we were going to actually make the whole thing. It was a notion that she might be a character, not just because of the connective tissue of it, but one of the questions that I asked, and a lot of people ask, and that the show even references in the finale, is why these three women? Of all the women that you talk to, why these three? But also how these three, was my big question. How did you get to talk to them in this deep way?
As she began to tell her story of writing the book, which was an eight-year journey for her. I really saw how strongly Lisa’s story had its own arc that resonated against the other women, and that really had its own truth to tell. And so it became clear really early on that building the character of Gia, which is loosely based on Lisa, and includes very real things that happened to her, and some other things that we’re doing just in the show, that really became the spine of the of this season. And not just because she connected the three women, but also because it really had its own important details that we really wanted to share, including a really harrowing scene that happens in Episode Five, when she has a miscarriage.
That was a very ubiquitous experience that both Lisa and I have said publicly, both Lisa and I have experienced, but had never seen it depicted in a very deep and real way. A real experiential way. And it’s, I think, one of the hardest moments of the show, but really powerful. So it was those aspects and those details that the Gia character was able to bring to the story that just felt really essential and important.
Then it was big conversations. Okay, how are we telling our story? How does it fit with all the other story? When do we introduce her? When do we not introduce her? All of those things were just big conversations that Lisa and I, along with Tori Sampson, Chisa Hutchinson, two writers on staff, figured out in the writers room, but it was a big conversation. The structure of the show is very complex and complicated. It’s not super straightforward. We really went for it structurally. It’s very ambitious structurally. So it took a bit to figure out how it would all fit together.
Laura Eason On The Importance Of Bringing Her Experience To Screen In Three Women
“How am I this many years old, and I’ve lived as a woman in the world, and I’m in this moment, and I have no idea what is happening to me?”
Screen Rant: Speaking of episode 5’s miscarriage portrayal, can you talk about the importance of getting that scene right?
Laura Eason: Well, I’ll just speak for me personally. I was unprepared when it happened to me. I was not with my husband because I was traveling. I did not know that it was going to happen. I didn’t know it was so painful. I didn’t know about the bleeding. I didn’t know anything. It was the middle of the night, and I was alone, and I didn’t know what was happening, because every miscarried scene I’d ever seen was like a sad moment of realization. Cut to it’s over and she’s like, sadly touching her stomach, looking out at the rain through a window, and I was just like, what is happening to my body?
And no one says to you, you’re basically, it’s a mini version of giving birth. That’s what’s happening to your body. You can have the DNC. The one that I did was the natural, your body going through it. And so for me, I was like, how am I this many years old, and I’ve lived as a woman in the world, and I’m in this moment, and I have no idea what is happening to me. So it felt, to me, very important to show that experience for what it authentically really is.
And of course, with the caveat, everybody’s situation is unique and different. Women’s bodies are different. It’s going to be different for different people, but there is an aspect that is really scary, that’s really painful, that’s really, really sad. To be able to move through all of that and reflect that experience, because I think a lot of women, you say this thing and you don’t have the ability to point to something who hasn’t been through it and say, this is a version that resonates for me of what that experience was like. I feel hopefully, that women now can say this is more of what it feels like and is to live through, than sadly looking out the window.
It’s an experience that you move through and that you live with, and that lives in your body forever, and to really show that in a very real way was really important to us, and to honestly, to honor the experience, to honor this experience that women go through so frequently, because I don’t know your experience, but when I started talking to my friends, especially my friends that already had kids, and I was like, oh, had a miscarriage, two actually, but they were like, oh, yeah, me too.
For people, it can be very sad and heartbreaking, and I’ve been on a long fertility journey, so it was devastating. It’s hard for people to talk about, it is such a hard thing, and so for people to talk about it and be able to hold the experience together, I also think is really important. Which is something else I think the show is doing, is offering up joyful, sexy, surprising experiences as well as really hard, devastating things to move through, but to be able to point to them and say you’re not alone in this experience.
You’re not alone in those feelings. You’re not alone in that feeling that you don’t even want to share because you feel ashamed or sad or whatever. But we can hold it collectively in this way that can just have women feel less isolated. That’s really important.
The Intimate Scenes In Three Women Were A Huge Collaboration
“We’re trying to show a huge variety of intimate experiences that hold very different emotional content.”
Screen Rant: Speaking of sexy, can you talk about the collaboration between yourself, the actors, and the intimacy coordinator?
Laura Eason: It was a huge collaboration. I will say we had the most wonderful intimacy coordinator. Her name is Claire Warden, and she’s a huge leader in the field. She was the first intimacy coordinator on Broadway, so she is at the forefront. She comes to it through acting and fight choreography, so she really brings a tremendous amount of artistry. It’s not just about the safety, but it’s also really about what is the story we’re trying to tell in this particular scene? And because we’re trying to show a huge variety of intimate experiences that hold very different emotional content.
So one of the things we talked about a lot is not just, oh, this is a sex scene and let’s make it sexy. Okay, this is an intimate scene. This is a sex scene. But what is really happening? What is the emotional content? Actually? This is really a moment of betrayal that’s happening. So the temperature of the room feels different, because it’s clandestine and there’s secrets happening. Or this is going to be viewed, in retrospect, as the moment where this woman, reclaims herself? And although she’s having sex with this man, and he’s the object of her desire, she, in a way, is almost like having sex with herself because she’s rediscovering herself.
That emotional content is really different from the relationship between Maggie Wilkin and her teacher, which she will come to know was a trauma when she’s older, but in the moment was this very confusing sense of emotions, of feeling loved by him and drawn to him, but also not knowing on some level that this wasn’t good for her and all of the complexity of that relationship.
So all of them hold really different emotions, and even across characters, it changes. It’s like life. It’s not always the same. We can feel really different, not just experience to experience, but even within an experience, you can be super into it, and then for whatever reason, you get taken out of it. We wanted to capture all of that subtlety, because, again, so much of what we see is they move in, and they kiss, and then you cut to they’re under the sheets, and she’s got the sheet up like a halter top.
The show is about desire. So we, Lisa and I, were very committed to it being appropriately explicit to tell the truth of the story. So we got very detailed. We did storyboards of the intimacy scenes. The directors met with all of the actors. We would do rehearsals outside of shooting days, so the actors really knew what was going to happen. Everybody knew if there was any moment on set where they were uncomfortable, they didn’t want to do something, they wanted to talk, they needed to take a break. Claire was there every minute of all of those scenes to help support the actors, along with me as the showrunner and our directors, of course.
Claire curated the experience for each of the actors. So one of one of the actors said, I want you right there. I want you right by camera. I want you to have the robe so you’re my first point of contact when we’re done. Others said, I’m great. I’m really good. Why don’t you stay out with Laura at the monitor. We also had actors, in terms of the choreography, some said I want to know exactly every movement like it’s a dance. Others said, Hey, I know we need to hit A and B and C, but can we kind of freestyle a little bit in between, and as long as both the actors were comfortable with that, we did.
I think we took a lot of time and a lot of care so that when the actors got to set, they knew exactly what’s going to happen within parameters they were comfortable with, knowing that, if for any reason that day, it wasn’t the right thing for them, we were all there to advocate and support them in that. It felt very safe, but also very creatively thorough and detailed and explored in a really rich way.
I think it ended up, from what the actors told me, it ended up creating an atmosphere where they felt really free to play, and that those days on set, which in the past had in some situations just not been fun or not been great, were really good days on set. Days that that felt really creatively fulfilling. I think it shows when you watch the intimacy scenes. I think you feel all of that when you’re watching and then the final thing I’ll say about it is, it’s very much from the woman’s point of view. Not just her vision, like what she’s seeing, which means there’s a lot of male objectification in the relationships that are male-female, but we’re really with her emotionally.
So the way where the camera is and how the camera is capturing her expression, her sensibilities, and by her, I mean all of our women. We really worked with our directors and our DPS, all of which were women, I will say. All female directors, all female DPs, to really get inside the emotional experience. I was watching another show recently, and it was really interesting to me, having been so focused on the way we do intimacy in Three Women, it’s a male-female scene, and the man is almost not there. You don’t see him at all. It’s all on her. And it’s all on her in this objectifying way, just in terms of what is being captured in the camera placement.
We worked really hard to have that feel much more inside the experience, so that you’re experiencing what our characters are experiencing as opposed to watching them experiencing it. The hope is you feel like you’re experiencing it with them.
Laura Eason Hopes Three Women Opens The Audience’s Eyes To Other Experiences
“They feel like they’re being able to walk in their shoes and get to know someone like that better.”
Screen Rant: It always feels very authentic to the story that is being told.
Laura Eason: It’s always in service to the story. And the characters are always different. There’s something happens in each intimacy scene that transforms the character in some way that leads them to the next moment in their journey. But I would say, one of the things that’s really been exciting and interesting to me is the different characters that people most strongly relate to, and how some lean into some or others, but that even if it’s characters that someone isn’t immediately attached to them.
Can’t immediately find a really strong way in, they feel like they’re being able to walk in their shoes and get to know someone like that better, and that also feels really important to be able to open people’s perspectives of, I haven’t had that experience, or that woman isn’t exactly like me, but wow, I’m really happy to have been in those rooms and to have seen her experience, and hopefully have more empathy for someone who’s gone through the journey that that particular woman has gone through.
We dare to make them full human beings, and all of their complexity. There are things like, I love that choice she made, but I don’t love that other one quite as much, but she still gets to be a full human in her experience. And that’s great. That’s how we are as people. We’re not going to, and we don’t condemn them for, being human beings who sometimes make mistakes, who sometimes make the wrong choice, and then also may make a better choice the next time.
We’re holding all of it in the show. I think, for women, there can be a lot of self-criticism, there can be a lot of perfectionism. So to be able to say it’s okay, you get to be a person. You can make mistakes. You can make some bad choices, and then you can make some better ones and learn from that experience. I think that’s really important for women to be able to see too, and to also hold space for other women to do that as well.
A Lot Of Thought Went Into Which Characters Would Be In Which Episodes
“We would get those moments of convergence when all three of them were having a very similar experience that really echoed against each other in a way that was really helpful and illuminating.”
Screen Rant: How did you decide when an episode would be focused on one character versus multiple characters?
Laura Eason: Having done a lot of television with multiple stories that you weave together for an episode, a lot of times, when you’re building those episodes, you’re building around an event that everyone goes to. Which is why wedding episodes are so popular, because everyone’s in the room, fantastic for us. Or you are doing that thematically. One of our concerns was to hold on to the complexity that I’m talking about with each of the individual characters that live in three different places and have three very different lives that start to make every episode a woven episode.
Meaning all three or four of the women’s stories together are built around a theme or a big idea. We had the concern that that was going to start to torque their stories. To conform to the structure, as opposed to the structure serving the stories. So we found these key moments over this season, which is the pilot episode, Episode Six, and the finale, where all of the stories are very woven, and wanted to do the earlier part of the season with what we called the siloed episodes.
We would get those moments of convergence when all three of them were having a very similar experience that really echoed against each other in a way that was really helpful and illuminating, and then still have these siloed episodes where we were allowed to just deep dive into that character and serve just that story and that tone and that mood and that place. It gets a little more mixed up as the story progresses towards the back half of the season, but in an organic way, because Gia is more present, and she’s bringing them together.
But that was really the reason to have both the woven episodes and these singular episodes, honestly, just because it felt like the very best way to tell the story we wanted to tell and to honor the complexity of each of the women.
More About Three Women (2024)
“Three Women” finds three women on a crash course to radically overturn their lives. Lina (Betty Gilpin), a homemaker in suburban Indiana, is a decade into a passionless marriage when she embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming and transforms her life. Sloane (DeWanda Wise), a glamorous entrepreneur in the Northeast, has a committed open marriage with Richard (Blair Underwood), until two sexy new strangers threaten their aspirational love story.
Maggie (Gabrielle Creevy), a student in North Dakota, weathers an intense storm after accusing her married English teacher (Jason Ralph) of an inappropriate relationship. Gia (Shailene Woodley), a writer grieving the loss of her family, persuades each of these three spectacular “ordinary” women to tell her their stories, and her relationships with them change the course of her life forever.
Three Women
Cast
“Three Women” follows the intertwined lives of Sloane, Lina, and Maggie, each facing unique challenges in their personal and romantic lives. Sloane, a successful businesswoman, explores the boundaries of her open marriage. Lina, stuck in a passionless marriage, finds herself in a transformative affair. Maggie, a young student, navigates the repercussions of a controversial relationship with her teacher.
