TV Fanatic: Moira has seemed so at peace with the decisions she’s made. Is that true in her heart or is that more of a front than she’s let on?
Susanna Thompson: I think that to a great extent there is a liberating quality about coming forward in the end of the season one and attempting in a very big, large way to take responsibility and to say ‘I don’t cross this line anymore’ and now, while she’s in prison, she can be more present with herself, with her family.
She still has her daughter and her son and I think being so isolated from the world as she knew it makes those moments with her children even more heightened and even more pleasurable. Marc [Guggenheim, Exec Producer] and I were chatting about this but anyone coming forward and saying ‘I’m going to be honest, I’m going to stop the lies,’ has to also be aware that along the way there were many skeletons in the closet and at what point do you share all of them or do they get revealed or do they ever.
A great burden has been lifted but she still is impacted by the reality of what actually did happen and that holds its own gravity and its own weight and its own responsibility so I do believe there’s still a tremendous amount of guilt and that she’s subjected her family to her journey basically.
TVF: We saw this a lot in season one where Moira knew a lot more than we realized that she knew. Do you think she’s still in that position?
ST: It’s a great question and I asked it all last season. I have a feeling, because I asked the question, I weave it into the pattern of who Moira is. Whether the writers weave it in or not I’m not sure. I do believe in many ways that women are very intuitive. That women know more then men give them credit for. I’m sorry to say that to a man but I do believe that women really do have bigger fields of intuition then men. So I naturally build that into female characters.
I think it would be juicy if that were true. You know, at the end of the pilot, I always go back to the pilot, she was much more than I ever thought she was. So I like that she is more resourceful than maybe I even think she is. I do think she does have a pulse on her life regardless of whether she’s in prison or not and while she is here I think she does have resources. They may not be revealed to us as an audience but I certainly build them into this billionaire woman.
TVF: In the last episode, we saw that Moira brought Roy to prison so she could talk to him a little bit and she was instrumental about getting them back together, Thea and Roy.
ST: Isn’t that sweet? Isn’t it interesting though when she's in the middle of her whole life she has so many balls that she’s juggling. Here she’s cut off and everything can be kind of spotlighted just for what it is. So her daughter comes to visit, she’s expecting a connection and the daughter’s not quite there, and she notices it immediately. There are no distractions so she can pick up on it even more. Her maternal instincts are actually given more room to cultivate actually because she did live in the bigger society world and now it’s much smaller and much more intimate when she comes one on one with her children.
So to pick up on her daughter’s energy here is much easier than say in her home when she was juggling Walter at Queen Consolidated and Oliver being found and all these different secrets that she was trying to hide. Those are not there right now. It’s all been stripped away. I think it’s an easier arena in which to pick up the tiniest little nuances and vibrations. I think now she’s also trying to be the mother that she maybe couldn’t be or didn’t have experience to be.
Read full interview at TV Fanatic
Susanna Thompson: I think that to a great extent there is a liberating quality about coming forward in the end of the season one and attempting in a very big, large way to take responsibility and to say ‘I don’t cross this line anymore’ and now, while she’s in prison, she can be more present with herself, with her family.
She still has her daughter and her son and I think being so isolated from the world as she knew it makes those moments with her children even more heightened and even more pleasurable. Marc [Guggenheim, Exec Producer] and I were chatting about this but anyone coming forward and saying ‘I’m going to be honest, I’m going to stop the lies,’ has to also be aware that along the way there were many skeletons in the closet and at what point do you share all of them or do they get revealed or do they ever.
A great burden has been lifted but she still is impacted by the reality of what actually did happen and that holds its own gravity and its own weight and its own responsibility so I do believe there’s still a tremendous amount of guilt and that she’s subjected her family to her journey basically.
TVF: We saw this a lot in season one where Moira knew a lot more than we realized that she knew. Do you think she’s still in that position?
ST: It’s a great question and I asked it all last season. I have a feeling, because I asked the question, I weave it into the pattern of who Moira is. Whether the writers weave it in or not I’m not sure. I do believe in many ways that women are very intuitive. That women know more then men give them credit for. I’m sorry to say that to a man but I do believe that women really do have bigger fields of intuition then men. So I naturally build that into female characters.
I think it would be juicy if that were true. You know, at the end of the pilot, I always go back to the pilot, she was much more than I ever thought she was. So I like that she is more resourceful than maybe I even think she is. I do think she does have a pulse on her life regardless of whether she’s in prison or not and while she is here I think she does have resources. They may not be revealed to us as an audience but I certainly build them into this billionaire woman.
TVF: In the last episode, we saw that Moira brought Roy to prison so she could talk to him a little bit and she was instrumental about getting them back together, Thea and Roy.
ST: Isn’t that sweet? Isn’t it interesting though when she's in the middle of her whole life she has so many balls that she’s juggling. Here she’s cut off and everything can be kind of spotlighted just for what it is. So her daughter comes to visit, she’s expecting a connection and the daughter’s not quite there, and she notices it immediately. There are no distractions so she can pick up on it even more. Her maternal instincts are actually given more room to cultivate actually because she did live in the bigger society world and now it’s much smaller and much more intimate when she comes one on one with her children.
So to pick up on her daughter’s energy here is much easier than say in her home when she was juggling Walter at Queen Consolidated and Oliver being found and all these different secrets that she was trying to hide. Those are not there right now. It’s all been stripped away. I think it’s an easier arena in which to pick up the tiniest little nuances and vibrations. I think now she’s also trying to be the mother that she maybe couldn’t be or didn’t have experience to be.
Read full interview at TV Fanatic
