How Connie Britton played two characters in Hulu's mystery series 'Phony'
When Sonny wakes up in the hospital after a car accident, he discovers his mom appears to have been replaced by an imposter.
A car accident. An imposter. A mystery.
That's what's in store for viewers of Hulu's new coming-of-age series "Phony."
When Sonny wakes up in the hospital after a car accident, he finds that his mom appears to have been replaced by an imposter.
"Phony" stars Sam Nivola as Sonny. Nivola landed his breakout role as Lochlan Ratliff in Season 3 of "The White Lotus." Connie Britton, a Season 1 alum of the same series, plays both "versions" of Sonny's mom. Britton is also an executive producer. Rounding out the cast are Grace Brennan, Maliq Johnson, Colter Lee, Meera Syal and Mahaela Park.
Britton told On The Red Carpet's Rocsi Diaz that playing the two mom roles was a welcomed challenge.
"It was hard for me to wrap my brain around it, like, you know?" she said. "I can't resist it. I wanna like, try to do that thing that feels a little outside the box and a little nerve-wracking."
At the red carpet premiere of the series, Britton walked us through both the physical and performance transformations she undertook for the role.
"There was the physical aspect of it. It was a combination of doing things with makeup, and they also like, very... Artistically, there were like, almost painted-on like VFX additions, because it was such a subtle, it had to be such a subtle look," she said. "Of course, it was just that, again, very subtle transition to the, 'is she or isn't she the other character?' It was all about nuance, which was really fun."
Creator Nick Paley ("Marcel the Shell with Shoes On"), who wrote, directed, executive produced and even co-edited the first episode, reveals he found inspiration for the series at a young age.
"When I was in first grade, I was terrified of losing my mom. Like, I was obsessed with it," he said. "Like, when she would drop me off, I would be like, 'you're gonna take the back roads.' Like, 'you got your seatbelt on?' Like, I was so obsessed that something was gonna happen to her. And around this time, I found out that my mom had a twin. I did not know that. And it wasn't an identical twin. It was a non-identical twin, which, it was a new idea to me. And so, the idea of this like, possibility of losing my mom, my mom having a twin. I'm sure, I never consciously thought of that when I started writing this thing, but I'm that was part of it."
In the series, Sonny and his mom share a tradition of telling each other "I love you" through a series of arm squeezes. When Sonny tells his "imposter" mom that he loves her through their secret code and she doesn't do it back, his suspicions are confirmed.
Paley revealed the writers got this idea from executive producer Sarah Esberg. "Her husband does that with his mom," he explained. "We were looking for a detail. I really wanted a way, something that only they would know, that was like a mini cultural thing between them. And Sarah Esburg said, 'you know, my husband has this thing with his mom.' And it was immediately just like, 'oh, that's so visual and simple and sweet and quiet.' And I just thought, 'if we can make that final moment in the pilot that means so much, so small, that would balance the specialness of the tones of the show."
Funnily enough, Nivola shares the same tradition with his grandma.
"I actually do that with my grandma," he said.
"You do?" said Britton.
"Weirdly, and I think it's like, I think it's actually a kind of common thing that people do, but that everyone thinks they came up with, which I think is a great metaphor for what's going on."
Lee, who plays Weldon, a newbie at school who immediately latches onto Sonny's theories, told us the cast's bond is years in the making.
"We had already filmed the pilot two years before we filmed the main season, and so we already had that kind of relationship and we just really hit it off from the start."
"Phony" premieres with two episodes Oct. 20 on Hulu, with new episodes weekly. When it comes to weekly viewing, Nivola said, "it's so fun when things come out every week. It's, there's so few like, social things that people watch anymore."
Britton said the mystery each week will be fun for the audience to figure out.
"You don't know what is happening, necessarily. There's this mystery element and so there's so much that is so immediate and enjoyable about the show, but then give yourself a little week to figure it out. Try to figure out if you can."
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Hulu and this ABC station.
