"The story line was done in a way that's organic and was doled out very slowly in little bites. We think that's authentic for this character, that her feelings are very deeply buried or she never felt them"
About this Quote
“Organic” is Hollywood’s favorite alibi: a way to claim inevitability while admitting there was craft, restraint, and a room full of decisions. Laura Innes is talking like an actor who understands that character isn’t revealed by confession, it’s revealed by pressure. The “very slowly in little bites” phrasing is telling, too. It frames emotional disclosure less as a cathartic breakthrough and more as controlled feeding: the audience is trusted to notice micro-shifts, and the character is allowed to protect herself until the story earns the breach.
The subtext is about permission. Innes isn’t just praising pacing; she’s defending a choice not to make a woman’s inner life immediately legible. “Authentic for this character” signals a pushback against a common TV demand: explain yourself, soften yourself, narrate your trauma on schedule. Instead, the character’s feelings are “deeply buried” - not absent, not broken, not cold, just sealed away, perhaps by habit, profession, or the accumulated necessity of functioning.
“Or she never felt them” is the sharpest edge in the quote. It suggests emotional illiteracy as backstory: a person who has survived by skipping the feeling part, who may not even recognize what’s missing until it starts leaking out. Innes is pointing to a modern kind of realism in serialized storytelling: emotional truth as a slow reveal, not a monologue. That’s why it works - it mirrors how real people often change, incrementally, and only after they’ve been cornered by intimacy or consequence.
The subtext is about permission. Innes isn’t just praising pacing; she’s defending a choice not to make a woman’s inner life immediately legible. “Authentic for this character” signals a pushback against a common TV demand: explain yourself, soften yourself, narrate your trauma on schedule. Instead, the character’s feelings are “deeply buried” - not absent, not broken, not cold, just sealed away, perhaps by habit, profession, or the accumulated necessity of functioning.
“Or she never felt them” is the sharpest edge in the quote. It suggests emotional illiteracy as backstory: a person who has survived by skipping the feeling part, who may not even recognize what’s missing until it starts leaking out. Innes is pointing to a modern kind of realism in serialized storytelling: emotional truth as a slow reveal, not a monologue. That’s why it works - it mirrors how real people often change, incrementally, and only after they’ve been cornered by intimacy or consequence.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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