SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
"The Good Daughter," now streaming on Peacock, is a mystery thriller about a family trio of lawyers, a father and his two daughters, taking on unpopular causes.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE GOOD DAUGHTER")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Well, if Rusty's so great, how come everyone hates him?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Because the people who benefit from the system don't want the systems to change, and your father is a threat to the system.
PFEIFFER: It's gripping, often devastating and sometimes also funny. Crime fiction author Karin Slaughter wrote the book it's based on, and she's running the show too. Meghann Fahy of "White Lotus" fame plays the daughter who stayed, Charlie. And when dad lands on the hospital, he calls home the daughter who left, Samantha, now a hotshot New York lawyer. Australian actress Rose Byrne plays Sam. And when Rose Byrne and Karin Slaughter talked with me about the show, Slaughter explained that its rural Georgia setting is the kind of place she knows well.
KARIN SLAUGHTER: You know, I'm from Georgia. I love being from Georgia. I grew up in a small town. I know, from your work on "Spotlight," that you know about corruption and how it can change not just the community, but the fabric of the community and the sense that there's no real justice for someone who's on the outside. It's only insiders. But I wanted to show the South and all its beauty. And one of the wonderful things I think about working with Rose, who's so talented, was she was really leaning into making sure she got the accent correct, that she was naturally surrounded by this really lush landscape and seemed to, at a certain point, just be a part of it, you know? This is about vines encroaching into the landscape, and Sam is a pivotal part of pulling back those vines and exposing the truth.
PFEIFFER: And Rose, I cannot not ask you about your entrance, when viewers literally see you for the first time. It is so dramatic, so striking - the black hair, the black clothes, the shades. It made me think of Cruella de Vil. And I know someone on the show had called you Morticia Addams from "The Addams Family." When you put that outfit on, what were you feeling psychologically?
ROSE BYRNE: Oh, that's so fun. Yeah. Well, there was a lot of chat about the silhouette. A lot of chat about, like, getting the silhouette right, making sure we establish her sort of suit of armor, if you will. And, you know, this is a woman who's been in New York City for 20 years and is incredibly sophisticated and has money and is estranged from her hometown and her family. And so the more we could tell that story through - visually, was really exciting to me, and I love a bit of costume.
PFEIFFER: Karin, you have written so many novels, and I know that some of them have been adapted for TV before. But I think this is the first time you've been a showrunner. Is that right?
SLAUGHTER: That's right. And, you know, I tackled writing all the episodes, and we were able to shoot it in a style that made it seem like a six-hour movie.
PFEIFFER: A lot of your books have a lot of, for example, inner dialogue that a character is thinking. Onscreen, the characters have to talk. How difficult was it for you to adapt your book to the screen?
SLAUGHTER: I definitely took it as a challenge because I love television. I grew up - I'm a Gen X latchkey. You know, we were raised...
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
SLAUGHTER: ...Like feral hogs, so yeah.
PFEIFFER: The TV was your babysitter. Yeah.
SLAUGHTER: Exactly. But I really just - I thought a lot about my thriller writing muscles being flexed, but it's such a different medium because you're showing everything, and you can't stop and have this expository passage. And so it was a very interesting puzzle to figure out how it would work. But also talking with our wonderful composer, Jonathan Sanford, and saying to him, you know, from the beginning, you know, I love being from the South. I hate when there's a Southern setting, and there's a banjo or a slide guitar.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
SLAUGHTER: You know, we want to make a new kind of Southern feel. We want to use strings.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SLAUGHTER: There's a prosody to Rose and Meghann's language and the way they really lean into these characters and they're speaking, and I wanted the music to underpin that. So there was a lot of different elements.
PFEIFFER: It's clear, Rose, that you and Karin have talked so much about this. But at the beginning, was there anything a bit intimidating about knowing that this book is her baby, and she's in charge of the show, and you wanted to execute and meet her vision but also put your stamp on it. Any hesitation about doing that?
BYRNE: Of course. Of course. I'm not a novelist. It's like working with an opera singer, where you're like, I can't believe you actually do that. It's like you're working with, like, a person who can also fly, and you're like, what? You can fly? Tell me, how'd you do that. And then, you know, Karin would be naturally protective of her story and these characters. And then, once you do start to portray it on TV and you've got your own perspective - you know, I have my own protection with the character too. So it was fascinating to have that, like, person there who I could ask a million questions with. But sometimes I would be like, oh, no. There's - like, she knows too much, you know?
(LAUGHTER)
BYRNE: And I need to own it now, you know?
PFEIFFER: Yeah. Whenever I read or watch anything, I like to go in a blank slate. I like to know nothing. So I went into this not knowing how it was going to unfold, and it is so harrowing at the end, once you realize what these women have been through, just so unsparing. I mean, Karin, you really put your readers and your viewers through a lot. And I read that you also worked with advocacy groups to make sure that even though you were depicting horrifying things, they were done in a sensitive way. Can you talk about that process?
SLAUGHTER: Yeah. I think that was one thing, when I started writing the scripts, and, you know, we got Peacock on board, and they said, we want you to meet with these different groups. And I thought, oh, gosh. Oh, my gosh, am I going to be censored or, you know, what's going to happen? I mean, we can admit that there's some guns in this. We are in America so, obviously, there's guns. And I'm a gun owner, and I'm a huge advocate for gun safety. And working with Brady (ph), for instance, and making sure that in the show we're depicting responsible gun ownership was a very important thing.
But, you know, honestly, as we got into these meetings with them, they said, we want you to show what happens. We don't want you to hold back. Because, you know, there's a softening of a language around certain issues, and that's a very dangerous thing. But if you like a really good thrill, certainly we're going to give you a kind of thrill ride, especially with that opening, where you're just on the edge of your seat. But, you know, as with Rose's character, Sam, I think that as an author, I have to assert my voice into the show or a novel as a sense of safety. Like, this is going to happen, and I'm going to give you a soft landing. So that's why I balance it with humor. I mean, it never tickles me enough that I've taken Rose, who's one of the most hilarious people on Earth, and I've made her a straight man in this show.
(LAUGHTER)
PFEIFFER: I know. The woman from "Bridesmaids." Exactly.
SLAUGHTER: Exactly. Yeah.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
SLAUGHTER: And she does get some really killer lines. But, you know, I just wanted to be as responsible as possible. And working with these groups, you know, it was very rewarding because they want people to know the truth. And the truth is sometimes shocking, but they also really love that sense of hope. I mean, at the core of this, this is a love story about a family, about mothers and daughters, and fathers and daughters and about sisters.
PFEIFFER: That is Karin Slaughter and Rose Byrne. Their new show is "The Good Daughter" on Peacock. Thank you to both of you.
SLAUGHTER: Thank you.
BYRNE: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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