This article contains some spoilers for “All Her Fault.”
For Sarah Snook, having to leave her two-year-old daughter to go to work every day on the Peacock drama “All Her Fault” was, in some ways, helpful to her acting process.
In the show, airing Thursday, Snook plays Marissa Irvine, a Chicago businesswoman who goes to pick up her young son Milo from a play date and discovers that not only is he at the wrong house, but Milo was never there in the first place. The fellow mom (Dakota Fanning) who thought he was picking him up from school has no idea what she's talking about, nor does the owner of the house, and Milo has disappeared.
“It was helpful to use my daughter,” he says in a video call. “What would it be like if this situation happened to me? I understand it more deeply now that I am a father.”
But Snook could only go so far. He couldn't imagine his daughter in Milo's place. If I had, I would have simply decided not to work. “It's too hard, it's too much,” he says.
In the series, Dakota Fanning and Sarah Snook play working mothers Jenny and Marissa.
(Peacock)
“All Her Fault” is a twisty eight-episode thriller with some wow-worthy moments that takes seriously its depiction of motherhood and the blame women place on themselves when something goes wrong. The title is not exactly accurate, as it applies to the character of Snook or Jenny, played by Fanning, the other parent, who is unknowingly dragged into this nightmare scenario.
“It can't just be his fault, that's just not possible,” Snook says. “We explore what mental burden women often take on in the role of mother.”
These two working mothers worry that they, more than anyone else, bear the blame for Milo's disappearance, in part because they care as much about their careers as they do about their children. Marissa doesn't double check the number that informed her that Milo was going on a play date with Jenny's son. Meanwhile, Jenny, a bookseller, hired Carrie Finch (Sophia Lillis), the babysitter who turns out to be responsible for the kidnapping.
That's one of the reasons creator Megan Gallagher wanted to adapt Andrea Mara's novel for television.
“Within that material was this maternal guilt and this discrepancy in housework in heterosexual couples that, to me, is a big problem,” she says. “Every woman I know who is around my age is dealing with this. Every woman I know drops her kids off at school and sobs in the parking lot before getting to work.”
After years of playing the icy Shiv Roy on “Succession,” whose pregnancy in the final season ultimately seems like another business move for her, Snook found himself drawn to Marissa, who does care about being a good mother.
“I wanted to find a character that was inherently warm,” Snook explains. “Shiv is in a similar world, but she's inherently cold. She wants to be warm but she can't. Whereas Marissa is just a nice, warm, friendly person who has a natural motherly quality to her and sees someone upset and says, 'I got you.'”
This is how he initially meets Jenny. They bond and make each other uncomfortable in the bathroom at a school function while coincidentally wearing the same dress. After Milo disappears, Marissa could easily turn on Jenny, but instead they develop a deeper connection.
“It was really nice to portray the really positive aspects of female friendship,” Fanning says in another call. “I think sometimes there can be tropes of women pitted against each other.”
Marissa (Sarah Snook) and Jenny (Dakota Fanning) bond after noticing they are wearing the same dress to a school function.
(Sarah Enticknap / Peacock)
Marissa and Jenny have the kind of bond that Fanning recognizes in her own life: “They're actually very supportive and loving people, and they're people that you lean on when times get tough, instead of turning on you.”
For Snook, the connection between Marissa and Jenny is almost elemental.
“That's reminiscent of Greek mythology or those ancient stories,” he says. “In the end, women just have to stick together.”
Fanning, who does not have children, had no personal experiences of motherhood that she could draw upon in her role, but it was not difficult for her to imagine the pressure Jenny must be under in the series.
“I always wanted to be a mother,” she says. “I'm someone who put a blanket under my shirt and pretended I was pregnant when I was 5. I've never questioned that I want that.”
She adds that she has been in parenting positions her entire life: with her younger sister, Elle, and with her best friend's daughters, who are 5 and 2, as godmother.
“I was inspired by people in my life, my own experiences, and sometimes even the pressure I put on my own mother when I was 31,” she laughs. “Some self-reflection of, hm, I may be guilty of some of these things towards her too.”
Although she is not a mother, Dakota Fanning says she “was inspired by the people in my life, my own experiences, and sometimes even the pressure I put on my own mother when I was 31.”
(Victoria Will / For The Times)
On screen, however, Jenny is defined as much by her love for her son and her support of Marissa as by her dedication to her career. She's pursuing a high-profile author, much to the frustration of her husband Richie (Thomas Cocquerel), who shirks his caring duties.
Gallagher says the writers spent a lot of time talking about Jenny and her profession.
“I really like to show that women are absolutely passionate about their work, and it's okay for us to love our work,” says Gallagher. “No one is supposed to love their job more than their own children, but it's okay that our children aren't enough and that we need work to feel fulfilled.”
But that doesn't mean Marissa or Jenny are portrayed as uncaring mothers. Both are deeply devoted to their children.
“Usually when we portray women in the media, if they're successful then they shouldn't be motherly,” Snook says. This runs counter to Snook's own experiences, he adds.
“For me personally, I feel like my recent success and career are somehow directly related to being a mother, because of the new perspectives, the deepening of empathy, the strength gained from the experience to go, oh no, I got it. I can really trust myself in this decision and I can really back myself here.”
“Usually when we portray women in the media, if they are successful then they must not be motherly,” says Sarah Snook, who recently became a mother.
(Victoria Will / For The Times)
Snook also serves as executive producer of “All Her Fault,” which was filmed in Melbourne, Australia, so she could be near her daughter and stepson, who is in school in the city. Unlike most of the men on the series, Snook's husband, actor Dave Lawson, was able to take on fatherhood responsibilities and brought their little one to the set so he could play during lunchtime.
“There were toys on set because I had a fake kid on set,” he says. “There was a playground on set. You probably think that on every set you go to when you visit mom at work there will always be a little mini playground and toys to play with, but that won't be the case, honey.”
Despite the intensity of the material, Snook describes the production of “All Her Fault” as a place where cast members joked and frolicked to counteract the sadness their characters endured.
Similarly, after a day in Marissa's shoes, she had to make sure her own work didn't interfere with her home life. Snook was dealing with the kind of calculations that mothers have to do all the time, which is precisely what the show addresses.
“When we had hard days at work and you cried every day, the best thing you could do was go home and give your daughter a hug, because all the oxytocin and all that deliciousness comes back,” she says. “It's no use if Mom comes home and beats him up or tries to stay in this character. Leaving him is very helpful to me so you can refill your cup.”
