It's a story of women. Or rather mothers. In "Little Fires Everywhere", Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington play two very different mothers who will become real enemies. A human and breathtaking thriller available in its original version with subtitles since May 22 on Amazon Prime Video, and in French version since Monday, July 21. The two actresses, who are also producers of this fiction adapted from a novel by American author Celeste Ng, confide in us their pride in having participated in this project.
What attracted you to this fiction?
REESE WITHERSPOON. The idea of being able to approach motherhood in multiple forms. With Kerry, we were able to discuss our own experience and integrate it into a work. Right now, with everything going on in America, there is a lot of talk about racism and the way people are treated. One thing Kerry told me at the very beginning of our creative process was that we need to be able to have difficult discussions, and I realize how rare this is today. .
KERRY WASHINGTON. What we quickly learned is that sometimes you have to be able to make mistakes. The strength of this series is that the characters are far from perfect. Often, these women say things as a mother, as a neighbor, as a friend, that we, with hindsight, deem inadmissible, but it is precisely by saying things openly that we can discuss them, digest them.
Did the show make you think about your own role as a mother?
KW I especially thought a lot about my mother. Because we play mothers in the 1990s, when we were teenagers back then. I try to analyze what I learned from her, what comes to me from my environment and society, and I sort out what I want to keep or not as a mom.
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RW Every person in the United States and around the world has a different experience. An immigrant from China or a chic suburban white woman doesn't experience the same thing, and it's even different for a black woman or a woman of Latino descent. Creating a series on so many different ways of living your life as a mother is very rewarding.
What was the biggest challenge in embodying your characters?
KW These roles, for both of them, were not like the ones we had played in the past. If I got there, it was because I had Reese in front of me. Anything that could scare us was never insurmountable, because we faced it together, even if our characters are enemies!
RW This is one of the most complicated roles of my career. The journey of these women, over the eight episodes, is full of missteps and errors. As an actor, it's very uncomfortable, because you know that at one point or another you're going to alienate certain members of the audience, and you don't want to lose them along the way. We really want to take them to the end so that they understand that there are no heroes in this story, just human beings. Each mother's journey is a specific struggle.
We feel that it is finally time for women to tell their stories on television and in the cinema ...
KW Yes, and it's not too early! We spent so much time hearing what women should look like, how they should behave… We learned to be nice and well behaved rather than being real. Now, as producers in particular, we have this possibility to tell stories of authentic women, to talk about who we really are, what we live, what we go through. It's very liberating. We can reject this false image that has been imposed on us in the past.
RW It's important to tell stories that our daughters, the daughters of others, will see and more accurately reflect reality. My daughter has access to more content from female directors, female screenwriters. It makes her want to make her own voice heard, because she hears women finally being honest about who they are and what they are going through. “Little Fires Everywhere” shows that every woman's voice matters, despite all their flaws.
Do you feel that the #MeToo movement has changed the audiovisual industry?
KW What has changed is that before, as we were often alone on a project, we would hear about other actresses through slander, as if we were trying to pit us against each other. The #MeToo and Time's Up movements have allowed us to come together, to create a real community of women. We realized that we appreciated each other and that we wanted to work together. A real sorority has emerged.
RW I had no idea of the extent of the harassment and how many women had experienced it. It made me want to work with other women even more. There is real strength in partnerships. Now is the time to stop turning in on yourself and allying yourself to give birth to projects with new potential. This series is the perfect illustration: there are so many leading women, from our screenwriter Liz Tigelaar to our directors - Lynn Shelton, who recently passed away, and Nzingha Stewart - to all of our writers. I think it shows on the screen.