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The Girlfriend stars Waleed Zuaiter and Laurie Davidson know that the women in their characters’ lives may have gotten a little carried away. Who can blame them?
**Spoilers ahead for The Girlfriend on Prime Video**
In Season 1 of Prime Video‘s latest thriller series, Cherry (Olivia Cooke) and Laura (Robin Wright) go back and forth over Daniel (Davidson), escalating their game of wits and war until things take a fatal turn in the finale as Daniel ends up holding his own mother underwater for too long. It’s an unfortunate end to a series of events that played out across two separate narratives.
“That’s what’s so exciting about the show, is that it will give people chances to root for different characters and talk about it,” Davidson told DECIDER in a recent sitdown interview. To that, Zuaiter added, “And I think the show’s structured that way, that it kind of encourages it because it’s like the two perspectives.”
The show, which is just six episodes long and hit the streaming platform on September 10, follows both Cherry and Laura’s unique perspectives on the same story as they each assert their dominance as the leading lady in Daniel’s life. That leads the two ladies to resort to some incredibly questionable actions, like lying about their involvement with a disastrous ex or telling Cherry that Daniel is dead and cutting her off from him completely. Admittedly, that second one is a little worse.
As the transgressions add up in the show, Daniel and Howard (Zuaiter) both become innocent bystanders in the all-out war between the women, leading to ended relationships and heartbreak that not only shatters a family, but also ends in a body count.
“I know for Howard, the most unforgivable thing is, he can’t forgive Laura for lying to their son [and for] lying to Cherry about Daniel’s death,” Zuaiter said of what he saw as his on-screen wife’s worst offense. “Because one: it’s a horrible lie. It’s, you know, our son. And two, it’s like the worst thing you can do to our child? So that’s where, for me, it’s gone too far.”
For Davidson, it’s more about the question of what his character is meant to believe as he’s in the middle of two women who are telling two very different stories. While Cherry has her ways of being persuasive when it comes to her boyfriend-turned-fiancé, a mother will always have a certain connection that cannot be denied. It’s something he questions throughout the show.
“I think for Daniel, it’s just a realization that throughout he’s been like, ‘Laura is, for lack of a better word, she’s going crazy, like, mom’s losing it,’” the actor said.
He also added that while the story becomes clearer as the episodes progress, it is ultimately up to the audience to decide who they believe and what version of events is more accurate. Of course, as Robert Evans once said, “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth.” That’s why it’s left to the viewers to put themselves in Cherry and Laura’s shoes and decide who deserves the blame and who deserves absolution.
“Any action taken out of context is going to reinforce a bias that you already have. And so I think audiences will enter the same headspace that Cherry and Laura are in for each other. And if they have a theory about who’s who’s in the right or the wrong. Stuff is just going to reinforce that, I think it’s skewed. It’s going to divide people,” he said.
The Girlfriend is now streaming on Prime Video.
