Shailene Woodley Breaks Down That Heartbreaking ‘Three Women’ Moment (2024)

[Editor's note: The following contains major spoilers for Three Women.]

The Starz series Three Women, adapted from Lisa Taddeo’s award-winning novel of the same name, is an exploration of female desire and the individual exploration for three different women at different places in their lives, learning what that means for them. Gia (Shailene Woodley) is a writer in search of ordinary women who will tell her their stories and share their intimate experiences, and Maggie (Gabrielle Creevy), a student who accuses her married English teacher of an inappropriate relationship, is one of those women. Throughout the episodes, the audience gets to know Maggie better through her own journey of self-discovery.

During this interview with Collider, Woodley and Creevy talked about how they connected to this project, the nuance of these women, the challenge of figuring out the dynamic between Maggie and Mr. Knodel (Jason Ralph), the courtroom scenes, and what it was like for Woodley to shoot that heartbreaking moment in the bathroom. They also talked about the projects that are next for each of them.

'Three Women' Was an Opportunity To Be Truthful About the Experiences of So Many Women

Collider: When this came your way and you read it, what was it about the character and what you could explore with each of these women that made you want to do this? Was there something about them specifically that you couldn’t wait to explore? Was there a scene or two that you just knew you had to do?

GABRIELLE CREEVY: For me, I know there are many Maggies out there that haven’t been able to share their story or have their voices heard. That was what really pulled me towards the project. I felt like I could give a voice to them, and how unapologetic it was and how raw it felt, things that I’ve maybe felt and that I know people have felt, that have never been portrayed or brought onto the screen. That was really important for me because we don’t often see them.

SHAILENE WOODLEY: For me, it was just the whole project. There’s this thing in Hollywood about strong, empowered females, and it’s great that we’re having conversations about women. But I wanna meet a strong, empowered female. Who is it? Where are they? Because I feel like every day, we’re waxing and waning between feeling strong, and then feeling really weak, or feeling scared, or feeling depressed, and then feeling elated again. When I read these scripts after the book, I just felt like the nuance was the thing that was highlighted in all of these women, and that was what made the journey so exciting. It wasn’t one specific scene, or even necessarily Gia, in and of herself. It was really the opportunity to be truthful for what the experience is for so many women around the world. And then, to be able to play Gia, who is based roughly on Lisa Taddeo, our creator’s, life was not daunting because Lisa is so open, but I felt very honored, and I felt a lot of responsibility to be as honest as I could in the portrayal of that woman.

The thing that struck me about these women, especially watching the last episode, was how strong they all are, in big ways and small ways. They internalize, they suffer, they grieve, but they move on, and they keep going. What did you learn from playing your character?

WOODLEY: I learned so much from playing Gia. One note on the strength, I think the superpower of feminine energy in general is that we are so strong, but it’s not the archetype of strong that we’re so used to the definition of. It’s the tenacity to keep going no matter what. No matter how low or how far at the bottom of the barrel you are, there is this internal strength to continue moving forward, which is so beautiful. For me, what I learned from Gia is, I’ve always struggled with expressing my emotions because I’ve had this caretaker, fixer thing in me of, “Oh, I should disconnect myself, in order to make other people feel more comfortable,” and Lisa and Gia are people who are very comfortable in expressing their emotions in the minute that they’re feeling them. My biggest takeaway from Gia was, “I’m allowed to be angry and express that anger, and I’m allowed to feel disrupted by something and have a reaction to that, instead of trying to be the people pleaser to keep things together.” It was a very liberating eight months for me, in a weird way, that I’d never experienced playing any other character before.

CREEVY: For me, it’s that things do get better, even the in between bits of what we go through to get to that point don’t. If you fully trust in yourself, it will get better. That’s what I came out of there feeling.

Gabrielle Crevvy Finds the 'Three Women' Dynamic Between Maggie and Her Teacher Difficult To Talk About

Gabrielle, it had to be challenging to figure out the dynamic between Maggie and Mr. Knodel, especially when you’re starting from a place of power imbalance along with her being a minor. How did that shape things for you? How did you figure out that dynamic when it comes from a position of power and manipulation?

CREEVY: It’s a difficult one to talk about because of what it was. Jason [Ralph], who plays Knodel, and I had ongoing conversations about what that was. We just tried to focus on what they were actually feeling in that moment.

How was it to do the courtroom scenes when Maggie is testifying? As difficult as it had to be for her, do you feel like that also gave her some of her power back, actually being able to have a voice?

CREEVY: Oh, yeah, for sure. That was her time to use her voice, and it was definitely a time for that. For her to, a few years later, go, “I’m gonna use my voice,” that strength. She definitely got her power back.

Shailene Woodley Felt It Was Important To Be Heartbreakingly Raw in 'Three Women'

Shailene, one of the moments in this series that stands out the most is when Gia goes through a miscarriage alone. What was that scene like to shoot? What were the conversations around that, when it came to making sure that was portrayed as real as possible? How challenging was it to dig into something like that?

WOODLEY: There was a lot of deep care that went into it. The way it was written originally was that she was in her underwear or pajamas, and gets out of bed, and has this thing happen on the floor. And I remember talking to Lisa and our director, Louise Friedberg, and saying, “Hey, guys, we don’t have to do it this way. I think the most truthful portrayal of something like this, where she’s in bed with her boyfriend after making love, she probably wouldn’t have put clothes on afterwards, and would have fallen asleep and woken up in this pain.” And so, the choice to do that scene without any clothing, for all of us, felt like a really important choice to make because it does leave, physically and emotionally, this woman in a very vulnerable state of truly being naked and not having any defenses to lean on.

For me, it felt important because we see women’s bodies oftentimes portrayed in media, and in film and television, in such a sensationalized way and such a beautifully sensual way. It felt important to also show the other side of it, which is just complete carnal, raw, animalistic suffering that also happens when a woman is in a particular place in her life. And it felt important to us that any woman who has had a miscarriage or an abortion, or gone through an experience of losing a pregnancy, that they felt seen in that scene or through the lens of what Gia was experiencing, even if their experience was different.

We wanted women to feel like it’s okay to not be put together or beautiful or look a certain way when any of us are experiencing something that’s just so heartbreakingly raw. The succinct answer is just that it was done with care. There were a lot of conversations that were had about, how far do we want to take this? And we all ended up coming back to the same answer, over and over, which is just truth. What is the most truthful way to portray this very difficult moment?

Watching that moment, I don’t know how you got through that scene. But if you’re going to portray a moment like that, it has to go there, and it really did.

WOODLEY: Yeah. When I see this show, I’m just like, “Man, it’s so nice to see the real things that happen behind closed doors.” We’re fortunate, if we have a girlfriend or a sister in our lives, that we feel safe enough to talk to about these things because a lot of women don’t. A lot of women don’t ever talk about miscarriages or abortions or the experience of going through something like that because it’s still somehow societally taboo, even though it’s a very real, very natural thing that happens for a lot of people.

Shailene, you recently said that when you look back on your younger self, you’re in awe of your ability to say no. Is that something that was ever hard to hang onto, as you got older?

WOODLEY: I was really good at saying no when I was younger because I had this rebellious spirit that anything that tried to put me in a box, I was like like, “Ew, I just wanna be a kid and see the world and figure out who I am.” And then, there was definitely a phase in my mid to late twenties where I felt this identity crisis, like we all go through in our twenties, at some point, but for me, maybe it was a little bit later than most people. But I’m back to being very comfortable with the word no. It’s not rude. We’re not rude for saying no. It just means we know who we are, or at least we’re figuring out who we are, by saying yes or no.

Where do you guys go from here? What is the next project that each of you are going to be doing?

CREEVY: Yes. I have a series, Amadeus, so it’s a period piece, which is fun because I get to wear wigs.

WOODLEY: I have a project that’s very different than Three Women. I’m the only woman in this film (Motor City). It’s an action/revenge thriller. I play a very, very different version of a woman in it, which feels really fun and scrappy.

Three Women

TV-MA

Gia, a writer, embarks on a journey to document the intimate lives of three women from different backgrounds. Sloane, an entrepreneur with an unconventional marriage, grapples with her desires and the impact on her family. Lina, a homemaker in a loveless marriage, seeks fulfillment through a torrid affair. Maggie, a student, deals with the consequences of her relationship with a teacher.

Release Date

September 13, 2023

Cast

Betty Gilpin , DeWanda Wise , Shailene Woodley , Blair Underwood , Gabrielle Creevy

Main Genre

Drama

Seasons

1

Creator(s)

Lisa Taddeo

Three Women airs on Starz. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Starz

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