I loved the little light flashes we see of Zosia in episode 8, like how animated she gets playing the card game, or trash talking Carol during croquet. How important was it to show some new emotions and personality with Zosia as this relationship and character develop?
It was very important, and a lot of fun too. When we first met Zosia, she had to give Carol space, because we know that we cannot come off too strong, so it's a constant dance. In episode 2, I was like, “I want to sit down on the airplane and get cozy,” and [the creative team] was like, “But you're not, you can't. You're standing, because they have the highest emotional intelligence, and they feel somebody else's temperature, and they go, I don't think they will like this, so let me step back until they come to us.” So I love the progression of how they get closer, more comfortable, and the nuances that you're talking about, with the playfulness, the banter, the joy that they have in connecting in a different way, which also makes Zosia even more human. And, at the end, when Zosia has to remove herself from the collective mind and go into the mind of Zosia to bring up that memory of the ice cream, there’s that moment of her searching and figuring out, Oh, what does she like?
How much of the real Zosia’s background did you want to know ahead of time?
Tapping into that monologue—it wasn't a sad memory, it was just a sweet memory of this woman who once was. It was interesting to go into that monologue with that intention and not color it with like, Oh God, we were so broke, and this guy took pity on us and gave us ice cream. And I didn't ask Vince who she was before; I didn’t want to color my performance for the new version of who Zosia is. Normally I do create a past for my characters, but this was very particular, and I just stayed with creating the Zosia from this moment on. So I focused on being unflappable and peaceful, because, in this version of who these people are, as Vince would say to me, “When she’s angry, they go, ‘Oh, I remember anger, but I don’t feel anger. That’s a distant memory. I feel this this pure goodness inside.’” So I built this biological imperative belief that we need to share this gift at all costs, and being protective of Zosia, like, she's not manipulative, she just really believes that, once Carol experiences this thing, she will be grateful. From another perspective, someone's going to say, wow, that's really messed up and manipulative.
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