Provided by Seacia Pavao/PEACOCK
Over the course of this weekend on Nantucket, Brooke decides to leave her husband Charlie after he is accused of cheating at work. At the same time, she experiences a sexual awakening and realizes that she may have been attracted to women all along. How did you approach exploring her sexuality? Do you think your approach is different from the original?
I’m a straight woman. We ended up having a mostly queer writers’ room, which was great, so we had a lot of help there. We had a lot of really interesting conversations because queer people are not a monolith. It’s not like, “Oh, every time a woman comes out later in life, it’s going to be the same.” But we talked a lot about how women envied each other and admired each other.
So later on, when a woman comes out, there’s a sense of, “Every time I’m in love with her or infatuated with her, is it because I’m attracted to her?” I think it’s a little different for men. So we talked a lot about how she had spent her whole life feeling inferior, trying to be other people, trying on other personalities. You can see it coming through her clothes. And it’s not as simple as “Do you want to kiss a girl?” It’s like, “Wait, this core part of my identity, this obsession with other women and wanting to be them. Is it part of this quest and longing that I never had a name for?”
With Charlie, he was in a relationship like this early in his life and thankfully he was able to grow out of it, but just like with Hollis and Matthew, there is a codependency that prevents him from seeing and facing the truth. It’s so scary and life-shaking that we choose not to watch it. You wake up every day and make a choice. So, for her sake, I think we just wanted to try — and to God we succeeded — we wanted to slow down a little bit so that by the end of the weekend we weren’t in a situation where we were like, “I’m gay!” It’s like, “Oh my god, I’m giving myself permission to step out of this box that I’ve created for myself. What does that mean?” I hope they air more seasons. And the way we set it up is not like, “Brooke is a lesbian in season two!” She’s just thinking in a new way.
