EXCLUSIVE | 'YOU' star Tati Gabrielle opens up about Marienne's future and honoring her mother by embracing Korean culture
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: When Season 3 of ‘YOU’ dropped on Netflix, fans couldn’t believe what Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) did to the love of his life and left everything behind for someone who actually stole his heart away. Yes, we are talking about none other than Marienne, who made viewers believe that Joe might have found the one that he’s been looking for. But Love made sure that Marienne gets to know the truth about Joe and moves away from him.
Season 3 ended with Marienne leaving the country and starting a new life. According to reports, Joe has already died and won’t be troubling anyone. However, Marienne didn’t know that her past will come to haunt her one day and it would be really hard for her to face that. Times have changed, and location has changed, but Joe’s obsession with Marienne is still not over and he is traveling Europe to find her true love. But, it’s impossible for Marienne to believe that Joe was someone who could have given her an opportunity to feel what true love was. So, we had a conversation with the supremely talented Tati Gabrielle, who plays the role of Marienne on the show, and got to know about her character’s future.
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Apart from that, MEAWW also caught up with her and talked about the massive success of her show ‘Kaleidoscope’.
Congratulations on the massive success of 'Kaleidoscope', what an amazing and intriguing show. I would love to have your first reaction to the success of the show.
Tati: I'm thrilled, by the way, it's been received, like, I mean, just from the point of me reading the first scripts and understanding the concept of the show, I was like, ‘this is sick’. I get excited while watching shows that really make you think and you gotta like, really pay attention to every detail. I'm really excited, by the way, that people have really gotten into it. Like, you know, people finding their own orders and posting them like, ‘No, this is the best route and this is the best order’. I'm happy that people have taken on the challenge of the game in that way or the challenge of the puzzle. So yeah, I love it.
The most interesting thing is that this series gives you the power of choosing how you want to follow the story. When you got to know about this innovative technique, what was your reaction to it and did you feel like, could something like that happen on Television?
Tati: That's what I thought was brilliant about it. The idea was to make it interactive with the audience because no, like in real life, you wouldn't ever be able to do this and choose your way through this story or how you want to watch a movie or whatever. It presents entertainment in a way that’s so much more immersive, which I am curious to see, what this leads to, and I like new ways of doing this innovative art. So yeah, I get very excited by it and I hope we continue to move in that direction.
You embraced your Korean culture in the series and that was so heartening to see. How did you feel when you got the chance to honor your mother by doing work in the Korean language and does it open doors for other actors to embrace their culture as well?
Tati: I definitely hope that it opens doors for more people because I felt so proud and it’s making me emotional even now. It was such an honor for me to be able to do that and to honor my mother and her culture in that way. Especially, my mom is a Korean adoptee and she was sort of forcibly taken away from her culture. Now, she's been on a journey of trying to refine that. So, paying homage to her in that way was just something that was very special to me. I very much hope that it continues to open doors for not only Asian Americans but for actors of all kinds and races, for us to create a world that’s in color. So, we can show how culture surely does speak to the character and is actually a really big part of all of us as actual people and the culture that we were raised in or that we are a part of right now. It affects almost everything you do, whether you know it or not. So I do hope that this brings more and I hope to do more Korean projects it's just a really big honor to be able to be seen in my truest self in that way.
Now, about 'YOU', I mean the series 'You'. Marienne floored us in Season 3 and she's back this time as well. We saw the first part with some keen eyes and in one of the scenes, we see Joe finding Marienne in London. That first look on your character's face gave the impression that she was initially happy to see Joe, but everything changes in a jiffy. Just want to know if Marienne still hoped that Joe was not the person that Love told her about.
Tati: Yeah, of course. I feel like anyone would. All of us as human beings, what we all want is a connection, love, to be seen by someone, and to be clearly understood. I feel like with Joe, that was Marienne’s first time feeling so clearly seen by someone and falling in love with someone in a special way. So of course, especially after the life that she was living and it was so hard for her to accept what Love told her. She was like, ‘No, you're telling me the most beautiful thing that I've had in a while is a lie and the person is a monster. That's unbelievable and I appreciate you for picking up that little moment. I hope people catch this little detail. It's a lot of mixed emotions. Because yeah, initially, she's like, ‘Oh my God’, and then she's like, ‘Ohhhh myyyy godddddd, like, yeah’.
Over the course of three seasons, Joe murdered so many people. Why are we still rooting for this crazy man? And as a fan, do you root for him too?
Tati: I know, I do not root for Joe and none of us should do that and I don’t know what’s happening. I feel like we all have been asking ourselves this question. ‘Why does everyone love Joe so much?’ He's not a good guy, and even if he tries to say, ‘Oh, I'm a good person I can change’ because he's not willing to face all of the crazy things that he's done leading up to this point. So like, what's happening? What are we doing? But I think that it's it is just human nature to be drawn to the faux pas or drawn to the scandalous things we shouldn't do or shouldn't like, we want to rebel. So, I feel like that's the draw that people have with Joe. I also think that they're just like seeing the beautiful thing that is Penn Badgley. So, I think that we've just got some wires crossed.
So, part one of 'YOU' Season 4 is just around the corner. I have seen it and it's bombastic once again. What will you say to your fans about the upcoming season and should they buckle up for another thrilling ride?
Tati: I think that everybody should work a lot for quite a roller coaster this season. It's gonna be a fun ride and I'm saying that as a fan of the show. I'm so pumped up to have this season come out. Like, get ready. That's all I can say.
'YOU' Season 4 Part 1 is available for streaming on Netflix.