EXCLUSIVE | ‘The Undoing’ Finale Spoilers: Did Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant live up to Jean Hanff Korelitz's characters?
She has an alluring charm. Jean Hanff Korelitz can mesmerize with her words and stump you with her serenity. The author of the unputdownable 2014 novel ‘You Should Have Known’ that inspired David E Kelley's masterful HBO adaptation ‘The Undoing’, sheds light on her thoughts about the plot and characters.
Not just ‘You Should Have Known’ and ‘Admission’ that was adapted into a 2013 film starring Paul Rudd and Tina Fey, she has penned down six books, including ‘The Devil and Webster’, ‘The White Rose’, ‘The Sabbathday River’ and ‘A Jury of Her Peers’, as well as a middle-grade reader, ‘Interference Powder’, and a collection of poetry, ‘The Properties of Breath’. Two new novels, ‘The Plot’ and ‘The Latecomer’, are all set to be published by Celadon Books in 2021 and 2022.
In an exclusive interview with MEAWW, the 59-year-old author and playwright, who lives in New York with her husband Paul Muldoon and two children, spills more secrets about the miniseries. Did she know Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant would star in the miniseries? Let's find out.
Let's talk about your book ‘You Should Have Known’... when did you first decide to pen it down and what were your thoughts or inspirations behind that book?
I'm intrigued by liars. I'm a really bad liar. And I feel really guilty about it. So all through my life, I've been fascinated by people who lie and don't seem to have a problem with it. It's been a very interesting four years, for me, in this country watching so many people [hinting at the Trump administration] lie. [Jokes] I thought it's one thing to be fooled by somebody who's lying to you... but what if you were a person whose job was to tell other people how to live their lives, somebody like a therapist, and then confront the fact that you got everything wrong about your own life? That's where the idea came from. About the doctor for cancer patients, I thought what kind of person would choose to be that? It's either going to be a really selfless, compassionate person, or it's going to be somebody who has somehow been drawn to the intensity of emotion around dying children. And I thought, well, that's exactly who Jonathan would be.
Did you know Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant were going to star in the HBO miniseries?
I knew from the beginning that Nicole Kidman was involved. I think that that happened before they bought the book and both of them came on board together. But I didn't know about Hugh Grant until long afterward. I thought it was quite an interesting pairing. The character of the husband is barely in my book. So, David had said to me, Jonathan's character is going to be very important.
How do you think they portrayed the characters? Is it as you had imagined and written in your book or do you think it differed from that idea?
Yes, and no. He is as charming as the book character and has a great deal of charisma. You look at him and you want to believe that he's telling the truth. That's absolutely spot on. But there are obvious differences. Here, Jonathan is American. Jonathan in ‘You Should Have Known’ is Jewish. He doesn't have British self-effacing mannerisms. But the essence of him is as I had imagined. Somebody who gravitates towards such a dire profession where you're dealing with people struggling with the worst time of their lives... That was exactly what I had envisioned. Nicole Kidman, again, she's great. She's not exactly my Grace, but she has my Grace's self-doubt and an illusion that she's in control of her life.
What is unique about the setting and plot of the HBO show?
I love watching the outfits. I think the clothes are amazing. The interiors are unbelievable. And the people in this version of the story are richer than the one in my book. It may not look like much of a difference beyond New York City. But the gradations of wealth in New York are such that there's rich enough to live comfortably in the city. And then there's Franklin Reinhardt who seems to live in a football field-sized apartment that overlooks Central Park. They're doing a lot better in the TV show than the characters in the book.
Apart from ‘You Should Have Known’, you've written many more books like ‘A Jury of Her Peers’, ‘The Sabbathday River’, ‘The White Rose’, ‘Admission’... Which one is your favorite and what is the one thing you wish all your readers would read?
Oh, that's a really good question. I've loved all of my books but I think my favorite is probably 'The White Rose'. It is probably the one that people who love ‘The Undoing’ are least likely to like. Readers should go for it if they're willing to have a very different reading experience. I've always moved back and forth between more literary books and more real stories because I love both genres and I can't help myself from doing that. I'm not the kind of writer who has 10 ideas at a time, I have one idea at a time. I can either write that book or not.
Would you like to tell us about your upcoming novels ‘The Plot’ and ‘The Latecomer’... What is it about and what should readers look out for?
I'm very happy with the new book, ‘The Plot’, which is coming out in May. A suspense novel, it's about a writer who steals somebody else's story. The book looks at a lot of questions that we writers obsess about, like: Where did my idea come from? Am I really the author? Do I own this story? I've always been fascinated by again, liars, and in literary terms, of ideas and theft of language, plagiarism, and all kinds of shenanigans that writers have gotten up to. ‘The Latecomer’ is about a very crazy New York family with triplets who all get into terrible difficulties. It'll be a very meaty and satisfying book. I think of it as my John Irving novel, where everything just kind of comes together at the end. It has a very different and happy ending. I can promise you the happiest ending.
You've also actively been involved in theater and films, would you ever like to step into the role of a director or writer for films?
I'm very excited that I'm going to be able to contribute as a writer to the adaptation of my upcoming novel ‘The Plot’ as it has already been picked up. I can't say anything more yet, but it will be adapted. But I would never wear the director's hat.
‘The Undoing’ premiered on HBO on October 25, 2020, and more episodes in the six-episodic series will air every Sunday from 9 pm ET to 10 pm ET. Catch the final episode ‘The Bloody Truth’ on Sunday, November 29, 2020. Wondering where you can buy the book? Click here.
Catch the first part of the interview with ‘You Should Have Known’ author Jean Hanff Korelitz where she guesses who could have killed Elena Alves.