EXCLUSIVE | ‘The Undoing’ Episode 6 Spoilers: ‘You Should Have Known’ author Jean Hanff Korelitz guesses the killer
It's impossible to put down Jean Hanff Korelitz's nail-biting novel ‘You Should Have Known’ as it shreds a couple's rosy life to pieces in over 400 pages. Dismantling their dreams, the book dips its toes into a delicious murder mystery. No wonder, David E Kelley's whodunnit crime drama ‘The Undoing’ has left viewers at the edge of their seats. The one question on all minds is: Who killed Elena Alves?
Born and raised in New York City, Korelitz lives with her husband, Irish poet Paul Muldoon, and two children. Did you know she was also the author of ‘Admission’ — adapted as the 2013 film of the same name, starring Tina Fey, Lily Tomlin and Paul Rudd. In an exclusive interview with MEAWW, the 59-year-old novelist talks about the success of her book, her thoughts on the adaptation and takes a wild guess at who she thinks is the cold-blooded killer.
Excerpts:
Your 2014 novel ‘You Should Have Known’ has become such a huge success after the premiere of HBO's ‘The Undoing’. When did you find out it was being adapted?
When it was first published in 2014, another producer had bought the rights to the book. They had 18 months and then they dropped the idea. I don't even remember the name of the producer. I do remember that she never contacted me, which I thought was very strange. About a year or two later, I was very surprised... I'm not sure exactly when my phone rang one day and it was my agent telling me that David E Kelley had just called up and bought the rights to the book. I don't know how he read it or encountered it. But I have learned from his own interviews that he first decided it probably wouldn't work as a television series, and went on to other projects. But, he kept thinking about it and eventually decided that he could take the characters and move the situation in a different direction.
Did he ever speak to you about the book, and did you have a conversation with him personally?
Yeah, we did. Coincidentally, he had met my husband, Paul Muldoon, on several occasions. They were connected through Princeton University where my husband teaches and where David E Kelly went to college. But he didn't know that I was married to my husband as we have different names so it was just a coincidence. I had a few conversations with him... but it was never a question of me being involved in writing the scripts. And, I think we both saw that the novel as a starting point for what he was going to do rather than a collaboration between the two of us.
Did you have any apprehension about the story being altered?
If you're going to submit your work for adaptation, you can certainly meet the person who wants to adapt your work and say, I'm not happy with this person's vision. That's your right. But if you agree to the terms, it doesn't make sense to stand in the way of what the person wants to do. You have to trust and you have to get out of the way. Some authors like Stephen King have adapted many works on their own, but I couldn't have done it myself. So it would have been crazy for me to start making demands or even suggestions. He knows what he's doing. And I think David E Kelley did a really great job.
Who do you think is the killer and which character is your favorite from the show?
I love Sylvia! I have a feeling that Grace's friend Sylvia has a lot more to reveal. She's not all that crucial to the plot of the novel, but in the novel, her daughter is adopted from China. So I have a feeling that, in the TV show, the daughter is going to turn out to be somebody else's daughter too. And I don't know who that is. But that's my bet. Plus, we have never seen Sylvia's partner. I love Lily Rabe. She's brilliant. So yeah, I have to say she's my favorite character so far. I'd like to see more of her in the last episode. And of course, the attorney Noma Dumezweni [who plays Haley Fitzgerald] is a brilliant actress. I saw her on Broadway playing Hermione Granger in the ‘Harry Potter’ play, which was quite remarkable!
Do you know for sure whether the series is going to follow the same path as the book or deviate from the plot?
Even my husband is confused. While watching the show, he asked about the attorney in my book and I said there was no attorney in my book, there was no trial in my book, there was no Jonathan in my book. It's gotten so merged together. I'm afraid that people are buying the book to find out who killed Elena. And they're going to be disappointed. Some of them are saying... wow, I was expecting a thriller, but I'm getting this very nuanced book about this character's life coming apart. That's the book that I wrote and it makes me happy. I think there are some people who are disappointed that it's not ‘The Undoing’ or David E Kelly's very twisty version of the story.
But are more readers reaching out to you? Are they buying the book to see how different is it? Many viewers on the Internet feel there might be a chance that it could be the same ending in a different way.
Well, that would be very satisfying for me. But we'll have to see. I'm waiting to see the finale along with everybody else. At the end of the day, I'm responsible for the book that I wrote. I can't go back and retrofit it to things that may have happened since it was adapted for the HBO series. It's the same book that I published in 2014. I'm proud of it and I've moved on and written two books since then.
Earlier, your book ‘Admission’ was adapted into a film starring Paul Rudd and Tina Fey. Was it like you had imagined? Tell us one interesting thing about how the book and the movie were different?
No. But the one really nice thing that came out of that movie was that the woman who wrote the script [Karen Croner] and I became friends. I learned how to kind of roll with this experience. A lot of my Zen right now over the differences between ‘The Undoing’ and ‘You Should Have Known’ came from that experience. ‘Admission’ had to be more of a comedy because of the people who were involved with it. It was not a comedy in my book at all. These are all kinds of variations of the story that are in very good hands. So if you're lucky enough to have good people working on the project, you have to let go.
Many writers are quite possessive of their work. So that is an admirable thing to say...
I learned it from a writer, a friend of mine named Meg Wolitzer, who wrote ‘The Wife’. Many years ago, there was an adaptation of one of her early novels, ‘This Is Your Life’. The first time I met her, I said that the movie was so different from the book, and I loved the book. I asked her what was it like watching your book become this totally different animal. And she said it just was a variation on a theme. I never forgot that. That should be the mantra of anybody who has their work adapted.
What is the one thing you love about the HBO adaptation and one thing that seems a little far-fetched from your idea?
It's a great show. If I didn't know anything about the book I would be clinging onto the clues every single week. I don't know what happens in the final episode. I have seen the first five episodes and read the first five scripts. But the final episode has been so tightly locked that I think some of the actors haven't seen it. HBO was very careful with the last episode. They really want people to be surprised. It really is a David E Kelley story. So I don't feel like I have any stature really to comment on the decisions that he made. 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.
‘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.
Stay tuned to read the second part of the interview with ‘You Should Have Known’ author Jean Hanff Korelitz as she spills more ‘The Undoing’ secrets.