Brooke Shields opens up on playing a never-before-seen role in 'You’re Killing Me': 'This generational gap..'
Brooke Shields has come a long way from her established image in the 1980s. Following a new lease of life as the queen of feel-good rom-coms on Netflix, particularly 'A Castle for Christmas' and 'Mother of the Bride', the 60-year-old actress stood at an important crossroad in her life, one that called for a lot of introspection. Perhaps it's owing to her magnanimous nature that Shields ultimately decided to step out of her comfort zone and take up a role she hadn't had before, that of a best-selling mystery novelist turned amateur detective on the debut season of Acorn TV's 'You're Killing Me.'
Shields recently sat down for an insightful interview with the Los Angeles Times, during which the actress spoke at length about her career, her approach to playing characters, and the watershed moment in her life that came at 60. When asked about whether she spotted mystery clues right from the get-go, Shields answered, "I don’t want to really know, I’m not big on gore. I like getting just enough clues to make me feel smart, but not to really get it — at the end, I want to be like, ‘I didn’t know who did it." Shields plays the character of Allison 'Allie' Chandler, the best-selling mystery author who created the famous Selena St. Cloud.
After her publisher convinced her to step out into the world and have her creative vision updated, Allie saw herself teaming up with a podcaster and aspiring writer known as Andi, played by Amalia Williamson. The duo then partners up to solve real-life crime in their quaint little New England town of Founder's Cove. The inciting incident happened to be the murder of one of Allie's close friends. Shields fits in perfectly with Allie's character, as they share many similarities, including their age and respective stations in life. When asked to elaborate on this subject, Shields noted, "It felt bizarrely autobiographical in the sense that I’m in an era in my life where my kids are making fun of me because I say things like, 'There will be no vaporizing in this house' — and I say it with complete conviction. There was this idea of this generational gap between these two women."
She further added, "When Robin and I were developing this, we thought, 'Wouldn’t it be interesting to delve into that dynamic? ' And what world could we set it in that would make it fun, smart, a little dangerous at times, but really just purely entertaining?” What made me love Allie is that she’s not afraid to look stupid. But when her real wits and intelligence come into place, it’s unbeatable. There’s this level to her. She’s silly. She doesn’t mean to be; she doesn’t take herself too seriously, but she happens to be very intelligent, so that combination of those two things makes her just appealing. And then the relationship with Andi is so counterbalancing in a really delightful way." 'You're Killing Me' consists of six episodes, was created by long-time Shields collaborator Robin Bernheim, and is available on Acorn TV, which is owned by AMC.
