Three Women’s Betty Gilpin Talks About Her Most Important Takeaway From The Book And Why The Real Lina ‘Will Remain Anonymous’
"This is somebody who is living the wrong life."
Among the releases of the 2024 TV schedule this fall is the STARZ’s miniseries Three Women. Based on the 2019 nonfiction book of the same name by Lisa Taddeo, the drama serves as a deep dive into the complicated facets of female sexuality through true stories of multiple women from across the United States. CinemaBlend spoke to one of the show’s main stars, Betty Gilpin, about the person she portrays, and the source material was pivotal to her.
Betty Gilpin Shares Massive Takeaway From The Three Women Book
Much like Shailene Woodley’s character of Gia in the Three Women series, author Lisa Taddeo travelled across the U.S. in hopes of finding the right stories to tell about women and their sexuality. Among the women she found was a suburban wife and mother living in Indiana who dealt with a very unsatisfying marriage. After speaking with the woman (who’s name is Lina in the novel and series), her story has been immortalized in Three Women. And it’s one that had her fighting for her own pleasure after her high school crush gets back into her life.
Along with CinemaBlend’s conversation with Shailene Woodley about how playing her role brought about memories of her time living on the road, Betty Gilpin spoke to me about how Lisa Taddeo’s The New York Times bestselling novel assisted her in playing her latest character. In her words:
The first episode certainly makes a point of communicating Lina’s feelings in a visual way – especially in one sequence when Lina stops in her tracks while grocery shopping at a scene playing on TVs of a romantic moment in The Princess Bride. Throughout playing Lina in the series, Gilpin really grasped on to the deep want that is communicated through the novel.
Why Three Women's Real Lina Will 'Remain Anonymous'
Although Lina is based on a real person, during our interview, Betty Gilpin shared that it was decided that she would not get in contact with the actual person Three Women is based on, even though she now has a series based on her true story. As Gilpin continued:
Gilpin had a lot of information to do justice to Lina between the novel and Lisa Taddeo as a resource, but the real Lina is out there living her life without the world knowing she is the basis of a STARZ series. Gilpin, who recently led the Mrs. Davis cast after GLOW’s shocking cancellation, feels incredibly real as Lina, and you’ll definitely want to follow her story as Three Women unfolds week by week.
The first episode of Three Women is streaming now on the STARZ app. You can look forward to more episodes weekly on Fridays and check out what other upcoming book adaptations are on the way.
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Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.