‘Tell Me Lies’ EPs Emma Roberts, Meaghan Oppenheimer on Crafting the Perfect Toxic Boyfriend
variety.comEmily Longeretta When Emma Roberts and Meaghan Oppenheimer read Carola Lovering’s 2018 book “Tell Me Lies,” they were hooked, likely for the same reason that fans were: It told the story of a woman falling for a very toxic man who turns her life upside down.
The show, however, took a bit of a different approach. Instead of being told from both points of view, the Hulu drama is told strictly from Lucy’s (Grace Van Patten), as she falls for manipulative Stephen (Jackson White).
The other difference is that the leading man is a less controlling than in the book — he’s toxic and abusive, Oppenheimer admits, but they had to find a way to make him likable. “He has to walk such a fine line and he’s going to be polarizing, no matter who you cast in this role.
Not everyone is gonna like him and they shouldn’t. But getting everyone on board with the idea, being like, not everyone’s gonna like the lead character, is a little scary for some people to hear from a writer,” she tells Variety.
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