The Abandons took us to the wild west with Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson. The duo talked about the intricacies of cowboy hats and horses with The Mary Sue’s Rachel Leishman. After we got the ideal Western vibes out of the way, these two queens showed how much they’ve been thinking about the genre with The Abandons.
If you don’t know, the hook of this Netflix series is that Anderson and Headey are in direct competition with each other. Despite that contentious rivalry on the show, it seems like these actors had plenty of laughs on-set. Check out what they had to say for yourself down below!
“It was great, it was fun, we both held it quite lightly,” Anderson smirked. “We’re both very focused on the day and the scenes. And, fully lean into everything about the scenes. But, at the same time, can jump around in between, which is not always the case. It was nice, a nice bit of levity.”
When it comes to westerns, the space can still be very male dominated. We had to ask if that calculus played a factor in deciding how to approach this role. For Anderson, absolutely. She said, “It’s definitely one of the reasons to do it!”
“I mean, I would never consider the post of it all. Do you know what I mean? It’s just exciting, as a thing to read as a sort of potential idea,” Headey shared. “Of getting to go to work with another woman and have these scenes that are usually kind of reserved as you say, ‘For men.’ Especially, two women of our age…”
The Abandons takes us back to the old west
When you think about period pieces, that iconic costuming roars into the back of your mind. It could be hard to connect with older material sometimes. But Headey mentioned that her costar is the one who had to deal with the harder costuming this time around.
“Gillian has the tough dialogue and the tough costumes,” Headey joked. “I was, for once, I was like I had a pair of pants! I had a shirt.There was a plain shirt. I was like, ‘this is what I like,’ and then I thought I’ll wear gloves. And then, we don’t have to do my hand tattoos. But, that didn’t always pan out, you know. We had awesome costumes that were beautifully made and thought about.”
Anderson joked, “I wore a lot of black. A lot of thick wool. 19 layers. Yes, many, many layers on top of a horse in over 100° weather, with dust. And, I hope you’re feeling sorry for me right now.”
She would clarify that she loved the way the costume added to character. The star also pointed out that the clothes always make a difference. For what it’s worth, the beef between their characters in this series will draw you in and the clothes will finish the job.
The Abandons is currently streaming on Netflix!
(Photo Credit: Netflix)
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