Alison Pill Interview: Them

Them, created by Little Marvin and produced by Lena Waithe, follows in the vein of recent social horror hits like Get Out and Lovecraft Country. The new series from Amazon, which is now out, combines supernatural thrills with the very real terror of racism.

One of the agents of said racism is Betty Wendell, played by Alison Pill. The actress spoke to Screen Rant about diving into her character and understanding the framework of her narrative.

Can you tell me a little bit about Betty Wendell and what attracted you to the role?

Alison Pill: Betty Wendell is a woman who lives in the Compton neighborhood that the Emorys move into, and who will do anything to stop this first black family from moving into her neighborhood.

And my attraction was to the project first, because I thought it was such an effective, fascinating combination, and way of exploring something. It’s a new way of combining this real world terror and grounding it in this real world terror, and then having these supernatural horror elements actually ground the psychological elements even more. Having those two pieces – the real world outside, and the fractures inside the mind – in conversation with one another to really explore how it feels to be terrorized.

Betty is definitely the ringleader of the of this community here. Can you talk to me about what lengths she’s gonna go to try to get them out of Compton?

Alison Pill: I think [Little Marvin] looks at the role of white women in this racist context, in this white supremacist context, in a really important way. There’s a world in which this villain could be a man and operate on a very different level, and Betty will go to any lengths as a woman. She will incite violence on her behalf, and she will manipulate and smile and be polite. But the limitations of her role prevent and allow a lot of different things.

She goes about her violence in a very different way than a man would, and that a man eventually does.

Speaking of that, one fascinating relationship is between Betty and Clarke, played by Liam McIntyre. Can you talk to me about their relationship?

Alison Pill: Yeah, I think we talked a lot about this relationship, because it feels really important. And I think over the course of the show, it becomes clearer as to where they’re both coming from. But it is how we carve out places of safety and protection in a world that feels unsafe; they may not be good relationships, but they feel comforting in their space in different and important ways enough that we hang on to them despite [everything].

Little Marvin wrote this show, and he’s brilliant. Can you talk to me about the collaboration process and how he helped inform the character of Betty?

Alison Pill: Yeah. He created her. When he told me her storyline, and I understood some of her backstory and what was motivating her, it gave me all the things I needed to work with. And it also felt important to explore these different ways that white women do violence while maintaining their own victimhood.

To have an opportunity to look at that, while at the same time being given this really full character who is unlikable to the core and human – but is full – and it’s not a reductive storytelling around her character – I felt was really important.

Them is now streaming on Amazon.