Succession Star Reveals Willa Was Only Supposed To Be In 3 Episodes

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Succession season 3.

Succession star Justine Lupe reveals that her character, Willa, was only supposed to appear in three episodes. Having recently concluded its season 3, the HBO dramedy earned nearly universal raves for turning a conversation between four members of the Roy family into a scene as memorably devastating as the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones. But as Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook), and Roman (Kieran Culkin) were left broken and seemingly adrift after losing another battle with their father Logan (Brian Cox), other characters ended Succession season 3 on a more positive note.

Willa Ferreyra and Connor Roy (Alan Ruck), for example, made their engagement official after several seasons of quiet uncertainty about their relationship. Seeing that Connor is upset about being overlooked by his half-siblings yet again, Willa reluctantly agrees to his marriage proposal with a sort of ‘Why not?’ attitude. It’s not the most romantic moment, and as the camera lingers on Willa’s face, it’s hilariously evident that she already regrets what she said, but it is still sweet. It’s also apparently a big moment for a Succession couple that, as Lupe tells it, were not supposed to be together this long.

In an interview with Insider, the actress reveals that Connor and Willa were originally meant to split up in the Succession season 1, episode 7 episode “Austerlitz.” Lupe notes that she even auditioned with the break-up scene. However, as the writers continued to re-tool and change the script, Willa kept sticking around. As a result, the relationship between the former escort and the eldest Roy son became one of the relatively lighter storylines in Succession. Lupe’s quote is included below.

“I was auditioning with the breakup between Connor and Willa that was supposed to be in Santa Fe. There was one — the Santa Fe script in particular — where they kept on doing rewrites over and over, and Willa kept on sticking around just a little bit longer. I was like, ‘Wait, am I not going to get thrown out? This is awesome.’”

It’s easy to see how the Succession season 1 episode could have been the end for Connor and Willa. Though it’s never stated outright, Connor feels sensitive about Willa’s past work as an escort. And, as far Willa is concerned, she doesn’t love Connor, but does like him and their arrangement well enough. These differences could spell doom for the couple in the long haul, in a similar manner to Shiv and her husband Tom (Matthew Macfadyen). Perhaps improbably, however, Connor and Willa are still going relatively strong for now.

Lupe’s comments point to one of the many great things about Succession, which is the ability of series creator Jesse Amstrong and his team of writers to shift gears, and know when to show flexibility regarding storylines. Another major romance, between Roman and Gerri (J-Smith Cameron), was similarly unplanned and largely happened because of the built-in chemistry and camaraderie between the actors. Although it’s true that neither Willa or Gerri are likely to become main characters, with whole Succession episodes following their perspectives, the pair adds so much to the central Roy family with their presence and, at times, just with their facial expressions.

Source: Insider

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Abdullah Al-Ghamdi
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Abdullah Al-Ghamdi joined Screen Rant in August 2019, focusing on movie and television news. In January of the same year, he wrote a 3500+ word piece on why Primo Colón is underrated. He considers it his finest work. When he’s not arguing for the merits of his favorite wrestler, he can be reached at: [email protected].

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