Like Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar” and Moira Buffini and Alison Newman’s “Harlots,” Netflix’s upcoming “Gypsy” has dedicated itself to supporting women behind the scenes. According to Entertainment Weekly, the first season of the Naomi Watts-led psychological drama features 10 episodes, and six of them will be helmed by women. And all 10 eps will be penned by female writers.
Sam Taylor-Johnson (“Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Nowhere Boy”), Victoria Mahoney (“Yelling to the Sky”), and Coky Giedroyc (“Harlots”) are among the first season’s helmers. Creator/showrunner Lisa Rubin is writing alongside Jessica Mecklenburg and Sneha Koorse. Watts will serve as EP, as will Liza Chasin (“The Theory of Everything”) and Rubin.
As EW summarizes, “Gypsy” centers on “Jean Holloway (Watts), an established New York City therapist who, on paper, has the perfect life: a notable career, a spacious home in the Connecticut suburbs, a successful lawyer husband (Billy Crudup), and a bright young child. What she lacks, however, is restraint. Jean’s insatiable curiosity ultimately sees her skirting ethical lines and blurring the borders of professional reality and personal fantasy, piecing together the fragments of her patients’ admissions while stealthily forging forbidden relationships — some more physical than others — with the people in their lives.”
Rubin’s idea for “Gypsy” — the first pilot she wrote — was inspired by the different moral standards women and men are held to. “I believe all the people have the capacity for good and for bad,” Rubin observed. “We’ve seen so many male characters, from Walter White to Tony Soprano to Don Draper, do things that are amoral, and we allow that. Why shouldn’t we allow that from a woman?”
Hinting at the behavior audiences can expect from Jean, Rubin added, “You’re having fun with a character who, at times, you’re going to be totally on board with, and at times completely appalled by.”
For her part, Watts is excited to portray a woman in the midst of an identity crisis. “Before she knows it, she’s creating another identity, and it feels like a cautionary tale. We can all live with our fantasies, but she’s acting on them… that’s a hard thing to live with when the lies get bigger and deeper,” the “Birdman” actress told EW.
Watts has a number of other projects in the works. She will play the matriarch of a dysfunctional family in an adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ memoir, “The Glass Castle,” currently in post-production. Watts is also set to portray Gertrude in “Ophelia,” a retelling of “Hamlet” from Ophelia’s perspective. You can next catch the Oscar-nominated actress in Gaby Dellal’s trans teen drama “3 Generations,” which opens this Friday, May 5.
“Gypsy” will debut on Netflix this summer. Head over to EW for more info and to check out exclusive stills from the upcoming series.
