With a single episode, Mare of Easttown’s Lori Ross went from a good role to a great one. Having largely played the sturdy support system and best friend to Kate Winslet’s Mare, the character portrayed by Julianne Nicholson faced two unbearable revelations in the series finale: Not only had her husband, John (Joe Tippett), been confirmed as the father to his teenage relative Erin McMenamin’s baby, but her 13-year-old son, Ryan (Cameron Mann), had learned the secret and fatally (if accidentally) shot Erin in an attempt to intimidate her. Mare’s conclusion hinges less on the case’s grisly facts, though, than on the emotional fallout—and Nicholson’s bone-deep performance, working through Lori’s agony in a series of wrenching scenes, is a big reason why it’s so hard to shake.
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The attention coming Nicholson’s way has left her floored. She has never experienced it before. But this isn’t exactly her arrival in Hollywood; between lead roles in indie films and crime dramas and holding her own opposite Meryl Streep, the 49-year-old actor has been doing great, underrated work onscreen for decades. If this is the moment folks finally catch on, so be it. As Nicholson tells V.F. in our wide-ranging conversation, taking place days after the Mare finale's airing, she’s just getting started.
Vanity Fair: What a few days for you, huh?
Julianne Nicholson: It’s been amazing, I have to say.
Did it surprise you—the amount of attention and excitement that stemmed from the finale, but also the whole show?
Yes, it really has. When I read the scripts, I thought they were great, and they drew me in immediately, and I have always been a fan of Kate’s, so I thought that combination was a good one. But you just never know when you’re making something. You always hope it’s going to be good and that people are going to love it, but they often don’t. To watch it build from the SNL “Murdur Durdur,” just getting bigger and bigger, felt so exciting. And then the finale!
Overall, too, who would have thought that a character-driven mystery set in Delco, which really evolves in this rich exploration of mothers and sons, would become such a phenomenon. I’m curious for your thoughts on that, as someone who’s worked in the industry for a long time.
Well, I just got goosebumps when you said that, because I feel like that’s real. That’s a common experience. I had someone just text me yesterday and be like, how wonderful to have an exploration of middle age and all the inherent dramas and grief that go along with that, and just living your life. And so I think people, I mean, obviously these are extreme examples, but...it’s something that people can relate to just as you move forward in your life, like the importance of friendship and being a parent. And when it’s written in such a sort of beautiful way, it touches people.
Are there other times in your career besides Mare where a response has surprised you? Maybe even in the other direction?
This is the first time I’ve ever experienced anything like this to this degree. I’ve had disappointments often more around the thing not being seen.
Right, I loved Who We Are Now.
Ah, bless you. That’s one of my prime examples. I felt like, This is good. This is original, going for something. So that’s been more often my experience of feeling like no one got to see this thing that we worked really hard on and had a lot of hope around. It’s okay because the work was done and the thing exists, and so it’s still valuable. But I stopped picturing what the result was going to be a long time ago, because only heartache lies that way.
Is the phone ringing a little bit more right now?
It’s just blowing my socks off how people have responded…. With people who are enjoying this show, yes. I get lots of texts and emails and phone calls from people I haven’t heard from in a long time just being lovely…. And Kate and I keep texting each other like, “What’s happening? This is bananas!”
I know you and Kate came into this project as friends, and you’re both playing these great, nuanced roles. How was acting opposite her?
Her total devotion to the story that she’s telling is remarkable, and her attention to detail was really an education—[like] paying attention to how much beer was in the bottle at the start of the scene, so that if she drank some, to make sure that it matched every time. She’s paying attention. I’m bad at multitasking; she’s being 100% honest and open and present in the moment, but in her mind, she’s doing so many things so seamlessly that it was really something to watch. That reminds me [of] when I did [August: Osage County] with the Meryl Streep; her off-camera work was just like her on-camera, giving 150% because she wants the other person to be as good as they can be. Not everybody does that.
Mare being so much about your dynamic with Kate, you do seem to get these rich two-handers from time to time. I go to your role in Masters of Sex and your work with Lizzy Caplan there.