The real way to make a difference --
Sheila: 5-6-7-8, to the Right!
♪♪
-- is to make a fortune.
♪♪
Rose: Physical is southern California, 1980's, aerobics, big hair,
bad marriage. The dawn of a new day.
Are you finally ready to make that campaign video?
I'm ready to make a fortune.
♪♪
When we meet Sheila, she is at a very dark moment
Annie: in her emotional life.
Annie: She's been in the shadows of a
Annie: really dynamic and charismatic husband.
And there's this seed inside her that wants more than that.
Babe, we all gotta do our part.
Are you getting signatures?
No, I'm the candidate.
Sheila and Danny, both individually want something more.
Rory: Danny wants to become a politician,
Rory: Sheila is trying to claim her independence in society.
For her it's about ownership, it's about independence.
Rose: Sheila is a unique heroine because she's an anti-heroine really.
Whose side are you on?
I'm on my side.
Annie: Sheila's suffering from body dysmorphia and bulimia.
And that causes all kinds of fallout in her life.
Rose: A big part of Sheila's story is her illness
Rose: with food.
And it's an illness that women have that women don't talk about, a lot.
I struggled with eating disorders through much of my life.
Annie: So I wanted to explore how divided women often feel projecting
Annie: a certain look and personality on the outside, but having
Annie: something much darker and secretive on the inside.
Everybody has inner voices that we try to temper, and with Sheila,
Rose: you get kind of this insight
and I love that.
Sheila: (You're short, round, lumpy, nobody wants you)
Stop it!
It's such a great, unique perspective on how women talk to themselves.
Dierdre: And the complexity of female friendships.
Yeah you weren't listening to me because I'm a boring fat housewife, who's like why do you....
-No, no, no, don't say that, you look great.
Oh that, thank you. It's a new dress.
I'm sorry this class is full.
There's plenty of space back here.
With Sheila and Bunny...
Della: I both hate her and want to destroy her,
but I also really want to be her friend and love her. (Laughs)
Della: So...It's about these dualities.
You have to press power.
Thanks.
(Click) ♪♪
It's like the contrast of these two sides of her.
Rose: It's the life of Sheila and her domestic life.
Putting on a face for everybody and then
the life of her discovering aerobics.
♪♪
Sheila: It's special, and it makes me feel...powerful.
♪♪
Her idea to have women find power
Annie: through physical strength, that's the revolution that she's enacting.
I ate a batch of oatmeal cookies one by one while the sun came up.
You can't do anything about that but you can change this moment.
Right now...if you move.
♪♪
We tried to really take aerobics seriously
Annie: and show what it did to empower women in the 80's.
Every ugly thought you've ever had about yourself, let it fuel you!
Punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, punch!
Annie: The way that we dramatize this power inside Sheila,
is through this really dynamic movement of the camera.
There's this momentum that starts to happen
as she escalates into this high that she gets from aerobics.
That becomes her passion.
♪♪
Craig Gillespie, who directed the pilot had this very strong vision.
The creative design of this has been so collaborative
Dierdre: in terms of establishing 1981.
Such an interesting time in fashion
because it's just coming out of the 70's into the 80's.
Rose: So it's a really sweet spot.
I remember first trying on the wig and and going "I can't
wear this" and then by the end I'm like "Bigger, bigger, bigger!" (Laughing)
On my God, you look amazing.
So do you, those colors.
Rory: I mean getting dressed up in clothes from 1981
and have my hair look like this is wildly fascinating to me.
Rory: But to have it be 10 episodes of a show that are very entertaining
Rory: and actually about something meaningful is awesome.
I couldn't had done any of this without you, you know that right?
Annie: I can't talk about this show anymore without talking about Rose.
She's surpassed any expectation I could've had.
Annie: She doesn't hold anything back.
♪♪
Rose: We didn't want to pull any punches.
Rose: And that's what makes the show interesting and a bit dangerous.
♪♪
Let's do this thing!