Hello, Netflix Book Club, I am Uzo Aduba,
and I'm your host of,
But Have You Read The Book?
Today, we're talking small town gossip and big time drama
with South Carolina's favorite trio, the Sweet Magnolias.
Joining me today are Brooke Elliott, Heather Headley,
Jo Garcia Swisher,
stars of Sweet Magnolias,
as well as Sheryl Anderson, the series showrunner.
Welcome, everyone.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much.
I mean, there have been eleven books
in the Sweet Magnolias series,
so I think it's pretty appropriate
for us to give a toast to Sherryl Woods.
- Yes ma’am. - Yes.
- Can we give a toast? - To Ms. Woods!
- Yes! To Ms. Woods. - To Ms. Woods.
So Sheryl, each of these books
- has a different protagonist. - Mhm.
So as the showrunner, how did you go about developing
all of the different perspectives with each of the stories?
So, I read the first three books,
which are about these three fabulous women,
but reading all three of them
back to back,
well we're on Netflix, binging the read...
Yes, yes, yes.
really cemented the fact that this is a series
about the power of female friendship,
and so I wanted to tweak what Ms. Woods had created
and turn it into an ensemble.
First of all, you ladies have dream BFF friendships,
the ones you write on your vision board level, it’s next level.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know about you ladies
but the margarita nights
are some of my favorite scenes to shoot.
Pour it out!
Because we really are a bunch of dingdongs,
just laughing and joking. We don’t --
They take forever to shoot, because we don't stop.
But to me, I leave work those days feeling very full.
Do you think it's important
to have a story that shows the power--
- That exists within female relationships? - Yes.
I look at the stories of our characters,
they're ride or die, right,
but they’re also women who have,
you're accountable to your sister,
so that there's a point that, you know,
“I don't like how you're handling that situation.
I'm gonna ride or die with it,
but I'm gonna let you know.”
“I'm gonna help you bury that body,”
- but...”-- - You know what I mean.
“I'm gonna help you bury the body.”
“But I'm not happy about it.”
- “Like, it’s a bummer.” - “You shouldn't have done it.”
“You shouldn't have done it,” exactly.
“More sand.”
Yeah.
And I think that's the best part of it,
because I do think that there's a, you know --
some people are like, "Oh, she's my ride or die."
I was like, "Yeah, but does she hold you accountable?"
Okay.
Okay, got one for this.
Feeling the pressure, oh!
I actually like your answer.
All right, take my answer.
What is it? Trisha?
- It is. - It's the right thing.
- It's the right thing. - It's the right thing.
Oh, I suck.
You would, because you are really thoughtful like that.
That would be you. I thought Justin would too.
Justin would.
He's gotta keep his ladies happy.
Yeah!
It’s like “Heather, Heather,
Heather!” “Huh, what?”
Okay.
This is classic, I think, right?
Hold on.
Here we go, I got it.
- Okay. - Okay.
- Oh, yes! - You can have one on the coffee table.
- Oh, The Notebook. - We will definitely be
- product placing that. - Okay, so I've been bad.
The right answer is, Knight in Shining Armor,
but 50 Shades of Gray.
- You know it. - Yeah.
So I think that's it.
It's good to have a BFF around.
- Yes. - Yes.
To laugh, to cry, to share.
All of it.
Are you guys friends in real life?
- The energy feels very-- - We love each other.
Do you?
I always make a point not to fall in love
with my co-leads.
So, I just wanna know you,
and then I wanna fall in the love with you, organically,
because I do think sometimes, you know, we meet them,
and we're like, "Oh my gosh, we're gonna be best friends.”
"I love you, I'll come over for Christmas,
and we're gonna be fine."
But then you see them eat a chicken wing,
and you're just like, "Maybe not."
“Maybe not.”
- “Maybe not this Christmas.” - “Maybe not this Christmas.”
“And I don’t know how to tell you.”
“And I don't know how to tell you.”
However, with these women, I fell in love with them
right at the top.
Did that play into the casting?
We were looking for the best actress
for each individual role and hoping we would get
to where they were the first scene they shot together
on the church lawn, and I stood there at video village,
and I thought, “I think this is magic.”
And then we got to the first margarita night,
and I turned to Norman, our producing director,
and I was like, "We have a show!"
Well, now that we've established
that Bill is not what you want, can we move on to what you do?
He is my son's coach.
So there is a little something, something there.
Farmer Jeremy took me on a drive today, he's beautiful.
I could seriously get used to this.
Can you imagine when our kids ride?
Our kids?
I want a family for myself.
It's irresponsible to bring another child
into a world that cannot support the people already here.
Do the storms ever stop?
No, but neither do the rainbows.
Hi there, Netflix Book Club.
This is Sherryl Woods, the author of Sweet Magnolias.
Throughout this episode, I'm gonna tell you
about the characters and how I created them for the series.
Let's dive into Maddie Townsend,
portrayed by JoAnna Garcia Swisher.
Maddie Townsend is a single mom,
who is coping with the sudden end of her marriage
through her husband's infidelity,
and when everything is unraveling,
she's trying for a new beginning,
and she has two friends around her
who are there to support her as she makes this journey
discovering who she can be and not just who she was.
How is she going to move forward?
Well, I think there's coming of age stories at every age,
- and so this show really - That’s great.
celebrates a new coming of age.
I remember our first season when Maddie was getting ready
to go out with Cal for the first time,
and we had like a whole lingerie,
like you gotta get some underwear that match the bra,
like you gotta do something.
And Maddie probably didn't have
even one pair of underwear match her bra.
She probably had the same underwear for ten years.
So, I think we're coming of age in different ways.
With the love and the romance and--
And the chemistry is pretty serious.
I know, we, yeah.
I'm not sayin', but I'm sayin'.
Listen, that's our job.
Ah!
Now this is best beach I've been to.
It's such a beautiful relationship in the book,
but I also think that in both romantic relationships
and in best friend relationships,
we learn so much about each other in conflict.
And so, I wanted their relationship
to be a little bit messier than it was in the book.
You know, it takes a lot for her
to kind of let the wall down and maybe fall in love again
or even just be open to all of that,
so for Maddie's type A side,
I'm like, I know can get this done.
I've got the kids. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do that.
And it's like, I wanted her to just relax.
Will she, does she?
I think just when she does, things go crazy again!
So it’s like --
No!
I'm like, just when Maddie's fine being a hot mess,
and she's like, "Oh cool," you release that control,
and then all of a sudden you get hit by, but that's life.
She's not a lot like me,
- but she fun. - But she fun.
But she fun.
I just wanna save this moment while we can.
Woo, I'm happy to oblige.
Let's dig into Dana-Sue,
who's played by the wonderful Brooke Elliott.
Dana-Sue has some things in common with Maddie.
She has gone through a very bad divorce,
but she is probably much more volatile than Maddie is,
and basically threw Ronnie out
and created quite the stir when he went,
but she owns a restaurant that has taken off
and become sort of iconic in South Carolina,
and she has a teenage daughter
that she's struggling to raise,
but she also has diabetes and so on.
And again, I was trying to create a character
that could be relatable to women who are dealing
with health issues and divorce
and all those kinds of things.
- Dana-Sue, I'm just worried about you. - Okay, stop fussing, I'm fine!
Dana-Sue! Dana-Sue.
Does Dana-Sue ever put Dana-Sue first?
That's the thing, she doesn't.
And yet, I do believe she's trying in this situation
to actually do what is healthy for her in this marriage.
She is dealing with a husband who was unfaithful.
Then you throw the daughter in,
and so is it better to have a healthier home
without the fighting or the husband,
or is it better to put the family back together
and try to put the family back,
and I think, which way is the healthier way for my child?
Which I think a lot of people
- are gonna relate to that point. - I think a lot of people.
And then also, what is best for you?
From the mothers that I know, my friends who are mothers,
my family who are mothers, it's so much,
the children are the number one on the list,
and so where do they fit,
like, what's healthy also for them?
The thing that we like to play with is,
so you have two women dealing
with spouses who've caused a lot of damage,
and we wanted to show two different ways that women react.
- How you deal differently. - Dana-Sue, yeah...
Dana-Sue is very much the one,
“I'm just just gonna power through it.”
And so many of us, I will admit, stay busy
so that we don't have a chance
to look down into the emotional abyss
and be honest about the choices that I'm making
and how they affect not only the people I love,
but how they affect me,
because I might not be paying attention.
So then are we Team Jeremy or are we Team Ronnie?
I'm Team Jeremy for what he gives to her.
He gives her so much of getting to feel beautiful.
So, there's an innocence and a playfulness to Jeremy
that allows her to find a different part of herself
and a less have-to-power-through side of her,
but I do think that... God there's just no replacing
that connection with Ronnie, I think.
Ronnie.
It's just, I've been pushing so hard for yes
because I didn't want to give you a chance to say no.
And last but not least, let's talk about Helen Decatur,
played by the incomparable Heather Headley.
Helen has the most self confidence of any of them.
She is dedicated to her career.
She's been successful, and yet,
what she's discovering at this point in her life
is that she is missing out on having a family,
and she's really struggling
with wanting that personal side to her life
and how she's going to find that.
Back to when I created the series,
the idea was to reflect women
at a turning point in their lives.
And each of these three women has been at a turning point,
and none more so than Helen.
And so just to circle into the question now,
what is Helen facing this season?
- How long we got? - Yeah.
Her big thing this year is that now she's figured out
that Ryan's gone, and Ryan's leaving,
and she's always wanted to have a baby,
and she finds out that, of course, she's pregnant
and then miscarries. And I--
Also important, to be highlighting this chapter of the story
that life journeys, for a lot of women, that we don't see.
And, Uzo, I had said to her,
when we talked about the last season,
"I think there are some things that we,
as women, do not discuss."
- Yes. - Right?
We don't discuss infertility, I think,
miscarriage,
perimenopause.
There are some things that we just don't discuss,
and it's own only after it happens,
then we go, "Oh, you too? I didn't know."
And so, this was something that,
I remember when I went to her, and I was like,
"Well, how deep in the grief do you want to go here?"
And she said, "All the way in. All the way in."
And, I think too--
Well in that beautiful moment too,
when after they leave and then the--
- Yeah. - That day.
And you know how it is.
You hold it together long enough.
And they see a little bit of it,
but they never see the whole thing.
And they leave, and it's just the wail of it.
But I thought to myself, what a blessing it is
to be able to to fall back into the soft bed of friends.
How important was it to you, Sheryl, for that story point?
I'm hoping that women are going to turn to each other
as they're watching the show
and say, "Have you been through this?"
And "This is what I've been through.”
"Let's talk about it. Let's share about it,"
because again, that's where the healing comes from,
and there are just a lot of things
that women go through where we're expected to be strong,
and you've gotta wail before you can stand up again.
Amen, amen.
But there's singing too.
- Yes. - There's a little bit of singing.
Well, you don't have a Tony winner and not use it.
That's right.
♪ Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about. ♪
♪ How about love? ♪
The fun for us as writers
is that these three fascinating women,
embodied by these three amazing women, give us so many layers
and so many textures that we can say,
"Well, some women do this. Some women do this.
Some women do this."
Turn to your best girlfriend and say,
"But what are you gonna do?"
It's really special.
- Thank you. - I mean it.
I wish you a thousand years.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- Come visit us! - Absolutely!
- Can I come to Serenity? -You can be my sister!
Done, done!
- My long-lost sister! - You heard it here first!
You can have the baby for me.
I think we just got the official commitment!
You are part of Serenity.
Yes Ma'am, thank you.
She could be my sister who was in jail.
Yes, that's the backstory! That's the backstory.
See the tie-in?
- I do. I do. - Yes.
You can check out Sweet Magnolias on Netflix,
and you can also check out one or all eleven
of Sherryl's books, Sweet Magnolias, available in stores.
Like Maddie's mom says, "Cheers to Serenity
and all the women who make it so special."
- Cheers! - Cheers!
That was great, ladies!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- It was so great. - Yes.
Congratulations, you guys are amazing.