LOS ANGELES — Prime Video’s new show “Expats” centers on three women whose lives intersect after the disappearance of a child.
Lulu Wang, who serves as the creator, director and writer for the series, told Spectrum News that “Expats” interrogates privilege and explores what happens when the line between victimhood and culpability becomes blurred. It was that idea that pushed Wang to adapt Janice Y.K. Lee's novel, “The Expatriates,” into a series.
“We identify and sympathize with victims, and we don’t often think about the perpetrator, the people who make mistakes and the people who — whether on purpose or by accident — make certain choices that have hurt other people, and the guilt they live with and the trauma. That storyline is so important because it breaks us out of thinking of this binary thinking — that everyone can only be one. You can either be a victim or you can be a perpetrator. That is your identity for your whole life, and that is just not true,” she said.
David (Jack Huston) in "Expats." (Jupiter Wong/ Prime Video)
Jack Houston, who plays David Starr, says that he hopes what resonates with the audience is that we need to be more forgiving.
“We all deal with trauma in different ways. I think the show really explores and showcase that. Hopefully, people will take away to be a little kinder, more forgiven, a little more understanding about humanity. We are all flawed, and we all make mistakes,” he said.
Brian Tee, who plays Nicole Kidman’s husband as Clarke, said the first time he read the scripts he thought it was the best thing he had read. He praised Wang for enlisting an all-women writers’ room for the show.
“The nuance of characters and the world that Lulu has built was completely brilliant,” he said. “It is just a testament to her and her filmmaking.”
Clarke (Brian Tee) in "Expats." (Atsushi Nishijima/ Prime Video)
Working alongside Kidman, Tee said, brings an element of elevation. Kidman, she added, is the standard of artistry and talent.
“Expats” stars Academy-Award and Emmy-Emmy winning Nicole Kidman, Sarayu Blue, Ji-young Yoo, Brian Tee and Jack Huston.
The first three episodes of “Expats” are now available on Prime Video with new episodes launching weekly.
Click the arrow above to watch the full interview with Brian Tee, Jack Huston and Lulu Wang.
