In Starz’s Three Women, Blair Underwood and DeWanda Wise are tackling a subject that’s considered unconventional even in today’s society: open relationships.
The drama series centers on three women who find themselves on “a crash course to radically overturn their lives.”
Betty Gilpin, Gabrielle Creevy and Shailene Woodley also star. In the series, Sloane (Wise), a glamorous entrepreneur in the Northeast, has a committed open marriage with Richard (Underwood), until two sexy new strangers threaten their aspirational love story. The series is based on the best-selling book by Lisa Taddeo.
The series delves into open and poly relationships
An avid book reader, Wise was a fan of the book immediately after its release. “I read it as soon as it came out,” she remembered. “My TV agent hit me up and he was like, ‘Hey, DeWanda, are you aware this book Three Women?’ And I was like, ‘Of course I am.’ And so I met with casting the next day and the rest is history.”
Underwood has played plenty of leading men but he’s never played a role that explores this subject. As taboo as it may be to some, he said the film will surely be a conversation starter. “I feel it’s something that we don’t see often. But it’s something that has existed,” he said. “I learned so much doing this. Back in the day, we called people swingers, and now it’s considered a poly lifestyle. it’s a different thing, but it’s about the agreement between a couple that they’re okay with. So I think it definitely will be a conversation starter.”
While the series is being released now, it was filmed some time ago (and was initially supposed to air on Showtime), which made everyone involved excited for its recent premiere.
“We started in, late October of 2021, and it was during a monsoon. And we had to reconfigure that for shooting that day. But it was late October of 2021 that we started so for it to finally be here is great,” Wise said.
DeWanda Wise on working with Blair Underwood
As equally as they are excited for everyone to see the series, working alongside Underwood was a dream come true for Wise.
“I told him to his face but the folks behind-the-scenes of the film were like, ‘How do you feel about Blair Underwood?’ And I was like, ‘Is that a trick question? Don’t ask me dumb questions?’” she joked. “I am a tremendous fan. And there’s nothing better than being an admirer of someone’s work, their craftsmanship, and then also getting the chance to learn that they were raised right. So shout out to Blair’s amazing parents. Bless them both. When you spend nearly eight months with someone, it’s really important who they are as much as how they work. And he just made everything great.”
Underwood shares a similar sentiment. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: DeWanda is brilliant at what she does. She embodies this character and her humanity – the depth of her emotions and the height of her fabulousness. She does it all. And she’s really incredible to work with,” Underwood said. “It makes it easy when you come to work and when you can just be…she’s so easy to work with…more people will know her name in the years to come. I think she’s she’s a huge star.”
Watch the full interview below:
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