By admin 
SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details of the final of FX‘S Big question.
In FX’s Big question, Lesley Manville plays an ill-mannered nurse who has a bone to pick with Lois (Niecy Nash-Betts), whose husband she cares for while he is in a comatose state. Or, at least, that’s how Lois sees her.
When the series reveals that all is not as it seemed, so does Redd, who is actually a former sex worker trying to make ends meet in the modern day. Sure, she’s having an affair with Marshall (Courtney B. Vance), but that doesn’t necessarily make her a bad guy. Not in the way Lois imagines her.
“I think Redd is a good, kind person,” Manville tells Deadline, adding that she finds her character quite “industrious.”
That’s why she thought the ending of the series, when she rejects Marshall’s vision for the future of their relationship, was “brilliant.”
While it’s true that at one point she lusted after Marshall, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. After Lois stops his plan to have the three of them move in together, Redd tells him that she only played along with pitching the idea to his ex-wife so she could see the shame when she turned it down.
“She wasn’t in it for the full-on, 24/7 relationship, and certainly not for his vision of utopia, which was to live with both women and have the best of both worlds,” Manville tells Deadline. “Both women can see that it’s a win-win for the man, for Marshall, but for them it’s not so much a win-win. Redd wants nothing to do with that.”
In the interview below, Manville spoke to Deadline about the finale, the interesting differences between the two versions of this character she played, and more.
DEADLINE: How did you begin to explore the dichotomy between who Redd was in Lois’s mind and who she was in reality?
LESLEY MANVILLE: Those were conversations with Ryan. When he sent me the series to read, he said, “There’s kind of a big shock in episode 7,” and a big shock didn’t really cut it, I don’t think, because it was basically a cataclysmic shock. But obviously it’s such a delightful proposition to do a series, and play one character for seven episodes, and play another character, or another version of that character, for three episodes. Then Ryan said, “Look, since Nurse Redd is a figment of Lois’s imagination, if she’s in a coma, we can pretty much do whatever we want with her.” Considering that we’ll see her as herself in the final three episodes, maybe the real her should be American, since that’s where the series is set, and that maybe, as Nurse Redd, she could be British, and very British. She will look very neat and trim, sleek and fussy. She’ll have red hair that’s impeccably styled, and she’ll have way too much makeup on for a nurse, and big, long red fingernails – and some sort of nurse’s uniform, but you can tell it’s not really a nurse’s uniform. nurse uniform. It’s all very advanced, the look.
All those things evolve. It starts with Ryan, then it moves on to me and my thoughts, and then you talk about costume and hair and makeup, and you layer all these things together, and then there she is. But I think it was quite confusing for a lot of people watching it because they just thought, ‘Well, this doesn’t look like any nurse I know.’ So I think people started to think that we were in some strange parallel universe or existence, or because that’s not a realistic nurse that I’m presenting. It’s definitely heightened and surreal in some ways. That’s the carrot to the stick that makes me want to do work. It certainly didn’t disappoint. I loved doing it, and I loved that we decided, when she is no longer Nurse Redd, that she is (actually) not a nurse. She’s in a relationship with Marshall, and she’s navigating life trying to make a living after the COVID-19 crisis, while obviously working at a strip club. She is quite diligent, but very kind and very, very loving towards Marshall. Good.
DEADLINE: In the finale, she tells Marshall that she only agreed to his idea to ask that they all move in together to see how Lois would embarrass him. What did you think of her position between Lois and Marshall?
MANVILLE: I think of Redd: she has a great speech for Lois and she says, “It was great when it was just a fling, and I got him part-time. That was great.’ Redd did her own thing, she had her own life, she worked. Then suddenly he’s moved on, he’s left Lois, and he’s with her all the time, and it’s a whole different ball game for Redd. That’s not what she wanted. She wanted it to be an affair a few times a week. All the things she says in the speech, a little comfort, some talk, a little drinking and some sex, and that’s it. Then you say goodbye the next morning. She wasn’t in it for the full-on, 24/7 relationship, and certainly not for his vision of utopia, which was to live with both women and have the best of both worlds. Having a woman that he still loves, but also having his relationship with Redd, which is warm and comforting and cozy in some ways, but it’s primarily a sexual relationship.
Both women can see that it’s a win-win for the man, for Marshall, but it’s not so much a win-win for them. Redd wants nothing to do with that. Like she says, she just wants to leave and live in Tarpon Springs because it’s a nice place where it’s just kind of quiet, and that’s what her life could be like. She’s actually quite an evolved woman. She realizes that it is indeed great to have a husband for certain things, but that you really don’t want to have to take care of them, clean up after them, cook for them and actually mother them. She’s not interested in that.
DEADLINE: How do you think Redd actually views her role in Lois’ pain? She’s clearly not the evil person Lois made her out to be in a coma, but she’s not innocent either.
MANVILLE: Sister Redd, you need to disregard it because that is completely a fabrication of Lois’s making. I think Redd has an absolute sense of himself. She wants to be autonomous. I think she sees her affair with Marshall as not harming anyone, it’s fun for her, it’s fun for Marshall, and it seems like he’s in some amount of pain. She is reassuring. She probably suspects that Lois is less bothered by the affair than it turns out. But I think Redd is a good, kind person, and that’s why she wants to talk to Lois. Isn’t it brilliant? You see that it’s the women coming together and they want to talk about this man in whom they have a shared interest. I wouldn’t see men doing it the same way. These two women are talking about this man they share and they’re just trying to work it out… it’s just another indication of how brilliant women are, that they can take even a really tough situation and confront it in a very relatively gentle and mature way.
DEADLINE: The series features plenty of commentary on women’s rights, religion, climate change and more. What were some of the themes presented or questions asked on the show that you found most compelling?
MANVILLE: Due to my work schedule, not only am I doing a play in the West End, eight shows a week, but I am also filming a series. So I didn’t sit on the couch and watch Big question – or indeed, Disclaimeranother series I’m currently working on for Apple. I haven’t looked at them yet because I don’t have time yet. I’ll have time in about four weeks. But from my memory of reading the scripts, you are of course absolutely right. There are so many issues to be addressed Big question. Very interesting that elections are coming up. The rather brutal world that is Big question sometimes it presents the spotlight on all that(s) you’re going to buy for yourself in the next four years.
Of course this raises the question of religion. I’m not going to go into that now because we don’t have long enough. And like I said, I haven’t watched the show to explore that aspect of it, because I’m not involved in that side of the story at all. Redd’s side of the story is very much about private pain, I think, and the human condition and how you navigate a life for yourself and how difficult that is, and sometimes that means breaking up marriages and breaking up relationships. But I don’t think Redd is entirely responsible for that, because Lois and Marshall are in a strange place anyway, for all kinds of other reasons, not the least of which is the dynamic of Merritt, their daughter. So my story is very concerned with the complexity of the human condition, and how everyone is looking for some solace, some redemption from the hell of life. I don’t mean that everyone’s life is hell. But you know, the complexities of life, the difficulties of life, sometimes just existing day to day and having a simple bit of human touch, warmth and love from someone can make us survive in the very unforgiving world that we are all trying to survive. in a slightly easier way.
I think that’s partly why you kind of understand Lois and Redd and their conversations about Marshall, and what they think about that is very mature and realistic. When you compare the women’s feelings about it to what Marshall thinks about it, his view of it all seems much more self-centered and selfish, while they are much more philosophical about it and know the limitations of what any of them can hope for. to achieve from a relationship with him.