Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the HBO Max Original adaptation of JP Delaney’s bestselling psychological thriller The Girl Before is one of the more captivating shows offered this season. The four-episode limited series, premiering Feb. 10 on HBO Max, follows the parallel lives of two women — played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Jessica Plummer — who live in a cold, ultra-minimalist “smart house” designed by eccentric architect, Edward (David Oyelowo). After Mbatha-Raw’s Jane falls for the home designer, she soon discovers another woman has died in the home under mysterious circumstances.
In an exclusive with PopCulture.com ahead of the U.S. series premiere on Thursday, Mbatha-Raw and Oyelowo admit as nice as the house appears in the show, the two would not want to live in it for the long haul. “Maybe a vacation home,” Mbatha-Raw told PopCulture through a laugh. “I feel like it’s not a sort of long-term living solution for me. It’s not really cozy enough or homely enough for me to feel sort of like that’s where my soul lives. But I think maybe for a holiday or for a party, I think it could be fine.”
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Oyelowo agreed, saying “absolutely not” to the hypothetical of ever living in One Folgate Street, the high-tech home his character Edward built in The Girl Before. “I have four kids. I have four dogs. I even have a parrot and a turtle. Can you imagine Edward knowing there was a turtle in One Folgate Street?”
Admitting how the home’s housekeeper — an electronic system that gathers information about the residents — “would incinerate the turtle,” Oyelowo adds it would be hard to pass the daily tests too due to his own home design spaces and style. “All of us would be disqualified,” he said. “I think we’re better for it.”
While the show is a murder-mystery that will keep you on edge with a starry cast including Ben Hardy, Oyelowo, Plummer and Mbatha-Raw, it is also Mbatha-Raw’s first time producing. Sharing how she was invited by 42, a U.K.-based production company, to take part in the creative aspect, the 38-year-old reveals she was the first actor attached to the script written by Marissa Lestrada and the book’s author, Delaney. “I think there were only two scripts written when I was attached and so, to be able to be part of that script development process was an amazing learning curve for me,” she said. “I think the times that it was during lockdown over Zoom, when we were all meeting, discussing the scripts and casting was a wonderful opportunity for me to sort of stretch new muscles.” Adding how it was a “great experience,” Mbatha-Raw admits it led to a moment where she was “able to sort of broaden [her] perspective” over how to make a TV show with all the elements involved.
As for Oyelowo, the classically trained actor approached his character Edward, a cold yet complex character, with a welcomed curiosity. He is a walking contradiction. He is charming and therefore you can understand why he attracts these wonderful women in a sense. But then he is also repellent because even they start to realize there is something about this that doesn’t feel wholly comfortable. But by then, he’s sort of somehow sucked them into his web,” he said adding how his character comes with a lot of “trauma” and “pain.” He continued, “He’s maybe taking advantage of this as well and there are many relationships that are like that, that are co-dependent that are not wholly healthy, but people are in them for all sorts of reasons.”
Sharing how his character in light of the circumstances turns up the dial “quite a bit” on this show, his ultimate hope is that audiences will watch it and relate. “[To] be able to see their own lives, their own circumstances, their own relationships in this —that’s going to be partly what compels them about the show.”
The Girl Before premieres all four episodes on HBO Max Thursday, Feb. 10. For more with Gugu Mbatha-Raw, David Oyelowo and all your streaming news, stick to PopCulture.com for the latest.
