In ‘Shining Girls’ Elisabeth Moss Travels Through Time To Stop A Serial Killer

If any actress has been able to master the art of fighting and clawing her way out of the darkest depths of hell, it’s Emmy Award-winner Elisabeth Moss, who is best known for her brilliant portrayal of June Osborne, a woman caught in the evil web of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale.

In the new Apple
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TV+ series, Moss slips into the skin of Kirby Mazrachi, a Chicago newspaper archivist trying to find the man who brutally attacked her and left her for dead. She’s been haunted in the years since the attack and when the body of a missing woman surfaces, she discovers that their attacks are linked and teams up with a veteran reporter to investigate the crimes.

In this eight-episode metaphysical drama, writer, executive producer and showrunner Silka Luisa was tasked with unraveling Lauren Beukes’ bestselling novel of the same name and it was no easy feat. One note to viewers: this is a complicated tale and some reviewers have found it confusing. It is in certain moments as we are seeing things unravel through Kirby’s eyes as she, too, is figuring things out. So, pay attention to every clue and know there are many along the way.

When asked what made Luisa want to take this novel to the screen, she explained that she first read Beukes’ book when it first came out in 2013. “I read it purely as a genre lover, not sure what to expect. And it totally took me by surprise. Lauren found a way to make serial killer tropes original by adding a layer of science fiction and more importantly living in the aftermath of violence, not just glorifying the act.”

She went on to further explain how this story stayed with her over the years. “When people would ask what kind of material I wanted to adapt, I would always use Shining Girls as an example. It’s so rare to find source material that balances an original take with characters that feel real. The book had been in development as a feature for many years, but when I heard that there was the possibility of doing it as a TV show, I lobbied hard to be the one to adapt it.”

As the book neared its first decade in existence, Kirby always stuck with her. “She’s not a pure heroine in the typical sense. She gets blown back, scared, and sometimes feels smaller than what seems like forces that are much larger than her. That balance of vulnerability and resilience still felt wholly original and exciting.”

Luisa acknowledges that this is a complicated story and talks about some challenges during filming. “We were very lucky in that we could shoot Chicago for Chicago. That being said, the city has changed so much since the 90s. I hadn’t realized how long ago 1992 was until we started trying to recreate it. On top of this being a period piece, throw in the element of shifting realities and you’ve got a daily challenge to keep all the details authentic. We were always shooting out of order so onset, the biggest hurdle was keeping actors, directors, and our entire production on the same page about where we were. This is very much a show that lives in the details, like any mystery.” She adds how important it was to keep track of the various props and wardrobe changes. “Every department had to work so hard to be consistent with both the timing and the show’s internal logic and mythology.”

She says Moss was always her first pick for the lead and the first actress they reached out to for the role. “She was the pie in the sky dream. Kirby has to be a chameleon. You see her in this kaleidoscope of roles through different times in her life and as slightly different versions of herself. There is simply no other actress that can pull you through those shifts while making it feel genuine to what that experience would be like.”

And because Moss came onto the project at an early stage, they were able to collaborate on the details of Kirby’s journey. “So often you write in a vacuum, finish something and then hand it over. But Elisabeth became a touchstone as I was writing the show. It was important to me that Kirby didn’t navigate the aftermath of trauma in a straight line. It was okay and necessary for her to have emotional setbacks, to not always make the right choice. Elisabeth and I worked together to calibrate that arc so her performance isn’t fully linear, it’s two steps forward, one step back.”

On its surface, Luisa hopes the audience enjoys a great mystery but explains that at its core, this is an exploration of trauma. “I added the mythology of the shifting reality to create a more subjective experience of the aftermath of trauma. The shifting reality leaves Kirby feeling disoriented like people don’t believe her and like she can’t trust her mind. This is a blend of science fiction and mystery and it’s also a show about storytelling; this is about a woman who was on her way to becoming a reporter, to tell other peoples’ stories, when her life was derailed. In the end, the first story Kirby breaks is her own. This is very much about reclaiming your narrative and how much of an uphill battle that can be even years after you’re supposed to have restarted your life.”

Shining Girls premiered globally on Apple TV+ on April 29 with three episodes, followed by one episode weekly. The cast includes Amy Brenneman, Phillipa Soo, Jamie Bell, Christopher Denham, Wagner Moura and Madeline Brewer.