New ‘Fatal Attraction’ Series Digs Deep Into Why Main Characters Relationship Turned Toxic

Alexandra Cunningham recalls that the screenwriter of the 1987 film Fatal Attraction, James Dearden, said that the lead character of Alex Forrest is, “not a study in madness, but rather a sad, tragic, lonely woman under pressure from a really hard job.”

In the film, family man Dan Gallagher has a whirlwind affair with Alex which takes a terrifying turn when she begins to stalk Dan and his family.

A new eight episode series of the same name, set in the present day, is a reimagining of the original film.

Joshua Jackson stars as Dan Gallagher, with Lizzy Caplan as Alex Forrest, Amanda Peete as Dan’s wife, Beth, and Alyssa Jirrels as Dan’s daughter, Ellen.

Cunningham serves as writer, showrunner, and executive producer on the series.

She says that, “This reimagining of Fatal Attraction, shares a lot with the iconic original film, but it also is about entitlement and midlife crisis and how some of the sausage gets made in our broken justice system, personality disorders, isolation, fathers and daughters, and murder. It’s also about self-image and what we’ll do to protect it and what happens when someone doesn’t have one.”

This property was ripe to be looked at in a different way, says Cunningham. “We’re spending a lot more time with Alex, exploring her thought process and what she wants to get out of all of this. And, in our version [we] represent all of the characters’ point of view, [showing] everyone’s angle on what happens.”

She adds that if the creative team has ‘done their job,’ “I think that [viewers] sympathies will shift more than once while watching the series.”

Caplan feels that while this version is technically a remake of the film, the film really serves as more of a ‘jumping off point.’

“You’ll be familiar with the characters, but what we are trying to do is ask the questions that would have been impossible to ask in a film just because we wouldn’t have had the time, and, also, they just weren’t questions that people cared to ask back then.”

As examples, she points out, “[In the series,] we’ve got lots of time to really dig more deeply into Alex’s backstory, her childhood, where she’s coming from, seeing things through her eyes.”

She adds, “If you watch the movie again, I find it very, very difficult to see Alex as a straight villain, to not ask yourself the question as an audience member of, ‘Well, what’s going on with her? And also, what about consequences for him?’”

Jackson agrees, saying, “I love that Dan’s mental health is also questionable [in the series.] He is a man who is not being honest with himself and has not really come to terms with some of the darker places inside of his ego, and he allows his fragility and privilege to drive him down a path that causes immense damage to the people around him.”

In addition, Jackson feels, “There is weight given to the reality that it’s not just that Alex has issues, it’s that Alex has issues, and Dan has issues, and they met at exactly the wrong moment to create this toxic soup together. They meet at this moment, and everything creates this explosive scenario.”

In the film, Dan’s daughter Ellen was a child, but in the series, she’s now an adult who, according to Cunningham, has, “her version of perspective on what had happened to her family.”

This character is one of the reasons that there are two timelines, says Cunningham. “It’s to show it happening to her and then showing the residual effects so many years later, [showing, ‘how did she take all that in? How did she process it?’ Because that’s what we’re all doing, right? We’re just following a narrative that we create based on how we’re treated and what people say to us and what all of that does to your soul. And that was just fascinating to explore.”

Cunningham, in summing up why viewers should tune in to Fatal Attraction says, “We love a twisty-turny show that distracts us and takes us out of our own head spaces and gives us something new to think about. And I think at the end of the day, that’s what we’ve done with this show.”

‘Fatal Attraction’ begins streaming Sunday, April 30^th on Paramount+