Elizabeth Olsen Says There's No Competition With Jessica Biel Over Their Candy Montgomery Series (Exclusive)

Elizabeth Olsen talks to ET about the two true-crime series and connecting with Jessica Biel.

Apr 26, 2023 - 21:06

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Elizabeth Olsen Says There's No Competition With Jessica Biel Over Their Candy Montgomery Series (Exclusive)

On Thursday, Elizabeth Olsen makes her chilling debut as Candy Montgomery, a woman accused of killing her friend with an axe, in the HBO Max true-crime drama, Love & Death, written by David E. Kelley and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter.

While this is the first time Olsen has portrayed the infamous housewife, it's actually the second time in one year that audiences will get to explore the lives and events leading up to the 1980 murder of Betty Gore. The first was actually the Hulu miniseries, Candy, starring Jessica Biel in the titular role.

As a result, it's been easy to draw comparisons between the two and assume that the two productions were racing to be the first one out -- and the first to retell this true-crime saga since the 1990 TV movie, A Killing in a Small Town.

"I was very happy that she reached out in that way," Olsen told ET's Diedre Behar, referring to the fact that Biel got in touch with her about their similar projects. "There's no need to have competition. Stories that are interesting deserve to be told and every way you're going to tell it, it's gonna be different. It's impossible for it to be the same."

Hulu / HBO Max

Not only did Biel reach out but according to the WSJ. Magazine, their conversation at the time helped put Olsen at ease about any worries over their shows coming out around the same time.

"I think it was more just kind of like, 'Oh, great. This is nice that we are both acknowledging this thing because we were filming simultaneously," Olsen explained, adding that Biel "didn't wanna hide from the idea that there would be comparisons, I guess."

According to Glatter, Love & Death was already two months into filming when Candy went into production. "That was a big shock to all of us that there was another show being made when we were already filming. But there's nothing you can do about it," she said.

Although they had the "underlying rights" to certain materials that the series is adapted from, Glatter said the story is "public domain material," meaning that the other series could also move forward. That said, the filmmaker recalled a lesson she learned, which is even if a bunch of directors all have to direct the same scene, no one directs it the same way.

"So, I just thought, 'OK, this is what's happening and we're going to tell our story the way we want to tell it,'" Glatter said, explaining that Love & Death is "a deep character piece that, yes has a terrible crime at the center of it, but is a journey. It's a journey of these characters and these lives and I think there's much more than what meets the eye."

Inspired by the book, Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs, and a collection of Texas Monthly articles that previously chronicled the murder, the series chronicles the lives of two small town Texan, churchgoing couples -- Candy and her husband, Pat, as well as Betty and her husband, Allan -- who became forever entangled after an extramarital affair eventually led one of them to pick up an axe.

HBO Max

When the series was first announced, Lionsgate Television Group Chairman Kevin Beggs said, "We cannot imagine a more perfect artist to play the leading role of Candy than Elizabeth Olsen. Her talent, charisma and energy can bewitch audiences like no other."

Furthering that sentiment, Glatter said that Olsen was their first choice for the role. "David and I developed the series together. He wrote the first three hours, and after I read them, she was the first person I thought of," she recalled.

"[Elizabeth] has an incredible generosity of spirit as a person and as an actor. And she is fearless," Glatter said, gushing over getting to direct Olsen. "She will allow us to, you know, travel in her eyes and go deep inside to try to understand something about the human condition and she lets you go there. She opens herself up to that."

In addition to Olsen, the cast includes Jesse Plemons as Allan, Lily Rabe as Betty, Patrick Fugit as Pat, Krysten Ritter as Sherry Cleckler, Tom Pelphrey as Don Crowder, Keir Gilchrist as Ron Adams and Elizabeth Marvel as Jackie Ponder. The rest of the cast includes Beth Broderick, Brian d'Arcy James, Bruce McGill and Mackenzie Astin.

Glatter added that when it comes to the rest of the ensemble, they were "all first choices… I feel so blessed as a director to have been able to work with this extraordinary cast."

The first three episodes of Love & Death will premiere April 27 on HBO Max, with new episodes debuting weekly on Thursdays until May 25.

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