Dear Edward star Connie Britton has given her thoughts on the complex mother-daughter relationship in the show.
The Apple TV+ series is based on Ann Napolitano’s 2020 novel of the same name, following the life of a young boy named Edward Adler (Colin O’Brien) as he comes to terms with being the sole survivor from a plane crash.
Connie, who plays Dee Dee, sat down for an exclusive chat with Digital Spy where she explained the tense nature of her characters' relationship with her daughter.
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"My sense of that is, looking at the relationship and the way Dee Dee built her life, her daughter is kind of emblematic of all the parts of Dee Dee that she’s trying to keep undercover," she explained.
"Her daughter is trying so hard to live in her own truth. That is almost compromising to Dee Dee, because Dee Dee is living behind this curtain, you know?"
In the show we see Dee Dee, who loses her husband in the plane crash, struggle to connect with her daughter Zoe (Audrey Corsa) – something which Britton thinks is partly due to the challenging nature of family relationships.
"Family relationships can be so fraught, and can be so challenging," she continued.
"I think it’s because we see each other in our family members so much. But that means we also have to see aspects of ourselves that we don’t want to see."
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"It’s threatening for Dee Dee to see this kind of authenticity in her daughter, and to be like, 'That’s threatening all of the structure that I’ve created'."
Connie also touched on her working relationship with co-star Audrey, saying it was "wonderful" to work with her.
"She was wonderful. She was so great and so game and so talented," she added.
"We didn’t have a lot to do together, but we wanted to be really specific about these levels of mother/daughter tension that can exist, and where they come from. It was really fun to play that out."
Dear Edward is streaming now on Apple TV+.
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Brenna Cooper is a freelance journalist, who currently specialises in entertainment reporting. She joined Digital Spy in 2022, writing TV and movies stories for the site. After graduating with an NCTJ accredited Journalism Masters from the University of Sheffield in 2020 she has since embarked on a freelance career.
Brenna previously produced lifestyle content for Checklists.co.uk and has a specific interest in music, reviewing live acts and interviewing bands such as Confidence Man and Amyl and the Sniffers.
TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
