‘Imperfect Women’ showrunner talks mystery, perspective, and the power of women’s stories

With Apple TV’s latest limited series, ‘Imperfect Women’, showrunner Annie Weisman steps into the thriller space with a story that blends intrigue, shifting perspectives, and the complicated bonds of female friendship.

Led by Kerry Washington (Eleanor), Kate Mara (Nancy), and Elisabeth Moss (Mary), the series peels back the polished veneer of an idyllic Southern California life to reveal a character-driven drama with twists, turns and plenty of mysteries.

Weisman sat down with Metro to discuss the balance of adapting a novel with multiple points of view, shaping distinct worlds for each character, and embracing the genre’s suspense while keeping the emotional core grounded and human.

When you first heard about this story, what was it that drew you in, and how do you begin that process of adapting a show from a novel?

Well, I was really excited to work in this thriller format—that was a little bit of a newer world for me. But also, a thriller that I felt I could really sink my teeth into because it had female friendship at its center and complex women at its center, which has been something I've been really drawn to in my career. So working on a thriller, for me, meant really surrounding myself with a lot of help and a team of writers with experience in that form and with enthusiasm for that form, because I'm a fan of it, but I haven't really gotten to make it myself before.

So [it was] building a great team and then diving into the adaptation and bringing what I do in terms of character work: Everything comes from a place of understanding character, understanding motivation, everything feeling very grounded, but then also having fun with playing with twists and turns and mystery storytelling, which is newer to me.

Looking at these characters, what can you tease in terms of the journey they are going to go on together? What stands out to you most about them?

An entry point for the show is really the glossy world that we're inhabiting here in Southern California and three kind of glamorous women in an aspirational world. But I'm really drawn to dark things happening in sunny places, and I think what's fun about the show is you get different perspectives, but each of them are relatable and feel real and grounded until they shift.

So the challenge with the show is to make each distinct point of view and give it equal weight and give it equal power—that's the journey we want to go on with this show. And I think that's the fun of this form, right? It’s that you believe it right up until the moment when you can't any longer, if that makes sense. It should be a really fun ride for people.

I know that the novel switches perspectives with its characters, so coming from a showrunner's perspective, did you view that as a challenge or more as an opportunity?

The opportunity was the chance to work with directors on creating kind of a distinct tone and look for each of those perspectives and chapters. The challenge was to keep it all cohesive so it really feels like the same show that we're living in. So it was both. It was both the collaboration, which was fun to give some leeway for some voices to come in and make their parts distinct, and then also, to make sure that everything felt of one piece. So we have a lot of tools in the box for that in terms of music, the visual world, lighting, the landscape, all of it showing range, but also all feeling under the same nice tent.

And what are some of those differences we will see from the changing perspectives?

Well, Eleanor's world, established by Lesli Linka Glatter and then with Nzingha Stewart — both phenomenal directors who worked on her chapter — has its own palette and it has its own pace. Eleanor is a woman who is very independent. She doesn't have children, and she leads this very glamorous international life. She has a very inner life that isn't necessarily what people expect, so the feel of her episode really reflects that. The music and the tone of it is something Kerry [Washington] had a lot of input on with costumes and all of that to  create her world.

Then when we get to Nancy's chapter,  it's all in flashback and because it's her, it's a much more internal story. She is a former dancer and she kind of lives in a little bit more of a fantasy world of the beauty of ballet and the fragility of ballet. So we brought that look and sound and feel to her episode. So you have some of that feeling with the movement of the camera, the sound and the look to feel a little bit more like a ballet. That was a really exciting thing to get to do and we actually, in collaboration with  Lesli Linka Glatter, we created a ballet within the show that we produced and performed. So that was a really fun thing to get to do, to show some of that cultural life of Los Angeles that people may not know as much about.

And then of course when Mary’s perspective takes over, that's where a lot of our spoilers are. So I won't say too much about it, but the camera and the feel and the perspective move in a new direction that picks up the pace and energy of where we are in the story at that point.

The first two episodes of 'Imperfect Women' debut on March 18 on Apple TV.