Karin Slaughter has seen several of her bestsellers brought to the screen, but when it came to The Good Daughter, she decided to adapt it herself — writing all six episodes and serving as showrunner.
“I just loved the story,” she says. “A lot of shocking things happen, but it’s really a love story between two sisters.”
Meghann Fahy stars in the limited series alongside Rose Byrne as two sisters, Charlie and Sam, respectively, who’ve been estranged after a night of violence tore their family apart 20 years ago — and now find themselves forced to reunite to help their father, Rusty (Brendan Gleeson), with a case.
Fahy joined Slaughter for a Q&A at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival ahead of the series’ Nov. 12 premiere on Peacock.
“I call Meghann my Swiss Army knife because she’s amazing at everything,” says Slaughter. “We were shooting so much, and she was doing so many different facets of Charlie every day. It was miraculous to watch.”
Watch the full video here.
Gold Derby: What I love about this show is that it has such a female-led creative team. How did that come together?
Karin Slaughter: Intentionally, as it should. Bruna Papandrea, one of our producers — if you’re wondering what a producer is, it’s two pieces of bread looking for some cheese, and we’re the cheese. When we talked about my vision for this, I really wanted the team to reflect what you see on screen. We looked for really strong women directors. Don’t worry — we considered men, too.
We knew we were dealing with tough issues, and we wanted to make sure our young actors were protected. A lot of our department heads were women, including one of our stunt coordinators. We wanted everyone to feel comfortable. The first few weeks were very female-led, too, because we started with the girls, then brought Brendan in.
Meghann Fahy: We were in a little bubble. We all stopped shaving our legs. (Laughs.) Something that really benefited the show was having one director the whole time. That’s such a luxury. Steph Green is absolutely out of this world. What she did was incredible.
Meghann, what did that mean for you as an actor, having one director throughout?
Fahy: It creates a through line. It can be wonderful to have different directors, but it can also be a little destabilizing: someone new comes in, and you have to create a new vibe. Especially with a show like this, which deals with heavy themes, I think everybody was able to settle in with each other. Knowing we were in it together all the way through was really special. It definitely changed the experience for me.
Karin, you’ve written a few books — one or two, I think — but you wanted to adapt this one yourself. Why take that on?
Slaughter: I just loved the story — the family story. A lot of shocking things happen, but it’s really a love story between two sisters. I think that’s why Meghann and Rose do such a good job. They had a great on- and off-screen rapport. Anyone with a sister knows she’s the only person who’ll tell you your hair looks good, and what you hear is, “Your hair has looked like s–t every day until now.” It’s a very fraught relationship.
Meghann, what brought you to the project?
Fahy: The script, pretty much — and I’m obviously a fan of Karin’s books. Rose Byrne was really a big part of it, too. Once her name came across my desk, there wasn’t really a question. I’ve been a fan of hers for as long as I can remember. She has the exact career I’d love to have: she kind of does whatever she wants. Nobody bats an eye or says, “That’s so weird that Rose Byrne is in a hard drama and now she’s doing a comedy.” She just floats between genres in a way I really admire.
The story was beautifully and intricately woven. That’s something Karin is unbelievable at. If you watch the rest of the show, you’ll see it’s like an incredible puzzle. Watching all the pieces fall into place, I just thought, “I don’t understand how your brain works like that.” It was really cool to have all those subtleties throughout filming.
Karin, that’s a good question for you: How does your brain work like that? How did you take the book and turn it into a six-episode series?
Slaughter: I have no memory of any of it. I wish I could say that when I write, I go into a fever-dream state. But I will say that, after I’d written the scripts, it was such a pleasure to tailor them more toward Meghann and my perception of her personality. She turned out to be exactly how I thought she’d be: a total nightmare.
Fahy: The lawsuit is still pending. (Laughs.)
Slaughter: Watching her step into Charlie was wonderful. You know that Scarlett O’Hara Southern accent? She doesn’t have it. It’s so wonderful to hear a genuine Southern accent.
Fahy: Oh, my gosh. You think so?
Slaughter: She put in the work to sound like a real Southerner, instead of someone trained at the Royal Shakespeare Company or shaken out of a trailer.
Meghann, how did you develop your chemistry with Rose once you got on set?
Fahy: It was cool because Rose came a little later in the shoot. I’d been there for a full month without her. In the story, the sisters haven’t seen each other for 10 years, and you only start to feel Rose’s presence toward the end of the episode.
But it actually helped. It felt true to the energy between the sisters: I’d been there, and she hadn’t, and then she came. Everything with Rose is so easy because she’s brilliant and generous. It wasn’t something I ever even had to think about. That speaks to the way she moves through a set.
Karin, what did each actor bring to the characters from the book that you hadn’t imagined when you were writing it? What surprised you about their performances?
Slaughter: In the book, Sam comes across more as a bitch. Rose has played roles where that’s the thing — like Bridesmaids — but she brought warmth to Sam. When she signed on, I tinkered with the character a little. Rose is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. She’s never slapped a baby. She shows up ready to go, and she’s incredibly generous. I think she softened Sam and brought a lot of heart to her.
That honestly made the estrangement a little sadder. You could really feel the love between the sisters and think, “Wow, they should be close.” I think that’s because of how much heart Rose brought to it.
And what about Charlie? What did Meghann bring to her?
Slaughter: Before I realized this was my first time writing scripts and that you were limited by page numbers, I had this long description of Charlie: she’d write a birthday card to your dog and tape up your cheating husband’s Viagra prescription.
Fahy: Am I wrong? I think that’s pretty spot on.
And now you can return the compliment to Karin. How did having her there as the creator, writer and showrunner help, given that she knew these characters so well? What was that back-and-forth like?
Fahy: It was such an asset. The story has so many intricacies, and there are relationships between characters that have existed for years. We could go straight to the source and ask, “What’s the relationship between this person and that person? When did they last see each other? Do they know each other’s families?” Any question we had, she was right there. That was incredible because it removed any confusion.
She’s also a wealth of knowledge and really talented with puns. We got a lot of those, too — ones I understood about 10 seconds too late, and then she had to explain them to me. But the dialogue is pretty great.
Slaughter: It’s very sharp. You said at one point, “So many words.” It broke my heart. But then Steph said, “It’s your fault, because you always find a way into it.” And you do. You manage to nail every single line. It was such a joy. During editing, when we were looking at dailies, Steph and everyone said, “I’m going to warn you: Meghann says your lines so well, you’re going to get spoiled.” And I’ve absolutely been spoiled by that.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but the show deals with complicated, difficult issues. How did you approach those and balance them? Karin, would you start with the writing, and then Meghann can talk about the acting?
Slaughter: We worked very closely with a couple of organizations. I won’t name them because that would give away spoilers, but we wanted to make sure we were telling the story responsibly. We had an intimacy coordinator and a mental health specialist, and she and I made sure anyone on the cast or crew could talk to her.
Our sweet little boys who played the bad guys were adorable. One of them said, “These girls are so precious, and I feel so bad.” I told him he could talk to the experts or to anyone. I think that was the most important thing.
We blocked a particularly difficult scene with Meghann. I looked around and saw that our cinematographer was a woman and a mother, Steph Green was a woman and a mother, and our first AD and I were there. I thought it would be so different to talk about the scene if there were a bunch of guys in the room. We had great men on our crew, but when they all came in, the energy changed a little. I hoped we’d created a space where Meghann felt safe telling these stories, as did the girls and Rose. And I think we did.
Fahy: Knowing that so much thought had gone into handling it responsibly, carefully, safely and thoughtfully was half the battle. It made it really easy to walk into those situations knowing I was supported. I think that was true for everybody, every day on set. It was pretty special.
It’s important to tell these stories without sensationalizing them, and the show finds that balance really well. How did you decide when to reveal the secrets? Did you write it knowing it would be released as a binge?
Slaughter: Fortunately, I’ve written a lot of books, and I grew up watching General Hospital, so I understand cliffhangers. Propulsive storytelling is in my DNA. I love reading and watching thrillers. I’d ask myself, “What’s the obvious thing? What can I do that isn’t obvious?” and try to zig and zag around what people expect. Hopefully it turned out that way.
How did you find the right tone? There’s a through line of humor, too. Meghann, what did that mean to you as a performer?
Fahy: It was one of the things that really attracted me to the project. I love things that are funny and sad at the same time, and Karin threads that needle flawlessly. Everything is so character-driven. She does such a good job of making each character fully realized, down to the detail of Charlie being the kind of person who’d write your dog a birthday card.
That tells you a lot about a character. You don’t always get those tiny details about someone’s personality, and they give you a little key into them. I felt lucky to have so many things to grab onto. They led me through all of it.
And for you, Karin, is humor important in the writing?
Slaughter: It’s a Southern thing, right? My grandmother used to say, “You can’t fall off the floor.” I know that in your darkest moments, things can sometimes be the funniest. I’m always conscious of that. You have to balance the dark and the light.
That applied visually, too. One of my first conversations with Steph, our wonderful director, was: “I want it to be a six-hour movie. I don’t want it to feel like a TV show, and I want it filled with sunlight.” I’m tired of thrillers where you think, “God, don’t they have a lamp in that house?” I wanted the character of Gamma to be represented through light. Zoe, our cinematographer, played beautifully with light.
As much as I think my words are the most important part, the look of it is beautiful. I almost got in trouble because we watched the monitors every day, and every day I’d say, “Meghann is so beautiful.” One of the producers said, “Should we call HR?” I said, “Maybe.” Watching her bring these words and the character in my head to life — and then Rose, Brendan and Olivia — was incredible.
You mentioned Brendan Gleeson. What was it like working with him?
Fahy: He’s a living legend. I feel like I grew up watching him, and some of his films are among my favorites — I’ve watched them over and over. It was surreal. I was so nervous on his first day, but he’s the warmest guy. He’s a big, gentle giant. We’d sit on set waiting for them to set something up, and he’d tell me stories about filming Braveheart, his life, Ireland — anything. I’d sit there thinking, “I can’t believe I’m talking to Brendan Gleeson right now.” I soaked up every moment. It was really cool.
Slaughter: I remember we were doing a scene with Meghann and Brendan, and I quoted a line from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Brendan said, “I read the poem last night, and I had these really deep questions.” Meghann said, “Yeah, I read it, too.” Everybody was in love with him. I think he worried at first that people wouldn’t like Rusty. I told him, “Every woman on this set would want you as a father.” He was amazing.
And who is the good daughter?
Slaughter: Everybody. We’ve got a lot of daughters. Kelly is a daughter. Charlie is a daughter. Sam is a daughter. Rusty has this great line, which I think every father should say: “A father loves his daughter the way she needs to be loved.” I think we should all be fortunate enough to have that.
