Interview: The Cast and Executive Producers of ‘Mrs. Davis’ on Their Absolutely Crazy Show

In the new Peacock series Mrs. Davis, Simone (Betty Gilpin) is a nun with a mission: to destroy the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence. She faces one hell of a battle as she teams up with Wiley (Jake McDorman) and Jay (Andy McQueen) to take down an all-knowing entity that has unlimited resources at its disposal but may not have quite the same resolve as this determined nun.

Ahead of the series premiere, Awards Radar had the chance to speak with Gilpin, McDorman, McQueen, and executive producers Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez.

Gilpin shared her own connection with her character:

“She’s a lot cooler than I am. I think she’s how I hope my daughter sees me, and how I know she won’t see me. We’re both sarcastic and inherently sleepy. While I’m not a person of faith personally, I think Simone’s faith and relationship with Jay has really liquified her heart, and I certainly feel that as a mom. Giving birth to my daughter two and a half years ago made this crotchety old bitch love butterflies again, against all odds.”

Jake McDorman described the appeal of the series:

“I worked with Damon on Watchmen and it was such a good experience. Anytime you see Damon’s name attached to something, you know it’s going to be, in typical Lindelof fashion, something really unique and kind of exciting. Right out of the gate, I was excited to read it. When I auditioned for it, I got the scene from the pilot with Simone and Wiley under the big rock. No script, so it was basically like, okay, you are in a futuristic society where your ex is a nun, you’re a cowboy, you’re being pursued by Germans, you’re under a giant rock, and you’re fighting with your ex.”

Lindelof commented on showrunner Hernandez’s sitcom background:

“The most exciting writing comes from a writer who’s looking to kick their way out of a box that they’ve been put in. A lot of the time, we make choices earlier in our careers, and suddenly I was working in crime procedurals, cop shows. The industry was like, that’s what you do, you work on cop shows. If I hadn’t had a meeting with J.J. Abrams where I was like, I love working on cop shows, but I’m actually into all this other stuff too, then I would never have had an opportunity to make Lost. I do feel like I was drawn to, are there any other writers that are inside the box that like the box that they’re in but are looking to break out? I read a sample that was this very weird, post-apocalyptic sci-fi genre pieces with nuns and kids who were dying, and I was like, this should be really depressing, but it was kind of funny and weird. Who the hell is Tara Hernandez?”

Watch the full conversations below.

Season one of Mrs. Davis debuts its first four episodes Thursday, April 20^th on Peacock.