The rebellious nature of the 1970s didn’t stop in Texas, and in the David E. Kelley and Lesli Linka Glatter executive produced Lionsgate/HBO Max series Love & Death, temptation is definitely at the doorsteps of a faithful community of practicing Methodists.
Elizabeth Olsen plays married Candy Montgomery and she’s jonesing to get it out with Jesse Plemmons’ Allan Gore (who in turn is trying to have a baby with this wife, Betty, played by Lily Rabe. The series begins with a murder – but who is the victim and who is the slayer? If you read the Texas Monthly articles and the book Evidence of Love by Jim Atkinson and John Bloom, on which the series is based, well, then there’s your spoiler.
“If this wasn’t true, you couldn’t make it up,” Glatter tells Deadline in our SXSW studio; the filmmaker having directed episodes one through four, and episode seven.
“The story was so outrageous and amazing that it felt like it needed to be explored,” she added.
Olsen plays the complicated Candy, who literally makes a set of rules with Allan on how to conduct their affair.
The Emmy nominated Olsen tells us that she interest in the series tone: “I thought there is something that is to be had with these absurd circumstances and there’s a lot of opportunity for humor in something that is tragedy, that is what was really exciting to me.”
“This is about a time in this town when there weren’t a lot of opportunities,” she adds, “And it felt paralyzing”
“There’s something bigger than this rule book we’ve been told and following,” Olsen says about her character, “today we have endless option, which is equally paralyzing.”
“She’s a dreamer, wants sparks, wants something greater,” Olsen explains about the overly optimistic Candy.
Love & Death premieres on HBO Max on Thursday, April 27 with three episodes followed by one episode a week, heading toward a finale on May 25.
Love & Death made its world premiere at SXSW on Saturday at the Paramount Theatre.
