Justine Lupe on Portraying 'Succession's' Most Underrated Character
When Justine Lupe first signed on to play Willa Ferreyra, the escort-turned-fiancée of eldest son Connor Roy (Alan Ruck), on the hit HBO dynastic drama Succession, the Denver-raised Juilliard graduate—known for her work on Mr. Mercedes, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Madam Secretary, and Cristela—only expected to stick around for a few episodes. After all, the only scene that she had read to land the role depicted a break-up between Connor and Willa, a young woman that Connor’s brash brother, Roman (Kieran Culkin), once describes as a “hot-party-girl-who-wouldn’t-look-twice-at-you/hooker” in the first season.
But when she was preparing to shoot “Austerlitz,” the episode in which Connor and Willa were meant to split up, Lupe noticed that the writers were finding new ways in each of their revised scripts to keep her character in the mix. She didn’t question the decision.
Three seasons later, Willa has not only survived the vicious infighting of the ruthless Roy family, but she is also planning to wed Connor, who has been bankrolling her playwriting aspirations while making an unsuccessful bid for the White House. (Her theatrical debut was critically lambasted, while he is polling at a whopping one percent.)
While she might have seen Connor’s wealth as a means to pursue her own goals, Willa has taken a special liking to Connor, who is frequently overlooked as the black sheep of the Roy family. “Just seeing how her relationship with Connor evolved has also impacted my point of view about Willa as a person overall,” Lupe tells BAZAAR.com. “There’s a lot more tenderness and protectiveness and territorial, ‘mama bear’ instinct that I didn’t know was in her in the beginning.”
Speaking on a recent Saturday morning from Atlanta, where she is shooting her next (unannounced) project, Lupe reflects on the complexities of Connor and Willa’s transactional relationship, the real-life inspiration of her kooky character, and her emotional reaction to the end of Succession.
Willa has often been placed in the background of iconic Roy family scenes, but she doesn’t say anything, either because she can’t get a word in edgewise or she is busy analyzing the dynamics of this group. How have you approached playing this character in a subtle way that makes the most of the limited screen time you have?
It’s just such a juicy landscape that she’s existing in. And you’re right—she’s on the periphery, and it’s partially because of the family choosing to put her [there] and also because she likes her boundaries and her distance. The way I’ve interpreted it is, she wants to be there for Connor but also probably recognizes the drama is a bit toxic, so she kind of stays at arm’s length. She steps in when she needs to. And when she’s not needed, she just hangs back and plays the part of a good partner to him but doesn’t really intervene or get too involved. In terms of how I’ve made the most of the screen time I’ve been offered, honestly, what I’ve been given is a lot of reactions to really incredible, wild, colorful behavior on the other end. There’s just so much material to react to that it just feels like the honest response to what she’s experiencing. There’s a lot going on to respond without words.
Were there any real-life women that you used as inspiration when you began shaping this character?
Yeah, I had a friend when I was in my early 20s that was this kind of a girl. She was an artist, she was incredibly smart and savvy, and she had some spice to her. I think she was the most available to me because she was someone who started dating guys for money when we were younger, and it was quite casual. I think she would just go on dates, and that was the extent of their experiences together. I don’t believe there was a sexual transaction there. Her energy just reminded me a lot of what I was reading on the page for Willa. I also listened to a lot of Stevie Nicks, and she’s got this care-free kind of confidence. She feels very passionate and dramatic but is also a cool cucumber, and I think that some of those songs have a similar vibe to what Willa has.
From the moment we meet Willa in the first season, she doesn’t seem to be fazed by the snide comments that Connor's family makes about her past work.
She does have a self-assuredness, and there is a level of thick skin, integrity and confidence that she carries herself with. Something that I always really loved about the part was that her level of shame is very, very low. In fact, the most shame we see out of her throughout the entire series is when she gets a bad review and tosses the iPad [in the Season 2 finale], so it's cool to see the way that she operates with these siblings and the stabs that they try and shank her with and the way that she lets them all bounce off her back.
What do you think are Willa’s motivations, in the context of this dysfunctional family? Is she truly in love with Connor, or is she a gold digger?
It clearly is transactional; there is a fiscal benefit to the relationship. Leading up to this season, she has artistic ambitions that she clearly couldn’t afford without Connor’s money. But I do believe that it’s evolved into something different, something that’s still quite vague, especially to the audience. I have my own feelings about it, but I think that will become more and more clear as the season goes on. I just see her as someone who shows up because it’s her job as his partner to show up, but she does not want to involve herself in the stresses that the family is constantly dealing with.
Why do you think Willa and Connor’s relationship has lasted when the other romantic relationships around them have crumbled? Is Connor’s lack of involvement in the family business the reason why he and Willa have been able to thrive in a weird way that his father and siblings haven’t?
It’s funny, because I’m reading this book about relationships right now that’s called We Do [by couples therapist Stan Tatkin]. There’s a part of it that’s called the “couple bubble.” It’s basically this idea that there’s a certain level of preservation that you put towards the relationship. No matter what’s going on [between you and your partner], you’re a team when it comes to the way that you interact with your environment, and I feel like that’s what they’ve got going on.
These two actually have something that they’re trying to preserve, whether they intend to or not. There’s no backstabbing between them; there’s a lot of honesty. She rolls her eyes and clearly understands his lunacy and his delusion, and yet she constantly sticks up for him, and he sticks up for her. Every single time that there’s something said about her, he’s the first to defend her. [That is] the way that they protect their relationship in this world of people where there is no sacred space, there is no line that’s not crossed between all of these other couples.
The second episode of this season finds an intoxicated Willa having second thoughts about marrying Connor, who is dealing with a crisis of confidence while his father and half-siblings argue about the impending acquisition of Waystar Royco. Willa is seriously considering what it means to marry into this family.
What happens between them in Episode 2 gives a really honest representation of the complexity of what’s going on between them; there’s a lot of nuance to their connection and it’s not as clean cut. You’ll see more of that in Episode 3 with their wedding. It’s not like an all-in kind of thing, which we all knew from the very beginning. In that whole arc of accepting the proposal [at the end of Season 3], you see that this is a woman who’s trying to weigh out her affection for this person [with] where she is in her life and what she wants to do with her life. It feels like something that she’s actually really considering the gravity of.
We know from the latest trailer—and what you just said—that Connor and Willa do get married in the next episode. Did you have any say in the wedding itself?
Yeah, I went and tried on a bunch of dresses with Michelle [Matland], who’s our amazing costume designer, who always allows a lot of discussion about what we’re thinking about. I think what we were trying to aim for with Willa was just a mix of this woman who’s clearly got some of her willowy vibe, and her artistic sensibility is still there, and there’s a little bit of her hippy-ness that she’s carried over, but she’s also a political candidate’s fiancée, soon-to-be-wife. In terms of a visual, it’s kind of creative like Kate Hudson in Almost Famous [mixed with] Melania Trump or something. So there are some serious, classic vibes going on there—it feels like something you’ve seen—but we tried to also add a little bit of Willa to the dress.
But if Willa doesn’t have ambitions of simply being the wife of a politician, what else is she looking to accomplish this season? Despite her critically panned play, is she still trying to be a playwright?
I think you’ll have to wait and see.
Creator and showrunner Jesse Armstrong felt strongly that the end of the fourth season was the right time to bid farewell to Succession. How did you discover and react to the news that the show was ending?
Jesse told us at the end, during the final table read. You’d heard it in interviews, and people had said, “Maybe this is it, maybe this isn’t…” So we understood that it was a possibility. But when it actually became a reality, it was a really weird mix of feeling heartbroken and sad and disappointed that the experience was gonna be over, and also just knowing that if Jesse says this is the end, then it’s the best ending that could have happened. I just have such a trust in him and his understanding of the story and what he wants to say with it, and he’s got his finger so clearly on the pulse of what this is that you can’t doubt that kind of decision-making, as sad as it is.
Alan Ruck said the last scene he shot was with you, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin and Sarah Snook. What do you remember from your final day on set?
Oh, I just remember hyperventilating. [Laughs.] I was sobbing to an embarrassing degree. I knew it was coming because I would just look around and see all these people, and I was like, “I’m never going to see them all in this arrangement again,” so I would weave in and out [of crying] in waves. I would cry and then I’d try and pull myself back together. I’d come back and be like, “Okay, maybe it’s gone, maybe I’m fine. I feel numb now…” And then it would just hit again. Finally, when we wrapped, I was just sobbing, and it was a really warm goodbye, where everyone came in and hugged each other. I woke up the next day and I felt like I had a hangover from how hard I had cried—I don’t remember the last time that’s happened.
You’ve shared the most screen time with Alan, but you’ve gradually gotten more opportunities to work with the actors who play the other Roy siblings and the Waystar Royco executives. What are you going to miss most about working with this ensemble?
There are moments of insecurity over the years, where you go into self-doubt or you need a little bit of a comrade, and Alan is just relentlessly available. He is easy to act with in a way that is kind of unparalleled. Most of my stuff is reactions, so to have a partner that’s giving me as much as Alan is giving me to react to is just a luxury because it’s all very earned. The lines are so incredibly wild. I read them on the page, and I’m like, “No one could deliver this but Alan.” So just the fact that he’s created such an incredible, nuanced, colorful character, and that the writers have done such a good job with him, made this whole experience such a joy.
I’m gonna miss all of them. Most of my job on the show is to be a person who’s a fly on the wall, so watching these actors do such incredible work over and over and over again without fail, I’ve learned a lot about work ethic and generosity. Seeing that level of talent day after day has been a real gift. The women on the show—Juliana [Canfield], Zoe [Winters], J. [Smith Cameron] and Sarah—have become some of my best friends. They’ve really helped me through the six years [including a break-up]; they’ve just been really colorful, beautiful parts of my life, so I consider them really huge gifts.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Succession airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
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