Christina Hendricks: Patti-Nan dynamics 'flip-flop' in 'Buccaneers' S2

UPI

16 hours ago

1 of 4 | Christina Hendricks (L) and Kristine Frøseth star in "The Buccaneers." Season 2 episodes air Wednesdays. Photo courtesy of Apple TV+
NEW YORK, July 2 (UPI) -- Mad Men and Bad Girls alum Christina Hendricks says Patti, the socialite she plays in The Buccaneers, is once again close to her daughter Nan (Kristine Frøseth) in Season 2 after secrets and lies sparked tension between the women in Season 1.
Airing Wednesdays on Apple TV+, the adaptation of Edith Wharton's 19th-century novel follows a group of young American women searching for romance and fortune amongst the British society Ton.
After marrying Theo (Guy Remmers), Nan is now the influential Duchess of Tintagel, a development which frees up Patti to leave her philandering husband Tracy (Adam James), while still maintaining her wealth and standing.
Meanwhile, Patti's other daughter Jinny is pregnant and on the run from her abusive husband James (Barney Fishwick). Jinny's not alone, though. Along for the ride is Guy (Matthew Broome), the man Nan truly loves.
Adding to the drama is the arrival of Patti's younger sister Nell (Leighton Meester), who is the biological mother Nan only recently discovered wasn't Patti.
"We pick up exactly where we left off in Season 1, but the pace moves very, very quickly and there is a sort of a flip-flop with the relationship of our characters because, all of a sudden, my character really needs the protection and the strength of Nan and has to call on her this season," Hendricks, 50, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
Frøseth, 29, agreed that there is a seismic shift in power dynamics between Patti and Nan this season.
"I definitely feel like it's a role reversal and it's really beautiful because I think it shows how Patti has raised Nan, and how Nan now can pass it forward in a lot of ways. It just comes from love," Frøseth said.
"I don't feel like it's a traumatic, resentful thing that she has to now take care of her mother," she added. "There's just so much love and growth and Patti is the one that Nan comes to for everything now. They've really just gotten so close when it could have easily gone the other way."
While Patti was a big fish in the small pond of the Gilded Age establishment in New York, Nan has become the toast of the town in their adopted home of England.
"Nan's now been exposed to really more of the world than Patti has," Hendricks said.
"She's become more worldly than Patti, who sort of had this very sequestered situation and lifestyle in New York City," she added. "Now Patti has to look to Nan to sort of be the more wise guide."
The series is gorgeous and entertaining -- with a fantastic contemporary, female-powered, pop-music soundtrack -- but it also seriously spotlights how limited women were by the law and society during the late 1800s.
"It's tricky because we're not exactly historically accurate, but I think the themes are just so relevant still now today in a lot of ways, [specifically] female friendship and love and family, trauma, identity," Frøseth said.
Hendricks chimed in: "The young women show sort of a modern side to this Victorian story, but they've definitely used, in particular, my story-line this season to be sort of a reflection of what women have had to go through, still go through, but [also] the relevant changes that have happened in a couple of hundred years.
"So, hopefully," she added, "people will relate to the same emotions that everyone experiences, whether you lived in 1870s or now, but with a little bit more thoughtfulness towards the experience that these women had to go through."
The cast also includes Alisha Boe, Aubri Ibrag, Josie Totah, Imogen Waterhouse and Mia Threapleton.