“It felt like there were these kernels that Celeste had planted,” Tigelaar said. Tigelaar said it certainly makes sense to balance Elena’s backstory with Mia’s, if only to give greater equity to the two leading ladies, but it also “felt very obvious to us” to give the character a more defined history, if only to help the audience garner more empathy for a character who could easily be the epitome of white feminism. One such plot thread that’s more fleshed out in the miniseries is a lengthy backstory for Witherspoon’s Elena Richardson. All parties, including Tigelaar, came into the project with both deep understanding of her characters and a plan to delve deeper into the layers left undiscussed.

Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon in “Little Fires Everywhere”Įveryone made it really easy for her, she said, to believe the book was in the right hands.

Still, she knew she always wanted to look at the nature of privilege. The original novel doesn’t cite Mia’s race specifically and, as Ng will tell you, she wrote Mia as a working-class white woman. The series utilizes this principle with its story of the wealthy journalist and housewife Elena Richardson (Witherspoon) and the nomadic artist Mia (Washington). When you’re dealing with a story that packs in candid discussions about race, gender, class, and society, balance becomes essential, and it can be difficult to touch on all those elements without overloading two powerhouse actresses like Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Movies Shot on Film 2023 Preview: From 'Oppenheimer' to 'Killers of the Flower Moon' and 'Maestro' ‘Little Fires Everywhere’ Trailer: Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington's Slow Burn in the SuburbsĮmmy Predictions 2020: Best Limited Series Her work is often based on things that puzzle her and, with this story in particular, Ng didn’t just want to look at what Shaker Heights meant to her own personal development, but where it fits in America and its ideals.

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