What really goes into those scandalously packaged reality shows? Constance Zimmer gives us an inkling with UnREAL, writes Debashine Thangevelo
UnREAL is a series you have to see. More so to appease every TV buff’s obsession with reality shows. The genre has mushroomed to the point where it is monopolising content on the small screen. Fact. And the ideas, whether genius or preposterous, are inexorably green-lit by networks, both locally and internationally.
UnREAL is told from an observational perspective – one that hasn’t really been explored in TV. On the one hand, there is manipulative puppetry at work by the makers of Everlasting, a dating reality series. On the other, it also exposes the lines crossed when morality and the audience ratings mandate clash. It also unveils everyone’s vulnerability and naïveté, in some instances.
Constance Zimmer helms this provocative drama as Quinn King, Everlasting’s demanding executive producer. No stranger to powerful characters, as witnessed with House of Cards and The Newsroom, she says: “I think Quinn’s biggest challenge is she’s got a job to do and she will do whatever it takes to be the best at her job... She dived into her work in order to not address the disaster of her personal life.
“Being with a married man for so many years, I think is an abuse you put on yourself when you enter that kind of relationship. So she’s very conflicted and I think being able to live in a reality where women are searching for true love, her biggest challenge is, what is true love? Her true love right now is her job.
“I think that’s a lot of the struggles on the show; these women are really good at their jobs and their jobs just happen to be pretty horrible. It’s what drives her, but what also drives her crazy.”
Another factor that sold her on doing this series was the approach the writers took with the show.
“I couldn’t believe that nobody had done a behind-the-scenes of the making of reality television, and we are all so weirdly obsessed with reality television. Whether you completely despise it or not, it’s definitely one of the most-talked about things in the world. And it’s not about bashing reality television. It’s just an incredible world to set storylines because it’s already so rich in drama and deceit and all that kind of stuff. Then you throw in people looking for love, behind the camera and out in front of the camera.”
On working alongside Shiri Appleby, who is Quinn’s long-suffering young producer, Rachel Goldberg, she reveals: “The relationship between Quinn and Rachel is very exciting for me to play because I’m always playing opposite men. They really did such an incredible job of putting us together because you have to really, really like each other to play those characters.”
Highlighting one of the standout characters in this multicast offering, Zimmer says: “Mary. She gets labelled the MILF right away because she’s the only person who has a kid, and she’s struggling with an abusive relationship. There are more characters who are going to be revealed in the last three episodes…”
Did UnREAL give her déjà vu what with playing Dana Gordon in Entourage?
“They’re similar just because they are strong women with very powerful jobs, but they are not similar in how they do their jobs. Dana Gordon, being the head of a studio in the entertainment world, she’s covering such a vast array of people and conditions and films and all this stuff, whereas Quinn’s job is very specific into this tiny little wormhole of a business. I think Quinn has to be stronger than Dana because there’s a lot of Dana Gordons out there. Quinn’s definitely a rare bird.”
As for her game plan at this juncture of her career, she offers: “I think every actor’s dream is to go and play something that is the complete opposite of what you’ve recently played. I actually come from comedy. That was my favourite and I still, to this day, will say that I prefer comedy over drama.
“Because I have now been given this incredible chance to play such strong women, of course, the next thing I want to do is go and be in a Tina Fey, Amy Poehler movie, or work with Amy Schumer. I want to go and remind people that I do that.”
In the meantime, she is also in series Complications and Results, a movie starring Guy Pearce, Cobie Smulders and Kevin Corrigan.
Thrilled to learn UnREAL was showing here, she enthusiastically notes: “I’m excited that it is going to be in South Africa. My sister was born in Joburg.”
l UnREAL airs on Lifetime (DStv channel 131) on Mondays at 8.45pm.