Betty Gilpin has praised the team behind Widow’s Bay for creating a show that is “what people f***ing want.”
Gilpin, 40, earned an Emmy nod for her guest-starring role on the hit Apple TV+ comedy-horror series, which earned a total of 19 nominations, including for Outstanding Comedy Series.
The 10-episode series stars Matthew Rhys as a small-town New England mayor desperate to boost tourism on his struggling island that locals are convinced is cursed.
Gilpin appears in just one standalone episode, “Our Story,” which flashes back to 1702 to reveal the origins of the island’s curse through the marriage of town founder Richard Warren (Hamish Linklater) and Sarah Westcott (Gilpin).
Speaking recently to IndieWire, the actor applauded the show’s creator and showrunner Katie Dippold and those who had a hand in bringing the series to life.
“I feel like because I’m not an actual part of the real show, I can brag about it and it’s not bragging about myself,” Gilpin told the publication. “I’m so glad that the exhausted people that I worked with who were like, ‘I hope we made something good. I don’t know. I’m so tired,’ they made the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.
“The show as a whole feels like the ultimate f*** you to safe, algorithm-friendly, ChatGPT, copy/paste television,” she continued. “And yet, it’s found such mainstream success, and that’s what people f***ing want. It’s just so satisfying.”
Widow’s Bay was released in April as a limited 10-episode series starring Matthew Rhys as a small-town New England mayor desperate to boost tourism on his struggling island that locals are convinced is cursed. Dale Dickey, Kevin Carroll, Stephen Root, Kate O’Flynn and Kingston Rumi Southwick also feature.
Critics heaped praise on the show, which went on to receive a 98 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Oscar-winning director Guillermo Del Toro even applauded the show, calling it potentially “the best streaming series in a long time” and a “mesmerizing act of narrative prestidigitation in Horror.”
Widow’s Bay has been renewed for a second season, though Gilpin isn’t sure whether her character will return.
“Listen, I’m texting Katie Dippold, doing backflips, trying to be like, ‘OK, maybe I snort the fog of the island when I’m out on the boat with the children and it curses me too and I’m immortal,’” she told IndieWire.
“Yes, trust me, I’m pitching all different kinds of ways for me to come back. I loved it so much.”
