In ‘The Newsreader’, Helen Norville (Anna Torv, ‘Tess’ in ‘The Last Of Us’) is a famous news anchor in the 1980s who struggles to gain credibility in a hyper-competitive media dominated by men. She is magnetic and charming in front of the cameras, however, behind her, she has earned the reputation of being ‘problematic’ for fighting for what she wants and going against the sexism and inequalities of the time.
Universal+ premieres this Monday the 6th the second season of ‘The Newsreader’, the series that has been proclaimed a cult phenomenon and ranks fourth in Variety magazine as one of the best of the year. La República spoke with its creator and director, Michael Lucas, via Zoom.
—Why write and direct a story set in the 80s? What appeal do you find in that decade?
—The idea was fascinating, I was a child then, but as an adult it is interesting to go back and see what the world was like, to think what it was like to be in a workplace for a woman like my own mother. Furthermore, you can tell a lot about the world today when you look back, see what parts of life have progressed and transformed and what things remain the same. Another thing I think about a lot is that the 80s were just before we had the internet and it was the last analog era of our lives. Then everything changed profoundly.
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—One of the topics that the series addresses is gender disparity in the workplace. For example, the channel owner says that Helen’s style is ‘aggressive’ and she does not criticize male journalists. How much do you think she has changed this in 2023?
—I don’t think much has really changed, considering that more than three decades have passed. You only have to look at social media to see the type of judgment women are exposed to, it’s very different to how men are treated. That criticism is very aggressive, you hear it a lot every time a journalist interviews a politician, there are a lot of people online commenting on that and they don’t say the same about men, so we still see them in a completely different way.
—The second season also explores journalistic ethics by airing dangerous topics, but also exposes the ambition of journalists to be on camera. Do you think that now there are no filters and that the lack of ethics and overexposure has been reinforced by social networks?
—In the series they usually face an ethical decision and at least have a little time to decide what they are going to do, but these days everything happens very quickly, so I think that something that social networks have done is place a huge amount of pressure and time pressure; people have to rush with stories because they don’t want to be left behind. That pressure already existed in the 90s, but now it is much greater.
—What is it like directing an actress like Anna Torv?
—She is wonderful, talented and a great storyteller. She is not afraid, she does not worry if she likes the character or not, or if they can identify with him. She just wants to make sure Helen’s journey is believable, complicated, and interesting. Anna has a lot of input into the stories in the scripts, but she is also very inspiring to watch, I love her performances.
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—How much influence has a series like ‘The Newsroom’ had on ‘The Newsreader’, even though they are set in different times?
—I think it has been a great influence, a recurring motif of a writer who always makes wonderful series about work spaces. Furthermore, ‘The Newsroom’ uses real life events, which is very interesting, and clearly we do too. I love ‘The Newsroom’, I think it was fascinating to do something similar, but in a different period looking back to the 90s.
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