There are a lot of hands involved in bringing a tale to life on the screen, whether it’s on a big screen or on your TV. Many people contribute to the realization of a project. And the new Netflix thriller Pieces of Her was no exception. Extras, DOPs, producers, makeup artists, writers, creators, and other crew members were involved. Charlotte Stoudt, the creator, was one of the people that spoke with The Hollywood reporter.

She had previously worked as a television writer, and this was her first stint as a creator. She’s been climbing up the ranks at a breakneck pace, having recently joined Apple TV’s The Morning Show as showrunner for season 3. She also discusses working with actress Toni Collette.

Before Pieces of Her, the mother-daughter relationship in this genre was unexplored

People always expect men to do all the violence or dirty work in fiction, so people frequently explored this type of story with male characters. But the creator, Charlotte Stoudt, had a different opinion and wondered why it couldn’t be done with female characters, especially in a mother-daughter relationship. Toni Collette’s character pulls a gun on her daughter Andy, played by Bella Heathcote, in one scene in the series. People often think “is it possible?” but Charlotte questions, “well, if this were Liam Neeson and Robert Pattinson, would anybody even ask that question?”

Charlotte Stoudt on working with Toni Collette on Pieces of Her

Toni Collette, as we’ve seen, can take on any role and deliver an outstanding performance. So does Charlotte; she was curious to know what she could ask Toni to do or develop in the story itself to keep Toni’s interest. She was always intrigued by the actress’s enigmatic gaze and used to wonder, “‘What is she thinking?’ That’s a show. It’s that simple. You get to see a little bit of what she’s thinking, but by the end of season one, you still don’t know.”

Is Pieces of Her a limited series?

It began as a limited series, but somewhere along the way, it was decided to make it a full-fledged series. Charlotte said, “I believe that was a Netflix decision, but there’s certainly a lot more to tell and I purposely kind of started building it out a little bit more. I tried to open it up so it could have some legs should it find an audience.”

Charlotte Stoudt joined The Morning Show as a showrunner

The Morning Show and Pieces of Her have completely different genres and tones. It is also difficult to create characters and stories that people will be interested in. Stoudt made a comment on this, “That’s hard. One of the fun things about The Morning Show is the humor. You can write slightly looser scenes, and it can be a little bit of a West Wing-Mad Men chatty vibe. Thrillers tend to be rather narrow.“

Pieces of Her, which consists of eight thrilling episodes, has been available on Netflix since March 4th. If you haven’t already, watch it.