[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for The Better Sister.]

Summary

In the Prime Video series ‘The Better Sister,’ sisters Chloe and Nicky must navigate family secrets and tragedy after the murder of Chloe’s husband.

The show features striking visuals, sisterly banter, and moments of humor in a dark storyline.

‘The Better Sister’ explores complex family dynamics, trust between sisters, and the unraveling of hidden truths.

The eight-episode thriller The Better Sister tells the story of sisters Chloe (Jessica Biel) and Nicky (Elizabeth Banks), who are seemingly vastly different on the outside and yet probably equally as broken on the inside. When Chloe’s picturesque life is turned upside down by the brutal murder of her husband Adam (Corey Stoll), the sisters work through an estranged that was partly due to Chloe being the guardian of Nicky’s son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), from her own prior relationship with Adam. But with Ethan now the prime suspect of the crime, the two must unite as they deal with a complicated family history and unravel the truth behind what happened to Adam. During this interview with Collider, co-stars Biel and Banks, who are also executive producers on the series, discussed Chloe’s perfect haircut, the striking visual of the bloody white dress, taking little jabs at each other in a way that only sisters can, finding bits of humor in a Greek tragedy, figuring out how to approach one of the more challenging family confessional moments, and shooting the murder reveal.
Having Such a Perfect Haircut for ‘The Better Sister’ Was More Complicated than Jessica Biel Expected

“Short haircuts are not easy.”

Image via Prime Video

Collider: I want to start with what is clearly the most important question first: Jessica, what was it like to have and maintain Chloe’s hair? Was it challenging to have it always look so perfect? JESSICA BIEL: Short haircuts are not easy. If you’ve never had one, don’t think you’re getting in the world of, “Oh, I just wake up and …” No, no, no. Every drop of water, any moisture, it’s crazy. It was a lot of work. It was a lot of work keeping the hair right, the cut right, the color right. But it was right for her, and that’s why we did that. It made me feel very different in my body, having that kind of very rigid hair style. I don’t know if it was even totally conscious or not, how often she would or wouldn’t touch it and when. I just loved how it became part of everything. BIEL: It certainly did. That’s interesting. I don’t feel like I touched it at all. It flopped around. It was like, “Don’t touch it. It’s perfect. If you touch it, you will fuck it up.”

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I also thought it was super interesting and I’m curious if it was an intentional choice to have your character be wearing a white dress when she found her husband because it made the blood look especially ghastly. BIEL: Yes, it was definitely a conscious choice. (Director) Craig [Gillespie] wanted it white. Also, our amazing costume designer wanted it white. The visual of that is so striking when you see those two colors against each other. It was definitely thought through. Were all the little jabs that you guys make at each other scripted, like the “camel toe that can be seen from outer space” comment? Did you throw in any of those yourselves? Did you want to make sure some of that was written? ELIZABETH BANKS: Camel toe was written, I feel like. BIEL: That one was written, but yeah, you threw a million things out every day, all day long. BANKS: I did like doing that. You’re punching up when you’re in the gorgeous apartment and she’s got the fancy clothes and the beautiful 700 thread count sheets. I went into it with a mantra which was, “You’re not better than me.” And so, I played that mantra all the time, which was fun for me. I thought it was really nice to have those little bits of humor because otherwise everything else is so heavy and tragic and heartbreaking. BANKS: We’re in a Greek tragedy, for sure. BIEL: Regina [Corrado] and Olivia [Milch], our amazing writers and showrunners, have that natural sardonic sense of humor. They’re super funny, amazing women and amazing writers. There was a focus on, how do we keep this banter going? How do we keep the lightness amongst all this darkness? It’s important to have that balance when you’re dealing with such traumatic, intense major themes and main things that happen in the show.
There Is a Lot of Unspoken Family History Between Chloe and Nicky in ‘The Better Sister’

“Nicky had said these words out loud before.”

The moment that the two of you have in episode four, when Nicky tells Chloe about their father in her bed, was particularly difficult. I can’t imagine what it was like to read that, to shoot that, or even to just have to be in that scene. What was that moment like for you guys to do? How was it to figure out what that scene would be and how heavy it would get? BANKS: It’s interesting, I went into that scene knowing that Nicky had said these words out loud before and had already worked through it, so Nicky is very calm at that moment. I chalk that up to AA and working that program, and that she would have had to have already revealed this, and had to go through the understanding of what that meant for her in her own life and her relationship with her parents, and her son, subsequently, and her husband, subsequently. Whereas it’s new information for Chloe. I also went into it thinking, “I don’t know what Jessica is going to do, and I like that.” I don’t know how she’s going to react. Whatever comes at me, I knew that it would be authentic to Chloe because Jessica is a great actress. I prepared it to be very matter of fact and “This is not new information for me and I have said this out loud, so I’m just going to lay it out for you in a way that it’s been accepted by me.” But I think her reaction was correct. I think it was right to be in denial, at first. As somebody who works the program, that’s a step I understand, and I think she was expecting it. BIEL: We didn’t really prepare it in that technical sense. BANKS: We didn’t talk about it before. BIEL: We didn’t say, “This is what I’m going to do, so how do you want to do it?” We didn’t do that at all. But I think there’s a real trust that we had built with each other. Elizabeth was going to do what she was going to do, and it was going to be Nicky. Whatever it was, we just responded and changed it. It was subtle. We adjusted all the time. It was a surprise. You step into the scene knowing what you think you want to get across, but then you just have to listen, and however it changes, you have to go with that and not try to keep a plan in place. You have to throw the plan out, basically. BANKS: Totally.

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There was something so interesting about watching Chloe as a character. There were times when it felt like she was just going to hold it all in because she could, there were other times when it seemed like she was fighting having it come out, and there were times where she just couldn’t stop it. It was always so interesting to watch what was going on with your face at any given moment. BANKS: That’s the Nicky effect. I did think that a lot. She is a closed box and has clearly created a reality for herself where that information doesn’t serve her. She doesn’t need it, and she keeps it out. This entire show is Nicky opening doors for Chloe. It wasn’t powerful to have that control. It’s almost sad. There is a tragedy in being like, “Okay, but I’m going to have to tell you something and you’re not going to like it and you’re going to deny it, but I’ve got to open this door.” And I feel like Nicky does that, consistently, throughout the show. BIEL: It’s the one person in Chloe’s life who she’s vulnerable to. Anybody can say anything, and there is no fight. There is such an ability to just continue the façade and nothing will break or shake the image, the thing that Chloe wants you to see. The second there’s one word or one trigger from the past, she is in a fight against herself. She’s trying to maintain this façade. Nicky has Chloe’s number the whole way, so Chloe has no choice but to let it start to come out.
Shooting the Murder in ‘The Better Sister’ Was a Lot for the Actors Involved

“I had a great scene partner.”

Image via Prime Video

How did you guys feel about how this all played out, learning that it was Nicky who was responsible? What was it like to shoot that physical fight, from the moment he tries to strangle her to when she stabs him? BANKS: It was a lot to contemplate. I had a great scene partner. Corey [Stoll]’s amazing. We talked it through. We practiced it. It was also about, how quickly does it escalate? It was really interesting to think about, what does this person, Nicky, bring out of him? Everyone is trying to protect their place. This is, a little bit, her redemption. She went there to protect Chloe and Ethan. She doesn’t even give a shit about Adam anymore. She just wants him out of the way of this relationship that she is desperate to have with her son and her sister. He is the villain. She knows it and he knows it, so it’s, “Let’s just be done with it.” And then, he comes at her. The other thing that I was grappling with, the whole series, was that I have all the information. I know everything. I know who killed Adam. I know Ethan didn’t do it. I know what was going on in their relationship, and Adam and Chloe’s relationship. The things that Chloe’s holding onto, like her relationship with Jake, when I see him, I’m like, “Okay, so that’s a thing that you’re doing.” I have all the information which is really interesting. It’s a battle of when I lay the cards out. So, it’s appropriate that she holds on, as long as she can, to the information.

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May the odds be ever in her favor.

It was quite satisfying to get those answers and to see how they each felt about it. BANKS: Yeah, it is. But also, because you want to see how they both deal with it after. You don’t want to end with that. You want to make sure that you get to see the repair for these sisters.

The Better Sister is available to stream on Prime Video. Check out the trailer: