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

Summary

In the MGM+ original series ‘The Institute,’ kids with unusual abilities are abducted and tortured to force out their powers.

Ms. Sigsby, the head of operations, is guileless, morally skewed, convinced she’s saving the world, and will go to any extreme necessary.

Mary-Louise Parker enjoys collaborating with director/EP Jack Bender, relishes Sigsby’s dark whimsy, and loves that party hat.

From executive producer Stephen King, director/executive producer Jack Bender and showrunner/executive producer Benjamin Cavell, the MGM+ series The Institute tells the story of what happens after Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman) is kidnapped and finds himself trapped in a facility with other kids and teens, all of which have unusual abilities. Torturing those held captive, in order to bring out their powers of telekinesis (TK), telepathy (TP), or the rarest known as precognition (PC), and pushing them to limits so extreme it could break them makes it hard to see what the greater purpose of it all could be. And when you have someone as cold and calculating as Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker) as the head of that particular operation who keeps everyone on mission, the larger plan and mysterious higher-up that she clearly reports to seem even more worrisome. During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Parker discussed the pressure of taking on the work of King, the appeal of playing this season’s central antagonist, Ms. Sigsby’s motives and how she found herself in the position that she’s in, evolving character dynamics, how far Sigsby would actually go, that party hat, and what she might want to see in Season 2. She also talked about the great affection she has for the characters she played in The West Wing and Weeds.
‘The Institute’s Ms. Sigsby Is a Morally Skewed and Believes She’s on the Right Side of Things

“She can’t afford not to overcommit to this quest to save the world.”

Collider: I love your character because I just didn’t know what to make of her. I feel like I couldn’t really get a read on her motives and why she does what she does. I feel like she could go even worse or also turn good, if that would suit her. Was that part of the appeal of playing a character like this, that she’s someone who really could go anywhere and do anything? MARY-LOUISE PARKER: She’s fairly guileless. She’s clearly a fractured person and her morality is really skewed. But I think to her, she really is acting in the best interests of the world. Maybe when she started, she saw things a little bit differently. And maybe now, she’s at the point where she can’t afford not to believe. She can’t afford not to overcommit to this quest to save the world, by way of torturing kids. They’re teenagers, after all. It’s not like they’re in grade school. What is the biggest intimidation factor when it comes to taking on a Stephen King story? Specifically with this series, was there anything you wanted to make sure you got right? PARKER: I’m really hard on myself and I never feel like I get anything right, which is why I don’t really watch projects once they’re made. In your heart, you always want to please the writer, the person who was at the helm and at the beginning, the genesis. I would love for Stephen King to be happy, and of course Jack [Bender], who’s a dear friend and who’s a wonderful collaborator. Since I’m not going to watch it myself, I really want to know that they’re satisfied. That makes me feel satisfied. You’ve worked with Jack Bender before, and you’ve done so on another Stephen King project. How did making Mr. Mercedes compare to doing this? What do you like about working and collaborating with him? PARKER: He’s a brilliant visual artist and he makes the most beautiful books, if you haven’t seen them. He has this one book, called I’m Sorry, which has these beautiful little poetic phrases paired with photos that are often quite dark. He understands finding the light within the dark, and he understands that there are shadows and that there are a lot of gray areas to humanity. That’s where he starts every time he tries to tell a story. He’s super passionate. At this point, his family feels like an extension of my family, and you don’t always get that. Even if I was mad at him, I just love him. His daughter, Hannah Owens-Bender, did the costumes, and she did a brilliant job. It’s an atmosphere where you are free to make a big choice. How much did you think about the physical embodiment of this character, from the way she dresses to the way she carries herself? PARKER: It was just important to me that there be a great disparity between how she is at work and how she is at home. I wanted her at home to be really stripped down and not pulled together at all. I think you see that in the wardrobe at the end of the first episode. It’s an air of refusal, being faced with any form of self-care whatsoever. She’s presentable at work, but beyond that, there’s some kind of self-loathing that comes across in the way that she doesn’t attend to herself at all. Do you think Sigsby is someone that sought out what she’s doing, or do you she’s someone who just happened to find herself in the position she’s in? PARKER: I think someone probably saw that she had the right qualities for it. She has a myopic single-mindedness and she’s a good fighter. She will fight until the death. She’ll die on any hill. Someone probably saw the right qualities in her. Also, there is a side of her that’s a bit gullible. There’s a chip missing. She’s one of those people you know that can project onto because there’s something in them that is not completely there. There’s that quality to her as well. Sigsby is in the middle of two ensembles, the one with Stackhouse and Hendricks and everyone she’s working with at the Institute, and then all these kids, and her role is very different in each. What did you enjoy about getting to develop each of those dynamics, digging into the relationship with Hendricks and finding the dynamic with Luke? PARKER: She changes herself to alter what she presents to whomever she’s speaking, and doesn’t necessarily do the very best job of it either. There were times when she’s interacting with the kids when she almost pulls it off, but then it’s the 800th fake birthday party. There’s just something dissonant about her singing these songs and trying to rally these kids. There’s just something off. She’s committed to it, but she doesn’t quite pull it off. What was it like to figure out how to balance that with who she is with the people she’s working with? PARKER: I think she’ll just go to any lengths. She’ll put on the party hat because she will go to any lengths for the job. Where she fails is that she makes the mistake of trusting people, and it’s just not a world where you should ever trust anyone.
Mary-Louise Parker Says Sigsby Would Do Anything For Her Job at ‘The Institute’

“She would have gotten on a pony and ridden it.”

Mary-Louise Parker as Ms. Sigsby throws a birthday party for the kids in the front half in The Institute
Image via MGM+

How did you feel about the little party hat? PARKER: I loved it. Are you kidding? It was fantastic. I wanted the kazoo. I wanted a harmonica to begin with, but they gave me a kazoo and that was fine. It’s perfect because it shows how far she will go. She would have put on a clown suit, if that’s what would have worked. She would have gotten on a pony and ridden it. She really would do anything for the job. This Institute may have literally crumbled, but we learn that there are other Institutes and other kids out there and it feels like there is more story that could be told. Were you happy to learn that she at least made it through this season to possibly make some more mischief in future success? PARKER: Oh, sure. Yeah, absolutely. Some of the layers that you see unfolding over the course of the story, that is the genius of Stephen King. I recently, for the first time if you can believe it at my age, watched Shawshank Redemption, and the way that story unfolds is just pure brilliance. You think it’s going to go here, and then it goes there. He just knows where to put each brick in the foundation until this structure is built all around you. He knows how to take the audience literally by the throat. You just can’t stop watching.
Mary-Louise Parker Would Like to See Sigsby Go All Out if She Returns for Season 2 of ‘The Institute’

“There’s really almost nothing she wouldn’t do.”

Mary-Louise Parker as Ms. Sigsby wearing a party hat with a kazoo in her mouth in The Institute
Image via MGM+

Is there anything that you would like to see or do with her in a possible Season 2? PARKER: The more extreme the better. There’s really almost nothing she wouldn’t do, which makes her dramatically great. It feels like she’s a little surprised to learn that these kids are stronger and more capable than she had imagined they were. Is she surprised that they were able to hide things from her? Do you think that makes her more interested in them? PARKER: There might be an element of surprise, but it immediately goes into triage. I don’t think she dwells long in anyone else’s reality or motives or their inner life. I think she immediately goes to, “How do I fix this?” There’s certainly rage that she failed. Luke is so clever and so good, and Joe played it so brilliantly. He has such a strong center, and that fed into the character. When you’ve played a character for as many episodes as you’ve played your characters in Weeds and The West Wing, those must be characters that you’ll always live with in some way, especially because people will continue to find and watch those shows on streaming and fans will want to talk to you about them. Do those characters still feel special to you, or have your feelings about them changed over time? PARKER: No, I have great affection for them, and I miss them. Certainly, with plays and with some characters, like The West Wing or Weeds, I miss them, and I miss those relationships more than I miss most of the relationships in my real life. They continue to stay with me. I think of them as people that I was lucky enough to hang out with.

The Institute is available to stream on MGM+. Check out the trailer: