Lauren Ambrose Looks at Four Important Claire Episodes from ‘Six Feet Under’

Fifteen years ago today, June 3, 2001, HBO debuted Six Feet Under and cemented their reputation as the TV destination for prestige drama. The Sopranos was already grabbing headlines and Emmy awards, but it was the addition of Six Feet Under to the roster that really cemented HBO’s reputation as a brand that could score with all sorts of different shows. And Six Feet Under was plenty different.

Created by Alan Ball, Oscar-winning screenwriter of American Beauty, Six Feet Under told the story of the Fishers, a California family fractured in ways that were familiar: a disappointed housewife who sacrificed for her family; the rebellious son who escaped to the Pacific northwest; the disaffected teen daughter; the resentful “good” son with secrets who stuck around to learn the family business. That the family business was a funeral home gave the show its hook, not to mention its dark comedic sensibility. When the patriarch of the family dies in a random bus accident in the pilot, the tenuous bonds of propriety begin to slip, and we see the Fishers as ragged and fucked-up as anything we’d seen on TV.

As youngest child Claire Fisher, Lauren Ambrose was graduating from the world of light comedies (Can’t Hardly Wait; In & Out) and taking on a more complicated character. Claire was a girl used to getting lost in her family’s shuffle, and her journey through the show was a push-pull of demanding a place for herself and willfully retreating from them.

To commemorate the 15th anniversary of Six Feet Under‘s debut, Decider spoke with Ambrose about four particular episodes that stood out as signature Claire moments in the series.

“Pilot”

Season 1, Episode 1. Claire is getting high on crystal meth with her friends when she gets the call that her father has been hit by the bus and killed. Claire’s reaction isn’t tears but a wild-eyed freakout that she’s about to go through this hellish emotional experience high on crack crystal meth. 

Lauren Ambrose:  “That was one of the audition scenes. That’s actually what I remember most about that scene is auditioning for Six Feet Under and specifically testing for it. It used to be that you’d go in front of [HBO executives] and they’d all be sitting there in this screening amphitheater. I remember [Alan Ball] took me out in the hallway and was like, “More fucked up! More fucked up! Feel the effects of the drugs even more! Go for it, go for it, go for it!” So then by the time we shot it, I’d had already done the scene quite a bit.”

“The Foot”

Season 1, Episode 3. Claire’s relationship with troubled Gabe (Eric Balfour) hits a snag when he starts bragging around school that Claire sucked his toes. She gets her revenge as only a Fisher could, by stealing a severed foot from a corpse and leaving it in Gabe’s locker. It’s all pretty tragic, because up until then, Claire was floating on air thinking about her new boyfriend. This is the episode with the brief musical reverie where Claire breaks into a chorus of “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” right in the middle of the family kitchen. 

Ambrose: “That was so much fun, because Michael Hall and Fran Conroy, these incredible stage veterans, were in the scene with me as my backup singers. All the preparation that went into it, I got to record the track that we danced to on the set, because we made it like a music video, where you record the thing and then you rehearse the dancing. And I literally had a Bob Mackie dress, like a straight-up Liza Minelli-style Bob Mackie that our incredible costumer Mark [Bridges] got.”

“I’m Sorry, I’m Lost

Season 3, Episode 13. After having an abortion in the previous episode, Claire finds herself wandering through the cemetery, looking to visit her father’s grave. Instead, she finds Nathaniel himself (Richard Jenkins), or a vision of him. He leads her through a kind of afterlife, where she sees Gabe and Nate’s wife Lisa, neither of whom Claire or the audience knew for sure had died. It was an echo of a scene in the pilot when Claire and Nathaniel have a hear-to-heart from beyond the grave. 

Ambrose:  “I loved when Richard was around, because I feel like the show was essentially a fancy soap opera, you know, in the best sense of the word. But whenever Richard was around, it got back to that thesis of what happens to this family that runs a funeral home when death comes to them. So whenever Richard was present, it really got back to that, and I feel like that was always the heart and the root of it. So I loved that, because I was like ‘Okay, okay, now I know what I’m doing.’ I always felt re-rooted from those scenes. And also he’s such a wonderful presence and actor and funny, funny man. I just love that man, I think I learned so much from him. Loved working with Richard. He did bring such a great feeling to the show. Such a wonderful levity and light air.”

“Everybody’s Waiting”

Season 5, Episode 12. In the celebrated series finale, Claire leaves home for a job opportunity in New York, and her tearful goodbye with her family on the front porch of the funeral home serves as the send-off for the show, before transitioning into that breathtaking, decades-long flash forward that sees all the Fishers through to their deaths. 

Ambrose:  “At that point, those people really were such a family to me; people that I saw every day and worked with every day. Saying goodbye to them was very emotional. And such a wonderful gift to be able to use all that big stuff that was happening to me, saying goodbye to our show, to use it in the actual work that we were doing on the show was just the most extraordinary blessing to be given that opportunity. As an actor, I’m always looking for a way to make the scene the most personal.”

[The full series of Six Feet Under is available to stream on HBO NOW.]