Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Ratched‘s first season may be done, but Nurse Mildred Ratched’s story is far from over. That’s a very good thing for the countless fans who have been watching Ratched and making it one of Netflix’s top trending shows ever since its premiere.
Following the release of the much-anticipated Sarah Paulson vehicle Decider spoke with Ratched co-creator and executive producer Evan Romansky about what it was like to finally give this complicated character a backstory. Romansky also spilled on his favorite scenes from the show, whether or not he considers Nurse Ratched to be evil, and the most exciting news of all: Ratched‘s co-creators are hoping for a four season arc.
Decider: There’s been a lot of talk online among fans about whether or not Nurse Ratched is evil. Is that what you wanted to explore with this project?
Evan Romansky: Yeah. I’ve always had an interest in exploring why we become who we are and exploring why certain things — like events in our childhood — really shape us as adults. We’re not born complete people. Everybody, no matter how cool or villainous they may be, has a story. I always really just wanted to explore that, and explore that within the character. She had no backstory. It was just such a huge point of interest for me. I naturally wonder: “Well, why does somebody become that way?”
That’s what I like about our show, too. You do have a more complex picture of her, and you do have a harder time deciphering whether or not she is a villain or whether or not she is really evil. Or whether she is just trying to define her own moral code, doing what she believes is right.
What drew you to Nurse Ratched originally? How long have you been working on this project?
I wrote it back in 2016; I was still in grad school at the time. I was, at the time, just trying to write something that would get me representation. I really set out to find some intellectual property that I could put my own spin on, that representatives would recognize the title and at least just read it. Never thinking in a million years that I would actually sell it.
When I was trying to wrack my brain of what I could tackle at the time, Nurse Ratched just popped into my head. It was always one of my favorite films, and one of my favorite books. I just loved that she didn’t have a backstory, which was such a credit to Ken Kesey. He created such an iconic character without us knowing anything about her. I love the fact that I wasn’t going to have to retell anything but instead I could totally create what I thought could be a cool story as to why she became that way.
About how much did you take from Ken Kesey’s book and how much from the movie and Louise Fletcher’s performance?
The only real commonality, besides tiny things here and there, is the fact that she was an army nurse. We really leaned into that, the traumas of war and what she had experienced as an army nurse. Especially at a time in Post-World War II, when I knew I wanted to set it, because that is when we had such a renewed focus on mental health with all the soldiers and nurses, doctors, and everyone coming back from war. They were suffering from PTSD, and we didn’t really know what it was. I felt that was a cool way to tackle the character. But there wasn’t a whole lot of crossover. We really wanted to create our own original take on her, especially since this is 15 years prior to the events in the book and the movie. We knew we had time to get her to where she is in the film and in the book.
What I really like about Mildred is that she’s very chaotic. She has an end goal in mind, but she doesn’t really know how to achieve it, which is so different.
Exactly. She really has a tremendous amount of depth. She’s manipulative and cunning, and she’s constantly trying to use those around her to get what she wants. But she’s also compassionate and funny and, in some levels, tame. My favorite part is this childlike innocence that she has at times. It really endears her to the audience and creates the sensitivity for her character, especially in her relationship with Gwen. A lot of people’s favorite scene is the oyster scene, and I love that scene so much. Because you can see almost like that childlike, first time love in Mildred in that scene. It’s really sweet. Sarah [Paulson] just killed that scene.
My co-worker and I, we were just talking about the peach scene and how that needs to win awards.
Her control over the character was absolutely unreal. You write the character knowing what Sarah can do with it. But then once you actually see her doing it, you’re like, “Oh wow.” She can just take the material and elevate it to a whole other level.
One of my favorite things too, when I was able to watch back the episodes, she is so good at communicating so much within a single look. More so than I’ve seen any actor be able to do. Especially in the dance scene when Edmund starts walking toward the guard — you can just see in the look on her face, “Oh, shit. What is happening? This is not the plan.” She just communicates so much in that look. She’s just phenomenal.
Going back to Cynthia Nixon’s character Gwendolyn, was she always a part of your original draft? Or was she added in a bit later?
That character was always there, because Mildred’s sexuality is definitely a seam of the first season. That personal journey, that was always there. But Ryan [Murphy] really came in and evolved that character and that relationship in a really great way.
I was re-reading the book after watching Ratched, and I didn’t realize how much repression was baked into the novel.
Repression is key. Especially at the time, repression of the LGBT community. These people telling them that they’re not allowed to live their lives that way, and you have to conform to what society expects you to be. Mildred’s own battle with that — I think it was such a great addition.
Now that the series has premiered, fan reaction has been a bit split. Why do you think that is? Is that what you’re expecting at all?
Well, everybody is obviously entitled to their own opinion. We are extremely proud of what this show is, and we absolutely love our fans. We think our fans are the best in the world. They’re so passionate and really understand the show, and the character, and the themes that we’re trying to convey, and the message.
Has there been any character or scene that’s popped with fans that’s surprised you?
We all knew the peach scene was going to be a big one. Just having it in the trailer, we knew that that was going to really explode. The oyster scene, we knew that people would love. My personal favorite is I love the dance scene. Near and dear to my heart is Jon Jon [Briones]’s dancing ability. I was there on set when he was dancing, and I was blown away. I should have known, coming from Broadway.
It’s incredible. He just has that manic look the whole time. I don’t know how he does it.
He’s so hopped-up on drugs in the scene. He communicates everything so well, you really believe that he’s just having this explosion of amphetamine. It’s a really, really fun scene. It just adds so much, too. It really makes it pop. So many of our supporting characters really did such a great job of commanding their screen time when they got it.
I know that Ratched was already renewed for Season 2. Have you guys started working on it yet?
We’ve had discussions. We haven’t had a formal writers’ room yet. The pandemic has just put everything behind, so we’re still trying to navigate that. Ryan’s got a lot of projects, so he needs to knock a couple out. We’re talking, though. I’m just getting ready to attack it.
Can you tease anything that might happen in Season 2? Or a direction you might go in for the series’ future?
I don’t know if there’s anything I can really tease. The viewers can decipher, have their own take on what that final image is, of them driving and where they’re going to. But I’ll leave it at that.
Do you see this as being a multi-series project? You have two seasons. Can you see it being four or five?
Our plan is that we’re going to go past the two seasons. Ideally, probably about four seasons. I think Ryan has really talked about doing four seasons. And we have an arc of where we want to go with it. So yeah, definitely. We have a lot to tell in the Mildred Ratched story. This character’s not, she’s not where she’s at in Cuckoo’s Nest. We’re really pushing her every season, that’s the goal.
