‘Mare of Easttown’ Star Julianne Nicholson is Relieved She Can Finally Talk About that Ending

The Mare of Easttown finale put one character through the wringer more than anyone else, and for once, it wasn’t Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet). Mare’s best friend Lori Ross (Julianne Nicholson) had to first deal with the fact that her husband John (Joe Tippett) was implicated in the murder of his teenaged cousin Erin McMenamin (Cailee Spaeny), and then live with the fallout of the revelation that in fact her teen son Ryan (Cameron Mann) killed Erin. And it’s Mare who figures this latter truth out, betraying her friend in the process. On top of everything else, John asks Lori to raise his infant son by Erin.

What Lori Ross goes through in the Mare of Easttown finale would be enough to throw any actor through the loop, but Nicholson handled these dramatic swerves with understated grace. Every choice she made felt true to life which made everything all the more devastating. Since the start of Mare of Easttown, Lori has been her best friend’s rock and now we have to watch her literally physically crumble in the finale.

Decider spoke with Julianne Nicholson about the Mare of Easttown finale last week and she revealed just how “heartbreaking” it was to learn that Lori’s son was Erin’s murderer. Nicholson also walked us through Lori’s two biggest scenes in the Mare of Easttown finale: first, when John asks her to raise D.J., and later when she and Mare reconcile. Julianne Nicholson also shared her fears over nailing the Delco accent and why after Mare of Easttown (and The Outsider), she’s done playing the mom or wife of small town murder suspects…

DECIDER: Going into the finale, I thought you were absolutely outstanding. What you had to do as an actor was just mind blowing to me. I know that Brad knew where the story was going when he was writing it. At what point in the process were you let in on the fact that Ryan was the killer? What was your reaction to that revelation?

So as far as I remember, Kate had called me. I’ve known her for many, many years. I hadn’t seen her for a while. She said, “I’m doing this limited series, and it’s called Mare of Easttown. I’m sending you these scripts. You have to play Lori.” I said, “Okay, interest piqued.”

I believe they sent me [Episodes] one to six. So I read all of them. I was told that there would be a big finish for Lori and ultimately for Mare and Lori in the final episode. I said, “Yes, I want to be a part of the show up until [Episode] six,” and then after that, then I was sent [Episode] seven before we started filming, but after I had had agreed to do the show.

What was your reaction when you realized that it was first thought John did it and then the truth about Ryan?

Yeah, it was so heartbreaking. I mean, like the audience, I sort of thought I knew who did it in every episode, and then it was sort of revealed that I was wrong. I thought it was maybe Lori, but I think that Ryan doing it is actually the saddest outcome.

There’s been so much interest in the show in the last few weeks. How hard was it to keep that secret? Like, did you tell your husband or anyone?

No, I haven’t told anyone and actually I was told yesterday when I was going to be talking to people today that I could talk about anything, but I didn’t realize until this morning when I spoke to [HBO PR rep] Kayla [Spector], that you all have seen it. Because I was like, “I’m not saying anything!” I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but what a relief it’s been for me to get to talk about it today finally. The other press that we’ve done, [as] Lori, you just have to sit there and be sort of the support for Mare and you don’t really know what she has coming. So it’s been really gratifying to see people’s reaction to it and just to be able to chat about it.

One of the most awful scenes for me to watch in the finale was when John approaches Lori at the courthouse and asked her to raise the child as her own. The way you play it so stoically, but heartbroken. Can you tell me how you approached that scene and why you think Lori does follow through and takes care of the baby?

Yeah, that was one of the first scenes we did when we came back from the pandemic actually, for me anyway. I think there actually were a couple of lines there for Lori, but I said to [writer] Brad [Ingelsby] and to [director] Craig [Zobel], “What if she said nothing? Like it might be stronger if she just says nothing?” They were both [like], “Great.” Brad is such a strong, special writer and he writes so beautifully, but also what I love is he’s not precious about his words at all. He would say, “If you don’t want to say that, say what you do want to say or don’t say anything.”

So that was one of those scenes, and I feel like it’s stronger without… words would ruin that moment. There’s nothing you can say. There’s nothing to say. I’m glad that that landed it. That’s a terrible thing. And then I remember Craig, we did it in a number of different ways for receiving that information because first she has to look, and then just to look to Mare, who then like turns and leaves. We did a couple times and she was sad and then I think one of the times Craig said, let’s see more your anger, but not fury like, let’s see the anger. Let’s see the disbelief. We just tried it a number of ways.

The other scene that I am still thinking about from yesterday was that last one with Mare. The way you physically just crumble into her arms. Again, that’s kind of a silent scene. Was that discussed as well, how you wanted to play that?

That was discussed. It’s so funny. Anytime anyone brings up that scene, I get a lump in my throat. So funny, that scene was written like that. That’s Brad, I love that she just says, “You want some tea?” You don’t know where it’s gonna go. I will say I was scared of falling to the ground because that feels like that could read really false. It’s a scary thing to do that in any sort of believable way. But when you look at all that has happened, and that in the previous episodes, and the weight that Lori has been carrying, it just gets heavier and heavier. It felt like we should try it as Brad wrote it. I trust Kate as a friend and as an actor and Brad as a writer, and Craig as a director. So it felt like we found a version…. I hope that we found a version that felt like believable, and not falling to the floor for drama’s sake.

I grew up in Delaware, not Delco, but in that area and Irish Catholic. I’m very familiar with that vibe and I know a lot has been made of the accent. Kate has obviously gotten all this praise, but your accent I thought was almost subtler and kind of on point. Can you talk about your own process to nail the accent of beautiful Delaware County and the surrounding suburbs?

Thank you so much and I’m glad you think that, being from there. I’m from outside of Boston. So I have that ear for anyone who attempts the Boston accent who’s not from there, but I found that I didn’t want to go that strong. I wanted to go more subtle and Suzanne, our wonderful dialect coach, she recorded many different people and so there were some stronger and some less than, and we found one that I liked for me.

Part of mine was fear, like getting it wrong. Part of mine, too, was like I’m bouncing in and out. So that felt harder to me. Like if you’re there every day on set and you’re doing it like you can sort of get into it and then it will come and I just felt like… so part of it was fear. I just like there are versions of this accent, even within the same house, like I have aunts and uncles and cousins that live in one house and it’s like, depending on how old you are, depending on what your job is, depending on if you’ve had a few drinks, they all sound differently. Suzanne, I know, had shared with Brad like the person that I was talking to sound like and he was like, “Great.” We didn’t all have to sound the same, but that was scary, as I said, because being from somewhere, too, where people are still like, “Ha! Nice try.” I really was hoping that we would get it right and people seem to be mostly generous about it.

What comes next for Lori? Obviously she has her son in this horrible situation and she has to raise both her daughter and this infant. There’s obviously repercussions for John and Billy, even if they were not the murderers because legally they tried to cover up, but what do you hope for Lori comes next in her life?

I hope she can find some peace and… really mostly peace. I feel like I hope she can find some some way of living with the fact that her son is in jail. I hope she doesn’t let that crush her. I hope for peace for her. I don’t know what that looks like, I feel like it’s still too early for me to know. I feel like I don’t think she’s gonna move. I don’t think that you know, John will be in her life anymore, but I hope there’s a way to find joy within her circumstances.

I was reminded that you’re also in The Outsider on HBO and you play a wife who also kind of has her family torn apart because of murder allegations. Were you aware that there was a similarity in the parts? Did you feel there was one? Are you looking forward to changing that up in the future?

I was aware of that, but it felt like there was enough there in Mare to return to a version of that. But I will say I was offered something while I was filming Mare that took place in Pennsylvania, there was a murder. My son was who they thought did it? I was like, “I can’t. I have to try something different.”

Obviously, the show was become a big hit for HBO and there’s so many crazy theories. There’s obviously all this interest in who killed Erin and there are some wild theories. I’m not sure if anyone’s come to you with some of the wild theories and if you have a favorite one, or what your take is.

I just love how invested people seem to be in knowing… I just spoke with a writer who knew who it was and so she felt really happy about that. Like people are really invested in who they think did it and whether or not that’s going to be true and that in and of itself feels exciting to me for people to care enough to be like spreading it around. I did hear, someone did tell me today, that one of the theories was that Lori did it and then sort of displayed Erin’s body to look like the character on the Dave Matthews Band t-shirt. So I thought that seemed like a pretty out there theory, but I was like, “Wow, people are really searching for connections there.”

(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

Where to stream Mare of Easttown