‘His & Hers’ Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal Break Down the Netflix Mystery’s “Bittersweet” Killer Finale Twist

4 days ago 15

[Editor's note: The following contains major spoilers for His & Hers.]

Summary

In the Netflix limited series 'His & Hers,' Anna and Jack’s stormy past hides mutual pain, as they're forced to face the truth together.
Detective Jack Harper's desperation marks a low point and pushes him toward redemption.
Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal reflect on pivotal scenes and moments that they dug deeply into during the season.

The six-episode Netflix limited series His & Hers follows Anna Andrews (Tessa Thompson), a news anchor who returns to her hometown of Dahlonega, Georgia to pursue answers about a murder. Detective Jack Harper (Jon Bernthal), whose connection with both Anna and the victim means he shouldn’t be investigating the case at all, is suspicious about what’s really going on. When some of his own actions seem questionable and others end up dead, ugly truths start to come out, and a shocking revelation lays it all on the table.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Thompson and Bernthal joked about Punisher and Valkyrie finally sharing the screen together while they discussed exploring the volatile relationship between Anna and Jack, getting Jack to a low enough point that he involves his own niece, the scene that was so important to them, the tricky brother-sister relationship, Anna’s big fight scene, what healed Anna, and whether Thompson thinks she let Jack in on the final reveal. Thompson also talked about how she wants to continue to develop projects through her production company, while Bernthal pointed out how protective Frank Castle is of Karen.

Collider: Does it feel a bit wild that the Marvel Universe is so big now that you’re both a part of it, but you don’t cross paths there, and then you ended up doing this show together.

TESSA THOMPSON: You know what? I hadn’t thought about it until some of the press releases came out and people were like, “Punisher and Valkyrie.” And I was like, “Oh, woah.” I did not think about that. (To Jon) Did you think about that?

JON BERNTHAL: Not until just now.

THOMPSON: I never once thought about it.

BERNTHAL: Yeah. No.

It just feels like, at this point, you’re going to end up with somebody in whatever it is you’re working on that’s in that universe whether you’ve ever actually crossed paths with them or not.

THOMPSON: Yeah. True. It’s permeating everywhere.

Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal Enjoyed Exploring the Conflict in the Relationship Between Anna and Jack in ‘His & Hers’

"There was no conversation we were unwilling to have.'

From the moment your characters cross paths, we get the impression that their relationship is pretty volatile. Was that fun to explore? What was it like to start at a place where these two people just want to tear each other down? And how was it to figure out how to build something back out of that?

BERNTHAL: Right from the beginning, Tessa and I both had a real appetite to dig. There was no conversation we were unwilling to have. Right from the beginning, we hit real walls. We had real disagreements about who these people were and what their relationship was. I think oftentimes the kernel of a disagreement or the kernel of a problem is, in itself, the solution.

THOMPSON: You know what it partially was, though, was that neither of us felt like our characters were at fault for their relationship dissolving.

BERNTHAL: That’s right.

THOMPSON: So, when we were trying to negotiate between the two of us exactly what happened, the empirical truth of what happened between the two of them, we just could never disagree on it because, quite frankly, I don’t think either of us wanted our characters to be at fault. Don’t you think?

BERNTHAL: Maybe. I don’t know if it was at fault. I just think that conversation after conversation, we were trying to get some sort of shared agreement on facts and we really couldn’t. That is, in their lives, a rub. That conflict is exactly, I think, the basis of so many people’s narratives that they build in relationships, and these two things can be true. In every conflict, there’s always two sides. I really think we found something really special with that. There was always an underlying respect. As an executive producer, she really welcomed every idea and had an appetite for all ideas. There was a real solid and healthy back and forth. But this, “My side is right. No your side is right,” was really just two people that are absolutely in pain. That’s where we ended up, and I think it’s the right place to end up.

THOMPSON: Yeah, I think so too.

To get into spoilers, Jon, it was actually just a little bit shitty of Jack to rope his niece into the drama by getting her to do a DNA test for him. How did you feel about that moment? Do you think it occurred to him that he shouldn’t be doing that?

BERNTHAL: Yeah, it’s a low point. You know what I mean? But I also think it does speak to the desperation of this situation. Look, I love any opportunity, as a character, to turn my back on the audience to do something vile or to do something that they just can’t go on with. And then, you hopefully win them back when they see your heart and when they see the pain that’s making you make the decision that you made. Ultimately, it wasn’t an act of self-salvation. It was this knowledge that, if I end up getting implicated for this crime, and these walls are closing around this character, the real killer is going to go free. The one thing Jack knows for absolute certain is that he didn’t do it. That’s the only thing he knows. So, he needed to keep himself around and available. And then, those stakes even get higher once people start suspecting Anna.

In episode four, Jack and Anna meet up in the woods, have a conversation where Anna calls him the victim and hero of his own story, and end up holding each other, crying, and getting naked in a car. What was it like to find all of that together and to really be there for each other in that moment? Because it’s such an emotional rollercoaster, just in that one scene.

THOMPSON: That scene was so important to us. It was a scene we spoke about for so long and worked so hard on it, really leaning in and doing so many different versions and trying to write it back and forth and think through it. There was a lot of excitement leading up to shooting it. There was also this feeling, that at least I remember on my side, of just feeling like we really had to get this right because it really is a moment of them haphazardly starting to come together. It felt like such an important [scene] and a really beautiful one to shoot. I grew to just love these characters so much and want them to find their way, not just towards each other, but towards themselves, a real pathway to healing and contending with their past and releasing it. It costs you so much to hold onto things and not forgive yourself and forgive the people around you. It’s such a huge emotional weight. And so, I imagine that in that scene, it’s the beginning of at least the possibility of releasing that weight for them. I loved that scene.

There’s so much happening at once that they have to take these individual journeys to see if they can even come together again. Jon, from the end of episode five to the beginning of episode six, a lot comes at your character all at once, finding his sister dead, learning Anna is in trouble, having his partner pull a gun on him. What was it like to figure all of that out? What was it like to shoot Jack’s reaction to finding his sister?

BERNTHAL: I’ve been a fan of Marin [Ireland]’s for forever, since I started doing this coming up as an actor in New York and going to see her on stage. She’s literally one of my favorite actors on earth. Now, being able to have that relationship with her and really build that relationship was just awesome. I’ve worked with her a few times since then, and I was really grateful. That relationship was always very tricky. At one point, there wasn’t real love there. I think what’s great about this piece and what was great about the process and what I think is ultimately so important is that, in all these relationships, it’s such a stronger and deeper dive to see that there’s real love and real pain in all these relationships, and that nothing is surface. You brought up getting the DNA swab, and having that matter and having you actually hate yourself and not just using your niece because you can.

There’s so much even in the scene you talked about in episode four. The scene was not about just us coming together. We didn’t want to skip this step of really letting out the viciousness and the ugliness and all the resentment in these narratives that we built for ourselves. “I know it can’t be my fault, so it has to be your fault,” and letting that come out and really just squeezing the decay and the nastiness of all this trauma that we hold in. Hopefully, that’s what people will take away from this piece. It’s not just simply a forward-leaning murder mystery. It’s really about that part of human nature and that we can only get through trauma together, rather than separating and not communicating and decaying by yourself.

Tessa Thompson Had Fun Getting to Do Her Big ‘His & Hers’ Fight Scene

"I wanted to make sure that it was grounded in real honesty and stakes."

Tessa Thompson as Anna Andrews going live to report on a murder in Dahlonega in His & Hers

Tessa, there’s something quite satisfying in the finale about watching Anna have it out with Lexi. There was something kind of funny about the moment where Richard yells through the locked door, “Be careful with her.” I was like, “What is wrong with this guy?” What was it like to get to do that fight scene and throw each other around, especially with her grunting and screaming a lot? Did you intentionally want Anna to seem very focused and keeping her cool while still fighting her?

THOMPSON: Yeah, I think so. Our writers were really inspired to make this drag-out fight, which is fun, but I wanted to make sure that it was grounded in real honesty and stakes. I hadn’t done a fight scene in a really long time. I’ve been doing more quiet things, not things with blood and shooting and fighting, so it was fun to get back into that. We had a great team. It was fun. It was painful. We shot it over some days too. I was like, “Oh, God, I’m getting bashed again today.”

There was just something so fun about that moment, especially with her pulling out her tooth and then just going back to carrying on. It says something so interesting about who she is that she can just do that and not have it faze her.

THOMPSON: Yeah, she’s unfazed. She’s been through a lot, so a little knock out of a tooth is no big deal. Plus, it was her bum tooth. She needed it out anyway.

A custom image with Jon-Bernthal in front of his name in text.

Jon, since it’s been reported that Frank Castle isn’t in Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again, how do you think Frank would feel about Karen training and preparing to face danger? Do you think he would feel some kind of way about that?

BERNTHAL: I don’t think he would like that. Jeez, I don’t know. I think if she was going to train, he would want to train her, I guess. I think he would. He’s enormously protective.

Tessa, do you know what you’re going to be shooting next? After having projects as diverse as Hedda and His & Hers come out in the same year, what do you want to follow that up with next?

THOMPSON: There are loads of things I want to follow it up with. It’s been really fun to get to continue to produce through my company, Viva Maude, and build things from the ground up, both for me to star in and some things that I just need to cut my teeth on producorially. We have two other releases that come out towards the mid and end of next year, that were also homegrown at my company, and we have a bunch of other stuff in the pipeline. I love to continue to do this dance between working auteur-driven, really interesting, complicated characters, and also finding things that feel big in scope and play with genre in really interesting ways. One of the things I love about His & Hers is, to me, it defies a super clear genre categorization. It can play with tone, and it can take you in all sorts of different spaces. I want to continue to make work that feels like that.

‘His & Hers’ Is About the Cost of Keeping Secrets From Each Other and From Yourself

"I don't think she told Jack."

Tessa Thompson as Anna Andrews standing in a doorway while holding a cup of coffee in His & Hers

How do you think Anna felt about what her mother did? Do you think she told Jack? What do you think happened after she learned all of that?

THOMPSON: I don’t think she told Jack, no. I think our show, in part, is about the cost of keeping secrets from each other, and most especially from yourself, keeping secrets inside and not releasing them, not seeking help, not talking about it. And so, in an odd way, I think you see a lot of that healed inside Anna. And then, also, she discovers something at the end of the show that probably is another secret she’s going to have to keep if she wants to protect the life that she has now, protect her husband, protect her family. That’s the irony, I think. But I think she feels a confluence of things, which hopefully the audience feels too. I think there’s something triumphant that you feel about it when you watch Alice in those sequences, and also, there’s something really harrowing about it. Both can be true. I think that’s the bittersweet, complicated thing about revenge. It’s challenging, which is what I love about the end.

I have to say, I did not see the end coming, so thank you for that.

THOMPSON: That’s great!

I appreciate that very much. This surprised me.

THOMPSON: That’s so great.