Playing twins on Claws gave Carrie Preston a new level of respect for Tatiana Maslany
Note: This interview discusses plot points from the Claws episode, “Til Death.”
As the second season of Claws winds down—or rather, ramps up—the cast remains the TNT drama’s greatest asset. Showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois has taken creator Eliot Laurence’s idea for a “Florida noir” and expanded it into an exciting, engrossing series that has elevated summer TV programming. But this fierce, feminist drama wouldn’t work nearly as well as it does without an ensemble that includes Niecy Nash, Carrie Preston, Judy Reyes, Jenn Lyon, and Karrueche Tran.
They’re all adroit actors and more than capable of handling the hair-trigger shifts in tone, but as the story has unfolded, Preston has emerged as the MVP. Her grifter character, Polly, could easily have been comic foil to Nash’s ambitious Desna or Reyes’ Quiet (badass) Ann, often changing accents or life stories to defuse a situation. But Preston’s performance has always hinted at how much of a coping mechanism the “persona a minute” strategy has been for Polly. The Southern belle has pretended to be so many different people that we’ve lost track, but the penultimate episode, “Til Death,” introduces us to Polly’s twin sister, Lillian, whose tragic life remains intertwined with her drug-running, stripper-teaching sibling. In this frenetic yet emotional episode, Polly faces her biggest fear—coming clean about her past. The A.V. Club spoke with Preston about playing doubles, curating your life, and why Tatiana Maslany is one of the most impressive actors on TV.
The A.V. Club: What were your thoughts when you first saw the script or the breakdown for this episode, in which you play your own twin?
Carrie Preston: Janine Sherman Barrois, who wrote the episode, and Eliot Laurence, the creator of the show, had already given me a heads up that it was coming and to prepare for Polly’s twin. But when I first got the script, I was so excited. And of course, understandably nervous, because I had never acted opposite myself before. Luckily, they hired a wonderful actress to come in and play opposite me the whole time, so I did get to have scenes with her, and that was so important. It just made me have such respect for all of the actors that have gone before me, and so much more respect than I thought I could ever have for [Orphan Black’s] Tatiana Maslany. I already think she’s a genius, but doing that made me respect her even more, if that’s possible. So yeah, I was thrilled to get the opportunity to delve into the character and illuminate Polly by playing Lillian.
AVC: Throughout the show, your character has adopted these personas at the drop of a hat. It feels like that was laying the groundwork for the idea that there really is this other Polly in a sense.
CP: Exactly. We can see now what was the inciting incident that made Polly start to split apart and find ways to be anything other than herself—because being herself was too painful. And we just reached a fever pitch where she split for real in this episode, and had to face what she had done and what had happened in the past.
AVC: Now we learn that Polly caused her twin sister’s death, which is such a terrible secret to carry around with her all this time. And it really leans into the thriller element of the show.