Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey vow to ‘make lesbians proud’ with new series The Abandons
Promo image for The Abandons starring Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey (Netflix)
Promo image for The Abandons starring Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey (Netflix)
Strap into the saddle, lesbians: Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey have vowed to make their most fervent supporters “proud” in their new Netflix Western series.
The two actors, who both have huge sapphic fan bases, star opposite each other as duelling matriarchs in The Abandons, the latest TV outing from Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter.
“In 1850s Washington, two families led by powerful matriarchs — one wealthy, one poor but deeply loyal — battle for supremacy on the lawless frontier,” the show’s synopsis reads.
Anderson (Sex Education, The X-Files) portrays the formidable Constance Van Ness, head of the ruthless Van Ness mining dynasty, whilst Headey (Game of Thrones) plays devout Irish Catholic Fiona Nolan who has taken in a ragtag clan of orphans. With their help, she must protect her land – which happens to be chock full of silver – from Anderson’s crew.
Netflix clearly knows a show like this is exactly what lesbians want, as the streaming service captioned an Instagram promoting the show as “lena headey and gillian anderson playing powerful matriarchs of two warring families?!? say. less.”
Speaking to Pride about the show, the actresses claimed that they did not know that their joint presence together on the small screen will likely to cause sapphics around the world to short-circuit.
“I didn’t know that, but that’s pretty cool,” Anderson laughed during the interview. “Yeah, I’ll take that.”
“We’ll take it,” agreed Headey. “We’ll make you proud.”
On their on screen dynamic, Headey and Anderson were full of praise for one another’s acting skills.
“I was hugely grateful for what Lena brought to all the scenes. I was incredibly impressed and in awe at how well she was able to match the stuff that Constance believably throws at her,” Anderson said of Headey.
“Lena came full force, prepared and ready to have a showdown.”
In turn, Headey told the outlet: “You come to do kind of tense long [scenes], we had pages of scenes together—Gillian had more to learn than me, which I was grateful for. But I think we match each other in focus and f**kery, so we can mess around.”
For Anderson, the show marks a change of pace from her usual roles.
“I’ve never played a baddie before, and I was looking forward to leaning into that. It is cathartic. I enjoyed it,” she said.
Headey noted the show also came with the chance to flip the script on typical gender dynamics in Western flicks.
“We are mothers who will step on you”
“It usually would be two men, especially two men of our age,” she explained.
“It’s kind of amazing that you get these two women of our moment together and doing and being ‘the dudes.’ It’s wild and exciting.”
In her own Instagram post sharing behind-the-scenes pictures from the set of The Abandons, Anderson captioned it: “yes we are mothers who will step on you.”
“Please do,” one comment reads in response – honestly, same.
