Television’s messiest college students are officially back. On Sept. 4, Tell Me Lies Season 2 premiered its first three episodes on Hulu, welcoming viewers back into the twisted web of Stephen and Lucy.
“This relationship is a sinkhole to everybody around them and no one can escape it,” Grace Van Patten — who plays the strong-willed but often misguided Lucy — tells NYLON. When we reunite with her, she’s entering sophomore year with a quiet vengeance: dumped by Stephen, riddled with guilt over an accidental one-night stand, and just wanting to forget that any of it happened. In show time, it’s only been a few months, but in real life, it’s been nearly two years since Season 1’s explosive finale — meaning fans have a lot of burning questions. Chief among them: Emma Roberts, the show’s executive producer, who originally brought the novel the show is based on to Hulu as part of a first-look deal, along with her producing partner Karah Preiss.
So, exclusively for NYLON, Roberts gets to be on the other side of the interview for once, asking Van Patten all the questions fans have been dying to know.
Emma Roberts: I have to say, it’s so funny because I’ve been doing more interview stuff because of my book club Belletrist. I have to say, I was always so nervous being interviewed, and now I have so much more respect for the interviewer because I find that to be more nerve-wracking somehow.
Grace Van Patten: To ask great questions is like…
Don’t say great questions. Now I have pressure.
No, you got it. Let’s do it.
Well, first of all, I’m so excited for Season 2 to drop and I’m even more excited that people have been stopping me on the street and not recognizing me as Emma, the actress, but as Emma, the producer of Tell Me Lies.
Love that.
I’m very proud, and they’re obsessed with Season 2 dropping. Obviously, you did such an incredible job bringing Lucy to life. There was literally no one else who could do what you did, Season 1 and Season 2. What I want to know is, how is jumping back into Lucy Season 2, especially after we left off? Did you do anything to get back in the mindset?
I was terrified because I had never done a Season 2 of anything and was just nervous that I lost her, like she was gone. After last season, it was a really heavy mindset to be in. So I really locked it up and put it away and hoped for a Season 2 and didn’t think about it. Then when we got a Season 2, I was like, “Oh, my gosh. Is she too far behind me now, and am I going to be able to get back into it?” That’s a really scary brain to be in. I found comfort in telling myself that it’s still my face. I’m still going to look like Lucy.
But, at [Lucy’s] age, it’s what it is. You’re trying on all these different hats and faces and you don’t know who you are. So, I’m like, “Whatever approach I take with it, hopefully, it’ll feel realistic.” That’s what I found comfort in. I was like, “She doesn’t have to be the exact same.” She’s been through something. She will have different ways of navigating relationships and friendships. So I found comfort in that. Then once on set, honestly, the second I get into that 2008 wardrobe, I’m in.
I feel that way when I haven’t worked in a while, where I’m like, “Do I know how to act?” Or if I’m reviving a character, I’m like, “Where is she?” Sometimes I don’t feel 100% back into that character until we’re literally shooting that first scene, and then you’re like, “Relief, she’s in there,” which is both terrifying and comforting to know these characters are still in you somewhere.
Especially this ol’ gal.
There’s the saying “Living well is the best revenge.” Can you talk a little about Lucy’s revenge plot, if you will, in Season 2, or how you even feel about that saying?
I really like that and I wish that Lucy was inspired by that, too, because I think it would make her life a lot easier. She has an active vengeance, which I think was unplanned. She had convinced herself she was OK before going to school. In her brain, she was OK. She was over it. She was delusional last year and she’s coming back trying to redeem herself from all the lies she told and drama she caused. As soon as she’s with Stephen again, I think that dynamic is inescapable for her. Even if they’re not together, it’ll be war. It’s like a cold war. I mean, besides the end of the first episode when I smash his phone, but other than that, it’s very super manipulative.
Another old saying is “All is fair in love and war,” but I almost feel like it’s all is unfair in love and war. That’s my twist on it, and how I would say it plays out in Season 2.
That could be the tagline. This relationship is a sinkhole to everybody around them and no one can escape it.
“[Lucy] was delusional last year, and she’s coming back trying to redeem herself from all the lies she told and drama she caused.”
I’m asking this next question because two of my friends — who, by the way, are decades past this part of their life — texted me and Karah this question, which is, “Do you think Stephen and Lucy really do love each other?”
I think about that all the time.
Literally, people text me like, “Does he love her?” I’m like, “Who are we talking about?” Season 2 hasn’t even dropped, which made me laugh harder. I’m like, “We good?” People are really gearing up. People have been rewatching, which brings me joy.
That’s amazing. It’s honestly necessary to watch both [seasons] together.
I used to rewatch The OC before the next season dropped because I’m like, “I have to go back and understand every single thing.”
It really does feel like modern-day The OC.
I love The OC. I wasn’t allowed to watch it when it aired. My mom wouldn’t let me watch it because she thought it was inappropriate. I remember at one point, they wanted me to audition to play Marissa Cooper’s little sister, and my mom wouldn’t let me. I’m still mad at her to this day.
Oh, my God.
Anyway, we digress.
I do believe that Lucy is in love with him at this point in her life, and it stems from feeling this newness she’s never felt, never meeting somebody like Stephen before, never having intimacy with somebody like that before. All this newness and desire and lust is very easy to mistake for love at that age, especially when you have a big hole in your heart from past trauma.
Do you think Stephen loves Lucy?
I think he might need Lucy to feel OK being as bad as he is.
Part of the reason that Karah and I wanted to make this show is because, especially at that point in my life, I was like, “I haven’t been in a relationship that isn’t a thriller.” Now I’m in my 30s, and I’m like, “Oh, relationships shouldn’t be in the thriller genre.”
It’s so true because it’s addictive. That’s why I love how the show is written and how no one’s glamorizing this relationship. And they shouldn’t be. But watching movies as a kid and watching toxic couples fight and have sex, it’s all exciting and there’s a part of you that’s drawn to that naturally.
Lucy has a new love interest this season. I’m not spoiling too much, but what was it like bringing Thomas Doherty into the mix as an actor and as his character with Lucy? Were you surprised when we introduced a new love interest?
It made perfect sense to me. I was like, “This is such a great way to show the trauma of a toxic relationship and how it follows you through every relationship you have.”
“[Stephen] might need Lucy to feel OK being as bad as he is.”
I just got chills, by the way. It’s so true.
It follows you until you do the work and look at yourself like, “I don’t want that.” I think it was such a great way to show, in a subtle way, the projection of past trauma and looking at this new person and seeing the last person and expecting the same issues and fearing the same problems. I really loved that dynamic.
We can both answer this question, but what advice would you give to someone who is in a relationship they feel like they can’t get out of? For me, I would say break up with them and change your number, which is easier said than done. I’m in my 30s, I have a kid, I’m engaged, and I think about how in my 20s, I just spent so much time being upset over a guy or trying to change myself or thinking I could change them. I’m like, “Why wasn’t I traveling and hanging out with my mom and spending time with my sister and reading more books and just going on a road trip instead of crying about a guy?” My sister’s 23, and I always say, “Do what you want to do and have so much fun with yourself.”
Yeah, be a little selfish. Take care of yourself, because it only gets harder to do that when you have more responsibilities. The best advice is just to get away and leave, and that’s extremely difficult to do, but I feel like the only way to realize that you shouldn’t be with a person is distance and communication. That’s the period of time where you learn so much about yourself and what you need.
Yes, follow this advice for your real life, but the characters on the show probably won’t.
Because we need some drama, always.
And we need a Season 3. My last question is, Grace, what are you reading right now, and were you reading anything while you were filming Season 2? Because for example, I like to read books within the genre of what I’m working on. So, when I was filming American Horror Story, there was a lot of Stephen King happening just to keep me in that mood.
I am going to take that because I find it hard to watch things when I’m working, unless it’s reality TV, but books feel so much more staying in the world. It seems more like research. I have this philosophy book I read when I get nervous and scared that I keep with me on every job, but I wasn’t reading anything consistently when I was working. But one of my favorite books I’ve read recently is called Wild Game. It’s a memoir. Have you read that?
So good.
I need some recs. I really don’t read a lot. I wish I read more, but I’m not going to pretend I’m an avid reader right now. What are you reading?
I’ve just started a memoir. I am only a quarter of the way through, but it feels actually in line with a Tell Me Lies vibe. It’s called Men Have Called Her Crazy. The jumping off point is very Girl, Interrupted, which is one of my favorite books and movies. I’m 30 pages in, but when we get off today, I’m going to probably just read it [all]. I feel like, in light of talking about Tell Me Lies, that is a great book for all our Tell Me Lies people as their next read.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
