In searching for a new project to produce, Simpson Street partners Kerry Washington and Pilar Savone immediately sparked to the Apple TV thriller “Imperfect Women” because of its specificity, which they argue allows for more universality in the storytelling.
Based on Araminta Hall’s 2020 novel of the same name, the story follows the decades-long friendship between three women (played by Washington, Elisabeth Moss and Kate Mara) as it uses a murder mystery to explore themes like guilt, love and betrayal.
But it’s the specificity of each female character that made the project a fit for Simpson Street Productions, which was founded in 2016 by Washington and Savone.
“We stand at the intersection of what makes us all completely unique and what makes us exactly the same. We’d love for our work to be very specific, cultural specificity, the universal is in the specific,” Washington explained about Simpson Street’s mission and the types of stories they produce to TheWrap’s CEO and editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman at TheWrap’s Power Women Summit New York event on Thursday, sponsored by STARZ #TakeTheLead, the exclusive entertainment sponsor, and Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment.
She continued: “What we’re looking for when we say what makes us all the same is we all want the same things. We want to belong, we want to be loved, we want to feel safe, we want to live a life filled with justice and security. So how do we find those real core human values that we’re all looking for, but in a costume or in a context that feels unique and like something you’ve never seen before?”
This led them to “Imperfect Women,” which premiered on Apple TV this week and was co-produced by Simpson Street through their 20th Television deal.
“[‘Imperfect Women’] was a great example of these women all want to feel loved, they want to belong,” Washington said. “But in the fight for that, they are betraying their truth, which is so interesting because I think that’s what we do. We get afraid sometimes to be our most authentic selves with the people we love the most, because we don’t want to lose those people. So we keep ourselves from those people because we fear they won’t still be there on the other side of the truth. That’s a lot of what the show is about. The kind of presentation of self versus who we really are, which obviously is very different for each of these women, but it is an idea that we all understand.”
Washington remembered when she used to internalize and seek perfection only to one day realize that it’s a pointless battle, and she’s excited to promote perfect imperfection on the TV screen.
“We have this idea in culture that perfection is something we should be reaching for,” Washington said. “I remember a long time ago in my own journey of therapy and self-discovery, someone saying to me that perfectionism was a bad thing, was a defect of character. And I was like, ‘What? What do you mean? I’m not supposed to want to be perfect? I thought that was the goal.’ So for us to create a show where imperfection is undeniable, where perfection is impossible, where everybody gets to be human, feels really important.”
While Savone said the early days of Simpson Street found them picking all of their own projects based on their own passions, their modus operandi has evolved to fulfilling their deal with 20th Television and finding ways to put their own stamp on material that’s barreling towards a greenlight.
“I think a couple of years ago, we would pick projects that we really felt like we wanted to put out into the world for whatever reason, whether it was a specific showrunner or specific theme,” Savone said of early projects like “Reasonable Doubt” and “Unprisoned.”
“Those were hard shows at the time, and there was a time where you could push that boulder up the hill. I think that time has passed for right now,” she confessed. “Right now, it’s really about — our deal is that 20th Television, which is part of the Disney family — in order to be successful, it’s really about working with the executives and figuring out what they want us to make and how we can put our stamp on it. So where I used to not like to follow a mandate, now it’s time to figure out what those mandates are and to find the projects that resonate with us and that we feel really passionate about.”
About Power Women New York:
TheWrap Foundation’s invite-only Power Women Breakfast returns to New York with an exclusive gathering of 100 leaders across entertainment, media and business, featuring intimate conversations with trailblazing women across the industry.
The event is sponsored by STARZ #TakeTheLead, the exclusive entertainment sponsor, and Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment. Table sponsors include Blank Rome LLP, Britbox, Disney Entertainment, Gersh, The Lede Company, NBCU, PMK Entertainment, Superconnector Studios, Versant and Whalar.
