Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Morning Show” Season 4, Episode 5.
“The Morning Show” dropped a huge bomb on former Olympian Chris Hunter, one that lead to a heartbreaking confession.
Episode 5, titled “Amari,” followed as the “Morning Show” anchor was caught in controversy after online chatter started bubbling around claims she had taken steroids during her gold medal-winning Olympics run. She spent most of the episode fighting the allegations, including a drunken voicemail tirade against a former teammate revealed to be the source of the scandal.
After the damaging voicemail got posted online, Chris (Nicole Beharie) agreed to talk through the scandal publicly on a UBN-owned conservative podcast hosted by Bro (Boyd Holbrook) — who also brought Chris’ disgruntled former teammate into the proceedings.
After she shared a copy of Chris’ medical records proving her claims, Chris broke down on the air and revealed that she got pregnant with a boy, whom she named Amari. The baby was born prematurely due to complications and did not survive long after birth. The trauma from the ordeal left her struggling to move forward, which is when she resorted to performance-enhancing drugs to get her drive back — adding she only used them once to get back up in training and then the rest was all her.
Below, Beharie tells TheWrap about finding her way through Chris’ painful revelation and what’s next for the anchor in Season 4.
Chris has been going through it this season, and Episode 5 is especially big for her. What was your reaction when you learned where Chris was headed this season?
Beharie: At first — because you want to protect your character — I was like “She did what?” But I spoke to [showrunner Charlotte Stoudt] and she was like, “Well, you asked for this.”
I wanted to see if she could be a little messier and if there could be a little bit more complication. Everyone’s imperfect, everyone is ambitious, everyone has some skeletons in their closet. And I was wondering what that would be for Chris. They came up with something that was beautiful, and it fit perfectly into the season about the Olympics, and largely about legacy and dreams. To realize the level of loss that Chris has withstood and weathered on her own was shocking too, and I actually learned new things about who she is and how tough she is through this season.
The episode follows a doping scandal that led to a heartbreaking reveal about Chris losing a son and taking a steroid once to regain her drive. How did you approach portraying this very raw moment in Chris’ story?
There was some footage of athletes, runners in particular, discussing what it meant to be caught, and what it meant for people to suspect that they were taking things and to be tested, and also just what it meant in the code of ethics for Olympic athletes. I watched a lot of that stuff, plus I had the gift of doing this season while the Olympics were actually happening, so I was just inundated with it. I understood the stakes. I saw in real time, people running and wanting to be written in the book of time. It just anchored something in me to understand why Chris would do this and why she wouldn’t tell anybody else, including her husband.
And then the preparation for it, like I said, was watching videos, speaking to family, friends, women in my family, people I love about their birth experiences. We didn’t necessarily get into the maternal mortality thing, but that is a big issue in the Black community. We have the highest maternal mortality rate.
I thought about the things that people are carrying silently and that there really aren’t spaces to talk about. Chris makes a choice to talk about it when she doesn’t have to.
Chris knows all the people that she’s supporting and feels like America itself is on her shoulders. When you’re representing something like that you have to do what it takes. And this is what she did. I do think that in some capacity, the truth set her free. But it definitely cost her something to share her truth.
How did the conversations go with EPs and director Millicent Shelton to bring this pivotal moment for Chris to life?
It was an intense day. Everyone was actually on set on that day, the way that Millicent shot it. All the actors were there. They were on the other side of the window. We did just about the whole scene every time. So it felt real. It felt like it was really happening every time, because you had to embody it every time, of course, at different levels so you don’t sort of burn yourself out.
And there were moments where Boyd Holbrook, who plays Bro, and I got to spar a little bit more than others, so we just kind of felt it out. I was trying to sort out Chris’s public persona. And then there’s this shift and what happens afterwards. That’s the dance there. She’s way above this until she’s not, and then everybody knows what the truth is and who she is.
It was weird to be in front of everyone doing such a naked monologue, if that makes sense. On this show, I feel like a lot of revealing moments happen privately. So it felt like a very public moment [of vulnerability.]
Chris goes through so many ups and downs in this episode. You have that big monologue. There’s her silently freaking out as the scandal builds. There’s the voicemail. How was it to play that?
The voicemail was the hardest part. We had to find that because there were different versions of it. It is wild, but it’s definitely in keeping with “The Morning Show” vibes and showing what’s underneath, and showing how spicy she can be.
And back to what I was saying about athletes, like an intensity and an ownership of your space and when it’s your time, it’s your time. I feel like she knew that someone was infringing upon her legacy. To me, her reaction to that gave her a lot more color and life.
What do you hope viewers take from this big moment for Chris?
The takeaway I would love for people to have is that when people are pushing through and you feel like something’s not OK, just give people a little bit more grace, because you never just never know what they’re carrying.
After doing this, it made me think about things that I’m carrying, that I’ve walked through, that the people that I’m in community with, the people that I work for and work with, all the things that they may have sacrificed.
Life can be so big, and you can be on the front page and then these massive burdens that are beautifully depicted in a show. But when you’re working that stuff out in real life, it’s not necessarily the greatest feeling. I hope that people who felt any of this kind of loss in any capacity feel seen and taken care of, and like we did it with dignity.
Chris ends up moving viewers with her story and pushes public opinion her way, but there’s bound to be consequences for this episode. Where does her story go from here?
After that, there’s nothing else to hide. She can be fully in her ambition and find the right place to be. We see throughout the rest of the season she’s also grappling with having shared that and people not necessarily being OK with it, but winning over public opinion. I’m not sure how she feels about that.
I don’t want to give away too much, but she’ll be figuring out where she wants to be next, because now she actually has more opportunity, funnily enough, because of that controversy. That’s just the beauty of the writing.
“The Morning Show” releases new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV.
