Warning: spoilers ahead for “Sharp Objects” Episode 1: “Vanish”
Showrunner Marti Noxon knew that many viewers of HBO’s limited series “Sharp Objects” wouldn’t be prepared for the reveal about protagonist Camille Preaker (Amy Adams) at the end of the premiere episode, but she wanted to give her audience the same “aha moment” from Gillian Flynn’s novel as soon as possible.
The moment we’re talking about comes at the very end of the premiere, titled “Vanish” — a word we see etched onto Camille’s skin, along with several other words scarring her entire body.
“I was mindful that many of the people watching the show would not know the story,” Noxon told TheWrap after Sunday night’s premiere, adding that she remembered the “moment in the book — which actually takes place pretty deep in — where she reveals that she’s a cutter.”
Noxon said that was the moment the reader “really get[s] the story of what these ‘sharp objects’ have done to her,” and so she knew she wanted to replicate it on screen.
“But I also felt like we didn’t want to leave it too deep in the season,” she said. “At one point there was debate about, you know, do we match the book and hold it until like Episode 3? And I was like, ‘no way.’ I think the viewers will feel betrayed if they’ve been kept out of her secret for that long.”
It was important to Noxon that viewers get to know Camille as she is now before her past as a cutter was revealed.
“You want to know her before you know this thing about her that makes her so vulnerable. You want to know that she’s tough, and she’s smart, and she’s funny, and, you know, she’s… considered a valuable human in her regular life,” Noxon continued, pointing out that she is particularly interested in “how we judge people for the way they look.” Several of Noxon’s other projects — like AMC’s “Dietland” and Netflix’s “To the Bone” also deal with that theme, in the form of obesity and anorexia, respectively.
HBO
“People make such judgements about people they perceive as flawed in that way,” Noxon said. “We make these assumptions, so what do you feel about Camille before you know [that she’s a cutter], and what do you assume afterwards?”
Flynn’s debut novel was published in 2006, long before “trigger warnings” became commonplace and more social responsibility was placed on media and entertainment outlets to respect the possibility that their content could affect viewers in a negative way, psychologically speaking.
And while Noxon is no stranger to dealing with trauma on screen, cutting is still an incredibly taboo topic. So, yes, she told TheWrap she was sensitive to how viewers would be affected by Camille’s self harm and took care to not be “exploitative” when showing the damage on screen.
“And we had to be very mindful of how we showed it and not to be exploitative in any way, but also to be really sensitive to the idea that she is trying through her recovery to actually get to the root of what caused all this,” she added. “What caused those words [on] her skin, so although she could also use a really good therapist — and I would recommend that for anybody [laughs]– I do think that we show it as part of this ecosystem and something that she’s really striving not to do, that it’s not desirable. In fact, the consequences of it are all over the show. That she is not able to live a normal life because of what she did to herself. So you know, she’s going to have to deal with that if she survives this experience.”
Noxon added that, it “helps a lot that Camille is in recovery,” in terms of cutting, at least.
“She may still not be in recovery for her clear drinking problem, but she is not actively hurting herself in that way,” Noxon said. “So you know, we show a lot of what’s shown in the book about her being abstinent but… to me it was symbolic of a kind of pain that she’s gone to these lengths.”
“Sharp Objects” airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.
Party Report: Amy Adams, Gillian Flynn and HBO Celebrate the Premiere of 'Sharp Objects' (Photos)
Before Sunday night's premiere, HBO and the "Sharp Objects" creative ensemble celebrated the television adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel at the ArcLight Hollywood and at an afterparty at Boulevard3 on Sunset. Pictured here: executive producer/author Gillian Flynn, Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson and executive producer/creator Marti Noxon.
Christopher Polk/Getty Images
"Power" executive producer 50 Cent knows that a new season of the Starz show means it's time to party "like it's your birthday." The celebration in New York on Thursday night included a choir, fog machine and the G-Unit main man entertaining the guests.
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At the afterparty, 50 Cent huddled with creator and fellow- executive producer Courtney A. Kemp.
Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Starz Entertainment LLC
It was a 104 degrees at 10:15 p.m. when Vance Joy's headlining show at the Greek ended on Friday night, but that didn't stop the Aussie's L.A. fans from selling out the show and turning up early and loud. "This is by a fair way, our biggest headline show ever here," he said and thanked the crowd for "braving this incredible heat." In a few different configurations, Vance ran through most of the new "Nation of Two" album during an 85-minute set.
Courtesy of Instagram/TheGreekTheatre; and Instagram/BradCauchy
Republic artist Mondo Cozmo (left, with Craig Adams) opened, playing his number one "Shine" and thanking the crowd for coming out "early" on the hot Friday night. "We’re playing the freakin Greek tonight. Insanity," he wrote on Instagram earlier in the day. "In 1.5 years we went from the Hotel Cafe to the Troubadour to the El Rey to The Greek. What a beautiful mountain to have climbed. Thank you @vancejoy for helping us get there."
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Veteran actor Tim Matheson, "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan and "Game of Thrones" producer Carolyn Strauss gathered at the Paley Center to lead CNN's celebration of its new recent-history series, "The 2000s." Because the series focuses on the rise of the contemporary golden age of TV, these TV big shots were appropriate guests. Fun fact: Tom Hanks produces the series.
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"Downton Abbey" belongs in the conversation of the current golden age. Here, the former "Mrs. Patmore" (Lesley Nicol) hugs BAFTA L.A. CEO Chantal Rickards at the group's Student Film Awards. The trophy handout took place at the Ace Hotel downtown on June 29.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for BAFTA L.A.
Music fans and Bally recently celebrated 30 years of seminal rap artist Slick Rick. Beverly Hills is traditionally a snoozefest on Saturday nights, but not on June 23, when hip-hop pioneers gathered in the 90210. Pictured here with the guest of honor are Mandy Aragones and En Vogue's Terry Ellis.
LL Cool J was in the building, here greeting "Love & Hip Hop" executive producer Maricarmen Lopez. (Before his now formidable TV career, LL was the youngster in hip-hop's founding generation and a Slick Rick peer.)
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Snoop Dogg came to DJ, spinning Slick Rick classics "La Di Da Di (We like to Party)" and "Mona Lisa." It's a long but refreshing leap to have the Bronx on Rodeo Drive.
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Giorgio's -- the understated Saturday night party for in-the-know industry figures who wouldn't be anywhere else on a Saturday night on the Sunset Strip -- celebrated its five year anniversary. Here, founders Adam Bravin (aka DJ Adam 12) and Bryan Rabin are at the decks.
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For the anniversary party, the crowd spilled out of its usual confines of the club at the Standard to colonize the pool deck. The Party Report salutes what many of the '90s' and '00s' "scene" regard as the L.A.'s last cool nightlife brand for friends-of-friends only. (Photos rarely emerge from this crowd that appreciates the phone-free era of nightlife.)
Celebrants included (from left): Stylist Elizabeth Stewart, fashion expert George Kotsiopoulos, Rabin, designer Brian Wolk, stylist Yana Kamps and designer Claude Morais.
Giorgios
The pet-friendly Standard took it one step further, welcoming music producer Nick Launay and his pet to the festivities.
Giorgios
The Party Report never sees industry types dance at parties. Giorgio's is the exception. The party is named for electronic music pioneer Giorgio Moroder (the "Scarface" and "Midnight Express" soundtracks, and Donna Summer's hits "Hot Stuff" and "On the Radio").
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Bravin behind the decks with writer Jason Sugars.
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A few blocks west on Sunset at the new Jeremy Hotel, "The Arrangement's" Josh Henderson (right) made the scene at Karma International's "The Creux Automatiq Affair."
Jaime King came to celebrate pal Lucy Hale's cover of Haute Living at the new Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, the hotel anchoring the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica that has opened up the party palette on Golden Globes night.
John Sciulli / Getty Images for Haute Living
ICM Partners client Jeremy O. Harris, vintner Jim Obergefell, "Queer Eye's" Karamo Brown and ICM Politics' Caroline Edwards attended ICM’s Pride Month event.
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Atlantic City got a taste of Vegas with Kaskade spinning at the opening of the Ocean Resort Casino. Shanina Shaik and Heidi Klum flanked the producer at the pool party in the space that was formerly known as the Revel Casino Hotel earlier this decade.
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Niall Horan and pro golfer Justin Rose teamed up for a co-branded "Horan and Rose" golf outing and gala benefit in Watford, England, raising money for cancer research for kids and teens in the UK. That night, Horan performed hit "Slow Hands" with fellow "X Factor" alum Olly Murs after they chipped in $85,000 to win a trip to South Africa that they said they'll take together.
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For more from the party scene, including TheWrap's Power Women Breakfast in New York, click here:
Inside and backstage the top industry bashes of the week with The Party Report’s Mikey Glazer
Before Sunday night's premiere, HBO and the "Sharp Objects" creative ensemble celebrated the television adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel at the ArcLight Hollywood and at an afterparty at Boulevard3 on Sunset. Pictured here: executive producer/author Gillian Flynn, Amy Adams, Patricia Clarkson and executive producer/creator Marti Noxon.