“The unfortunate thing is, the woman doesn’t win in the end,” says Elizabeth Lail, who stars as Beck in Netflix’s psychological thriller You. “And I’m so sick and tired of that.”
When she says that Beck “doesn’t win,” she is referring, of course, to the season one finale – where her character is murdered by her obsessed stalker boyfriend Joe (Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley).
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Adapted from Caroline Kepnes’ best-selling novel, You is a psychological thriller about a bookstore manager (Joe) who crosses paths with an aspiring writer and broke graduate student (Beck) and becomes obsessed with manipulating his way into her life.
A seemingly charming young man, he strategically removes every obstacle – and kills every person – in his way.
Lail, who has previously starred in Once Upon a Time, has mixed feelings about Beck’s murder.
“I’ve been asking this question, like, what do we put out into the world?” she tells RadioTimes.com. “The society we live in – or the society we hope for?
“And of course, in the hopeful society, it’s Wonder Woman. And the bad men, they lose.”
Despite her misgivings, she has decided that this ending is the most authentic for her character.
“Unfortunately, I think this story is much closer to the truth, because he has an advantage,” she says. “So there’s that part of me that’s like, ‘I understand.'”
At her first audition, Lail had no idea about Beck’s ultimate fate. “I was like, oh this is a little love story! And then, in between – from that audition to my callback – I read the book,” she explains. “And just the whole time, I was like, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ I really had no idea until then. And even until the very end of the book, I never saw it going that way.”
Lail won’t be returning to the show (for obvious reasons), but a second season has already been announced – and Badgley will be back as Joe.
“I am sad to not continue that journey with him,” Lail admits. “But it’s only him, and I think they’re shooting it in LA, and so nothing will be the same. Hardly anything. It’ll be a whole other story.”
You is available to stream on Netflix UK now
This article was originally published in December 2018
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