Gilpin gets to wrestle in ‘GLOW’
working on a new television series in which she plays a professional wrestler.
Gilpin herself isn’t apologizing. Far from it.
“Nothing is more theaterbased than wrestling,” the actress said.
“It’s Greek-tragedy-level theater. ‘GLOW’ is the first time I feel like I’ve been able to have a theatrical experience on the small screen, to really be able to marry the two. And I love it.”
“GLOW,” available Friday on the streaming service Netflix, could very well tap into the zeitgeist a la “Stranger Things.”
In the series, set in 1980s Los Angeles, Gilpin portrays Debbie Eagan, a former soapopera star who left show business to raise a family. The kid’s a chore, though, and her husband, as it turns out, has had an affair with her best friend, Ruth (Alison Brie), a would-be serious actress who can’t land a job.
Desperate, Ruth gets involved with “GLOW” — “Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling” — an inthe-works syndicated television show meant to cash in on the professional-wrestling craze that has made major stars of Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper and other male wrestlers.
When Debbie discovers that Ruth is the “other woman” in her husband’s life, she tracks down her former friend at her “GLOW” audition and beats the tar out of her.
The show’s slimy director, Sam (Marc Maron), has dismissed Ruth, but immediately sees massive ratings and dollar signs if he can cast Debbie as the hero of his new show and Ruth as the villain.
“Debbie, when we first meet her, thinks that she’s in a good place and has gotten what she wanted,” said Gilpin, who lives in Brooklyn . “She has convinced herself that retiring to Pasadena with a baby and a bread-winning husband is what she wanted, and it takes the rug getting pulled out from under her to make her realize that that’s maybe not fulfilling her.
“Strangely, wrestling comes to the rescue and is a way of finding new layers within herself.”
Brie is actually the leading lady of “GLOW,” but Gilpin is the yin to Brie’s yang. The tension between their characters will drive much of the drama, in and out of the ring, throughout the show’s 10- episode first season.
“They have a long, long, long road to becoming friends again,” Gilpin said.
“I think that maybe they’ll never be friends again — but, because they are wrestling with each other, it enables them to have a tableau acting out their struggle with each other.”
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