Reporting on the politics of a new ‘hopeful’ US drama
A new show looks at life as a journalist on the long and winding quadrennial road to elect that country’s Commander-in-Chief. James Croot caught up with the quartet who make up The Girls On the Bus.
While America’s race to see who will end up occupying the White House from 2025 has so far ignited more fear than imagination, a new US drama imagines a world where the candidates are many and varied, but certainly still attract their fair amount of scandal.
Inspired by a chapter in former Wall Street Journal and the New York Times journalist Amy Chozick’s 2018 memoir Chasing Hillary, the 10-part The Girls On The Bus (which debuts on Neon on Sunday) focuses on the trials and tribulations of four women – New York Sentinel reporter Sadie (Melissa Benoist), Liberty National News’ Kimberlyn (Christina Elmore), veteran “Queen of the Scoop” Grace (Carla Gugino) and Gen Z influencer Lola (Natasha Behnam).
The quartet bond, bicker and compete for the inside word on how the respective campaigns of those seeking the Democratic nomination for president are faring.
Speaking to the foursome on a recent Zoom call, I wondered how researching their roles and immersing themselves in this world had affected their view of what was happening now in American politics.
“It changed everything for me,” Behnam and Benoist chime in unison.
“I always felt like I was an informed citizen and I made a point to read and digest news to understand what was going on,” says the latter, who is also a producer on the show.
“But now I think I have such newfound massive respect for the journalists that are getting the news to us that
I think I just take more care in really reading the full story and thinking about the fact that there are people on the ground witnessing this happen firsthand and bringing it to you in a voice that will resonate – that will move you in whichever way.”
While 20-something Behnam unsurprisingly found inspiration for her character online, Benoist hit the books to bring to life the idealistic Sadie, who wears her heart on her sleeve and in her words, romanticising the style of campaign reporting from the 1960s and 70s and, in particular, the “gonzo” work of Hunter S Thompson. In Girls On The Bus, she even conjures him up while working through her “process”.
“He’s a figment of her imagination – that’s how pivotal he is to her outlook on everything,” Benoist says.
Spending time with Washington Post White House reporter and MSNBC senior political analyst Ashley Parker and the show’s co-creator Chozick were also key to making her character believable – and striking the right tone.
“I think cynicism is something you really have to battle,” she says of portraying politics and journalism in the current climate. “I think that was always top of mind [for us] – how do we keep hope alive? A lot of that comes from Amy [Chozick]. She might not want to admit it, but I believe that she is a hopeful person and that we are all optimists. The goal for this was to be an escape of sorts. Yes, it’s set in the political area, but it’s a story about friendship and found family and love and unity and connection in a time where we really need it.”
Gugino agrees. “We’re in a time that is very agitated and people, I think, are forced into a situation of being extremely reactive – and taking sides. That can become very divisive and not conducive to conversation, communication.
“What I love is that these are four women who are from different backgrounds, different ideologies, different political viewpoints, different generations – and because they are thrust together in this journey in very tight quarters with very high stakes, they actually find a way to be in each other’s shoes and see what another person’s perspective might be like.”
Elmore concurs, excited to be a part of something, she believes, you don’t often see on television – “four women like this, bridging the gap between them and finding a way to still disagree and it not turn catty”.
“I have a lot of friends I call sister and we don’t agree on everything. We’re not from the same places and I think that’s why we have sisterhood, because if we were all the same, why would I need it?”
It’s a sentiment shared by Behnam, who is convinced that what brings the characters together is “they all want the truth”. However, she believes that what makes the show really “fun” is the look inside their character’s personal lives.
Benoist agrees, adding that one of things they try to convey on the show is that there’s no such thing as a “work-life balance – especially for women”.
“There’s too many double-standards to overcome. And any time that you focus your energy on one thing, something else in your life is going to be affected.”
Gugino, whose 35-year career began with appearances as a teenager on sitcoms like ALF and Saved By The Bell, says she identified with that aspect of the drama. “I believed that in order to do it [acting] successfully, I had to sacrifice a lot of my life.”
Gugino says it was interesting to portray someone from the world of journalism again, more than a decade after playing Susan Berg on Political Animals. “Both Susan and Grace are very self-assured and have pretty strong opinions, but Grace is most definitely at a different point in her career – a seasoned, older journalist.”
While Gugino believes the show’s meditation on the nature of truth and how people relate to each other makes it compelling viewing, Elmore is delighted that it highlights the “conversations that people are not necessarily having in public right now”.
“I think I love that our show takes place in a political context that is not our own and that is not the current state of things. It harkens back to the bygone era when things were not quite so extreme.
“You hear stories about how, after a hard day on “the Hill” [the Washington suburb where the hub of American government is situated] politicians from opposite sides would sit down and play cards together. I’m believing in my heart that still exists – we’re just not hearing about it.”
The Girls On The Bus begins streaming on Neon on Sunday, March 17. Episodes will also debut at 8.30pm on Monday on Sky TV’s SoHo channel from April 7.