The Morning Show: Greta Lee Says Stellas Wardrobe is Her Rebellion
The Morning Show Episode 6 “A Private Person” sees Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) making a devil’s bargain, Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) having her personal life made public, and Greta Lee‘s Stella Bok has to compromise her own ethics to maintain power over UBA’s News Division when she has to reprimand weatherman Yanko Flores (Nestor Carbonell) for defending her from Anti-Asian racism.
There’s no doubt that Greta Lee has been one of the most exciting additions to the second season of the award-winning Apple TV+ drama. The actress first became known for her scene-stealing turns in millennial faves like High Maintenance, Girls, New Girl and, most notably, Russian Doll. Her Morning Show role takes full advantage of that millennial cache. Stella Bok is a talented 30-something exec cherry picked by Cory to shake up UBA’s toxic news division. Stella comes with progressive ideas, a fabulously edgy wardrobe, and indefatigable ambition. While Cory and Stella are often at odds, they also seem to have each other’s backs in a way few other characters do in backstabbing world of The Morning Show.
Decider chatted with Greta Lee ahead of The Morning Show‘s premiere about working with Billy Crudup, Stella’s distinctive style, and the drama with Yanko…
Photo CreditDECIDER: I really love Stella’s relationship with Cory. I think it’s so fascinating because they kind of seem like peers, like rivals, sort of friends even though they’re not. How did you see Stella and Cory’s relationship and what was it like working so closely with Billy this season?
GRETA LEE: I have to say going into it, I was just such a huge fan of Billy’s. Not just his incredible performance in Season 1, but in theatre…and I’m in total awe of him so it’s been a real honor and total joy to do this with him and just play ball with him.
Their dynamic, I just find so genuinely fascinating. And I could really appreciate that they were showing a multi-layered, complicated workplace relationship that isn’t just one thing. It’s like on page, they could not be more different, and yet we talked at length about how in some ways they could be the same person in like an alternate universe. But they just present as a young, Asian millennial on the one hand, and Cory Ellison is from a different generation. But yeah, that was the challenge and the thing that was endlessly great for us to try to move towards and play with over the course of the season.
One of my favorite things is, your fashion on the show is stellar from top to bottom and so different from what we are used to seeing on executives on TV. Stella’s looks are so distinct. I’m curious how much input you had with that because it feels so important to her character.
I have never had a closet like that on any other show. I mean, the clothing that was pulled for this role on this show, I may never witness anything like that ever again. It was crazy! But when we spoke, though, it was really important to me that the clothing was an accurate and full representation of Stella’s vision and how she wanted to see the world and how she wanted the world to see someone like her. A young female, you know, the first female president of the news division in UBA’s history.
And I love that for her the clothes are really…it’s a flex. She’s like, “I am wearing Balenciaga. You think I am like 12 years old and I am successful, I’m owning it and at times a little alt.” It’s kind of this benign rebellion against what the prototypical idea of what a boss looks like or can look like. It’s so great, she shows up in a lavender jump-like a suit, with a hoodie, and she’s like, “Yes, listen to me.” I mean, she’s my role model basically.
One of the more interesting storylines for Stella was the whole thing with Yanko and first having to make him apologize for his gaffe and then she had to suspend him after he got in that fight defending her. What do you think was going through her mind in those moments and do you think she’s conflicted? Because she seems so to me, but she’s also a killer like Cory is.
We talked a lot about cancel culture and what has been happening in our world and because the show is so prescient and so brilliant in their wanting to be true to what’s really happening in real time. I think we, hopefully the audience can see that we are presenting less of, “Okay, here’s the answer,” and more just being honest about how much we don’t know. How incredibly tricky this all is.
With Stella and that situation with Yanko, I thought it was so right to show, that was one of those moments where she really had to test herself in what she was willing and unwilling to compromise in order to do her job in this corporate environment. To be an effective boss, to keep things moving. And it’s really heartbreaking because in a lot of ways it goes against what she believes, and yet she’s having to navigate all of these different things at the same time. That was really important to me that we got to add that to the season.
You mentioned the show is very prescient and obviously takes full ownership of whatever is happening in our real world. This season it opens in the weeks leading up to the pandemic which gives everything a sense of doom. How did you feel about the decision to start at that time, showing our full ignorance and leading up to the actual catastrophe starting?
It’s always a tricky thing to show something- it’s incredibly rare to show on TV something that is actually happening while it’s happening and it’s still happening and we don’t understand. I think it just required us to show up and be super vulnerable about what we were trying to process ourselves. Knowing that the show — yes, it’s set up against the backdrop of COVID — but it wasn’t about just COVID. I could appreciate that, too. because that’s how we experienced it last year.
It felt so unfair that COVID happened and is still happening and just everything else that is just difficult about living life, it’s not just gonna stop just because there is COVID. The show, I think Kerry Ehrin was so smart about being able to show that in its full capacity.
The show is coming back for Season 3. Would you want to return to the show and where do you think Season 3 you want to see Stella go? Do you wanna see her fight more with Cory, more with the network, what is your dream for Stella’s future?
I think, I mean it’s a workplace drama so there is an endless amount of drama that can happen. And there’s so much to Stella and her relationship to all of these people. With Cory, with Alex, with Bradley and continuing because we didn’t — t’s great that we didn’t answer the question of how does someone like her rehabilitate this workplace environment? And how do you fix toxicity? We don’t know, but it’s, I think, endlessly interesting to keep trying to tell that story and figure it out. I love this group, it’s like an athletic event coming together. The stamina that’s required to do this, the dialogue, the pace…it is just the best. It’s so much fun, it’s so intense and we can’t wait to do more.
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