Roberts stated, “He came in full-hair, makeup, and costume. I was so excited that I ran to hug him. I was running at such speed that between my bodypad and his bodypad, I kind of bounced off him. I can’t believe his head didn’t fall off except for his costume.” We laughed so hard.”
Penn portrays John Mitchell, the ex-attorney general under Richard Nixon. Roberts plays John Mitchell’s wife Martha Mitchell. Martha Mitchell is known as the “mouth of the south”, a frequent on talk shows and who would listen to her husband’s conversations on his phone and give reporters gossip about Washington’s elite. Her loose lips were so troublesome that her husband ordered security personnel to lock her up in a hotel room for 24hrs after the Watergate hotel burglary. Mitchell claimed that they took her television and phones, and she was then assaulted and given a tranquilizer injection to stop her leaving. Mitchell claimed that the ordeal was so traumatizing, it caused her to break down and led to the end of their marriage.
“Gaslit,” which debuts Sunday, is not just another Watergate retelling, but rather focuses on lesser-known stories of that era, such as Martha Mitchell’s. This podcast’s first season is the basis for the show. It was hosted by Leon Neyfakh.
Roberts is also an executive producer. He was intrigued by “the idea of being able to dig into something that’s part of American History and show people things they didn’t know at any point, or that they thought were known, but they might have been wrong.”
Mitchell’s legacy is important to her and she hopes that viewers will see beyond Mitchell’s big personality.
She had a stutter. She was dyslexic. You wouldn’t see her anxiety when she spoke in front of people. She is so sharp and witty, and doesn’t miss any beat. It is hard to believe she was nervous before people. It was a crippling experience for her. I believe it was one of the reasons she started drinking excessively before performing.
“Gaslit,” also speaks literally to Maureen “Mo”, the wife of John Dean, White House councilor.
Maureen Dean was a striking blonde woman who was often captured on camera at the Watergate hearings. She sat stoically behind her husband while he testified.
Betty Gilpin plays Maureen Dean in Gaslit (with Dan Stevens playing John). She says that she was surprised at her research into the series.
My dad was a Watergate-head. He was obsessed with the hearings. He would tell me every day about how everyone was riveted to the TV. I was ready to watch this thrilling series, which I couldn’t help but stare at.” Instead she discovered: “It’s (the) driest and most boring thing that exists. It just drones on.”
This realization allowed Gilpin to gain insight into Gilpin’s character and the fascination of the public with the young woman who was in the background of their television.
“I feel like the cameraman said, “Look at that beautiful blonde. “I’m going to frame it in because we got the viewers.”
The Maureen Dean in Gaslit is more than a woman who stands by her husband. She’s an educated person with strong opinions about the administration and won’t hesitate when she needs to challenge her husband’s ego.
“Our show takes artistic license and it’s certainly not an exact transcript of the events,” Gilpin said. She also read “Mo: A Woman’s View of Watergate”, a 1975 memoir, to prepare. “I wanted Mo Dean to be honored, but I also took my own liberty and created a three-dimensional person.
