Shiv Roy on \u201cSuccession,\u201d<\/a> whose pregnancy in the final season ultimately seems like another business maneuver for her, Snook was drawn to Marissa, who does care about being a good parent.<\/p>\n\u201cI wanted to find a character that was just inherently warm,\u201d Snook explains. \u201cShiv is in a similar kind of world, but she\u2019s inherently cold. She wants to be warm but she can\u2019t. Whereas Marissa is just a nice, warm, friendly person who has a maternal quality naturally about her and sees someone upset and goes, \u2018I got you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how she initially meets Jenny. They bond, feeling mutually ill at ease in the bathroom at a school function while, coincidentally, wearing the same dress. After Milo goes missing, Marissa could easily turn on Jenny, but instead they develop a deeper connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really nice to portray the really positive aspects of female friendship,\u201d Fanning says on a separate call. \u201cI think sometimes there can be tropes of the women pitted against each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762427650_181_\")
<\/p>\n
Marissa (Sarah Snook) and Jenny (Dakota Fanning) bond after noticing they are wearing the same dress at a school function.<\/p>\n
(Sarah Enticknap \/ Peacock)<\/p>\n
Marissa and Jenny have the kind of bond that Fanning recognizes in her own life: \u201cActually really supportive and loving and people that you lean on when times get tough as opposed to turn against.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Snook, Marissa and Jenny\u2019s connection is almost elemental.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat harks to Greek mythology or those ancient stories,\u201d she says. \u201cIn the end women just kind of have to stick together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fanning, who does not have children, did not have the personal experiences of motherhood to draw upon in her role, but it was not hard for her to imagine the pressure Jenny must be under in the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be a mother,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m someone who put a blanket under my shirt and pretended I was pregnant at like 5 years old. I\u2019ve never questioned that I want that.\u201d<\/p>\n
She adds she\u2019s been in nurturing positions her entire life \u2014 to her younger sister Elle, and to the daughters of her best friend, who are 5 and 2, as their godmother.<\/p>\n
\u201cI drew inspiration from people in my life, from my own experiences, sometimes even the pressure that I put on my own mom as a 31-year-old daughter,\u201d she says, laughing. \u201cSome self-reflection of, hm, I may be guilty of some of these things toward her as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762427652_375_\")
<\/p>\n
Though not a mother herself, Dakota Fanning says she \u201cdrew inspiration from people in my life, from my own experiences, sometimes even the pressure that I put on my own mom as a 31-year-old daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Victoria Will \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
On screen, however, Jenny is as much defined by her love for her child, and support for Marissa, as she is for her dedication to her career. She\u2019s in the middle of chasing a high-profile author, much to the frustration of her husband Richie (Thomas Cocquerel), who shirks caretaking duties.<\/p>\n
Gallagher says the writers spent a lot of time talking about Jenny and her profession.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like showing that women are unapologetically passionate about their work, and that\u2019s OK for us to love our work,\u201d Gallagher says. \u201cNobody is supposed to love their work more than their own children, but it\u2019s OK for our kids to not be enough and for us to need work to be fulfilled.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean that either Marissa or Jenny are portrayed as uncaring moms. They are both deeply devoted to their sons.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually, when we portray women in media, if they are successful then they must not be maternal,\u201d Snook says. That stands in counter to Snook\u2019s own experiences, she adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, personally, I feel like my recent success and career is somewhat related directly to becoming a mother, because of the new perspectives, the deepening of empathy, the strength gained from experience to go, oh no, I got this. I can really trust myself in this decision and I can really back myself here.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762427653_519_\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually, when we portray women in media, if they are successful then they must not be maternal,\u201d says Sarah Snook, who recently became a mother.<\/p>\n
(Victoria Will \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
Snook also serves as an executive producer on \u201cAll Her Fault,\u201d which was filmed in Melbourne, Australia, so she could be near her daughter and her stepson, who is in school in the city. Counter to most of the men on the series, Snook\u2019s husband, actor Dave Lawson, was able to take on parenting responsibilities, bringing their tot to set so they could play during lunchtimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were toys on set because I had a fake kid on set,\u201d she says. \u201cThere was a playground on set. She probably thinks that every set she goes to when she visits mum at work there\u2019s always going to be a little mini playground, and toys to play with and that\u2019s not going to be the case, honey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the intensity of the material, Snook describes the \u201cAll Her Fault\u201d production as a place where cast members were joking and messing around to counteract the sadness their characters were enduring.<\/p>\n
Similarly, after a day in Marissa\u2019s skin, she had to make sure her own work didn\u2019t interfere with her home life. Snook was dealing with the kind of calculations that mothers have to make all the time, the very thing the show itself is addressing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were doing hard days at work and you\u2019re crying every day, the best thing to do is to go home and give your daughter a cuddle, because all the oxytocin and all that yumminess comes back,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not useful if mom comes home and she\u2019s whipping her back or trying to stay in this character. To drop it is really useful for me so that you can fill your cup again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article contains some spoilers for \u201cAll Her Fault.\u201d For Sarah Snook, having to leave her then-2-year-old daughter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[75871,16337,19513,14224,3962,146,75870,75873,85,46,64045,75869,75872,20550,75868,8075,17982,1264],"class_list":["post-118477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-blame-woman","tag-child","tag-dakota-fanning","tag-daughter","tag-day","tag-entertainment","tag-fault","tag-first-place","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jenny","tag-marissa-irvine","tag-milo","tag-mother","tag-sarah-snook","tag-school","tag-set","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}