Trivia / Mare of Easttown

• Actor-Inspired Element: Kate Winslet relished in adding more to the character than what was initially written. She wanted to capture the realness of Mare, and not downplay how exhausted and miserable Mare would be. A lot of her traits, such as her fatigued expression and adding spray cheese to her cheese ball, were added by Winslet on the day. When the director assured her that he could touch up some of her scenes, Winslet outright refused.
• Actor-Inspired Heroism: In any other actor's hands, Mare could have easily been an unlikeable, rude, unsympathetic character. In Winslet's portrayal, she depicts a grief-stricken woman trying to pull it all together.
  Brian Tallerico (Roger Ebert): [Winslet] finds so many layers to Mare that other performers would have missed, imbuing her with sadness... while never dipping into melodrama.
• Actor-Shared Background: Evan Peters grew up in a small town and was raised religious, just like Zabel.
• All-Star Cast: Features Kate Winslet, Jean Smart, Guy Pearce, Angourie Rice and Evan Peters.
• California Doubling: Averted. The series was shot on location in the suburbs of Philadelphia. The producers were very adamant that the audience needed to see real shots of the area.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Cailee Spainey, playing 17-year-old Erin, was 22 during filming.
  • Madeline Weinstein, playing the teenage Becca, was 28 during filming.
  • Dylan, who says that he's "just a kid" and is likely in Erin's grade, was played by the 26-year-old Jack Mulhern.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Kate Winslet wore no make-up, had very visible roots, acted with a limp and wore unflattering attire to portray Mare as authentically as possible.
• Fake American: The cast had to learn how to speak authentic Delco accents for the show; notoriously one of the hardest accents ever to imitate. Saddled with not only learning the dialect, Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce and Angourie Rice had to act as residents of a small-town Pennsylvanian town, with none of them being American in the first place. Similarly, James McArdle, who plays Deacon Mark, is from Scotland.
• Inspiration for the Work: Brad Ingelsby was inspired to write about where he grew up, and having been raised in a basketball household, incorporated basketball.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Evan Peters, known for playing various maniac and psychotic characters, plays Nice Guy detective Colin.
  • Guy Pearce usually plays villains and generally unsavory types and a few people even assumed he would be revealed as the killer because of that. But Richard is a perfectly normal and charming guy who is simply Mare's love interest and has no relation whatsoever to the main case.
• Produced by Cast Member: Kate Winslet was an executive producer.
• Protagonist Title: Mare Of Easttown
• Real Life Writes the Plot:
  • Filming originally began in the fall of 2019 but was halted in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it would resume six months later in September. With the new social distancing rules in place, at least half of the script was rewritten.
  • Betty Carroll's death was written in because the actor passed away, doubling as The Character Died with Him.
• The Red Stapler: Wawa (a convenience store/sandwich shop whose cheesesteaks are often consumed by Mare) got an uptake of national interest from this show. The chain even introduced a Mare of Easttown cheesesteak in honor of the character.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting:
  • Kate Winslet and Angourie Rice share many of the same features-plump lips, piercing blue eyes, blonde hair.
  • Julianne Nicholson and Cameron Mann have been described to have many shared features, downright to the freckles.
• Throw It In!: Kate Winslet improvised a lot of little physical details, especially the way Mare eats. Also, Evan Peters really did mock his delivery of "Good night, Mare" which sounded like "Good nightmare," which amused the director so much he was asked to do it again on another take.