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Lisa Taddeo’s ‘Three Women’ comes to the small screen

Lisa Taddeo’s first foray onto the screen is no small feat. Her critically acclaimed debut novel Three Women was met with rave reviews upon its release in 2019. 

Lisa Taddeo is crazy busy, hot on the publicity trail for the release of her latest book, Ghost Lover, Taddeo is also spending her time in executive production mode for the adaptation of her debut novel Three Women for TV.

Three Women explores sexuality with vivid intimacy. And if anything, Lisa Taddeo’s work is painfully honest, facing head-on the complexity of modern-day love, sex, and womanhood. To put it plainly, she is not afraid to say the uncomfortable stuff out loud. 

three women tv show
Credit: Vanity Fair

 

Hitting the ground running with its fortuitous early following of Gwyneth Paltrow and Drew Barrymore, Three Women went on to win prizes around the world, all the while topping the New York Times best-seller list. The novel openly explores the secret inner lives of Lina, traumatized in her teens and now wading through a passionless marriage, Maggie, who is spirling from the acquittal of her high school teacher, who she allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with her when she was underage, and Sloane, who sleeps with men (and women) for her husband’s pleasure.

Speaking about the central character’s role of Gia (based on Taddeo), played by Shailene Woodley  Taddeo shared in a recent interview with Vanity FairWriting Gia felt natural, because of how honest I strive to be about my struggles with desire and sex and health, both mental and physical, and beyond. It also felt natural to give her a vibe that could get to the truth of those experiences, and Shailene Woodley is just such a sentient force of nature that she has made this exactly the character it needed to be.” Taddeo adds, “I, for one, like her a lot better than me”.  

three women tv show
Credit: Vanity Fair

The TV adaptation, which Taddeo executive produces wants “the series to do what the book did for a lot of people: help them feel less alone, and more seen and heard. What needed to be preserved was the interiority, women hearing things they are going through, things that may not be spoken elsewhere with the same honesty and rawness.”

“The ultimate challenge for the adaptation was connecting the stories in a satisfying way that felt true. So many of the questions around the book were, ‘How did you get these women to be so honest? How did you get them to tell you these things?’ And the truth is I gave a lot of myself, and I was in a tough place, having lost much of my family, grieving and being alone. So these connections I made were more than a book for me,” Taddeo says. “They were a lifeline. I wanted to be there for them, and they were there for me. And they continue to be. Now I feel those same levels of care for the actors playing these roles and the crew that made the show.”

three women tv show
Credit: Vanity Fair

The television adaptation of Three Women, is set to air on Showtime and stars, Shailene Woodley, Gabrielle Creevy, Betty Gilpin,  DeWanda Wise, and Blair Underwood, who plays Sloane’s husband, Richard, who has admitted to VF that “he has never done anything more risqué or explicit in his career.” 

Catch the official teaser for the show below.