The stars of The Abandons are 100% aware of their sapphic fanbase
BY HARRIET CURZON, IMAGE BY NETFLIX
Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey have sworn to make lesbians “proud” in their new series The Abandons.
They star opposite one another in a new gritty Western series released last week, created by Kurt Sutter for Netflix.
The Abandons is set in the 1850s Pacific Northwest and features two matriarchs of rival families in a fight for land, power and survival. Sex Education actor Gillian Anderson plays Constance Van Ness, and Game Of Thrones actor Lena Headley plays Fiona Nolan.
Van Ness’ family is affluent and powerful, and wants to expand her mining dynasty by any means necessary. Nolan plays a devout Irish woman who has taken in a group of orphans and will do anything to protect them.
The actors both have large sapphic followings, and the show has garnered attention from the lesbian community, who are holding out for an enemies-to-lovers trope.
In an interview with Pride, the actors commented on the massive reaction from the lesbian community at seeing the two as on-screen protagonists go head-to-head. Gillian jokingly said: “I didn’t know that, but that’s pretty cool. Yeah, I’ll take that.”
Lena responded: “We’ll take it, we’ll make you proud.”
Their chemistry extends beyond the screen as the actors gushed over one another. Gillian said: “I was hugely grateful for what Lena brought to all the scenes. I was incredibly impressed and in awe at how well she was able to match the stuff that Constance believably throws at her.”
Lena said: “You come to do kind of tense long [scenes], we had pages of scenes together – Gillian had more to learn than me, which I was grateful for. But I think we match each other in focus and fuckery, so we can mess around.”
“It’s kind of amazing that you get these two women of our moment together and doing and being ‘the dudes.’ It’s wild and exciting.”
You can watch The Abandons on Netflix now.
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