How the Most Shocking Scene From 'The Undoing' Premiere Came to Be

Actress Matilda De Angelis, who plays Elena, breaks down the wildest moments from the first episode.

the undoing, matilda de angelis
Matilda De Angelis as Elena | HBO
Matilda De Angelis as Elena | HBO
Spoiler warning: This article reveals major plot points from the first episode of HBO's The Undoing.

Before it's revealed that Elena Alves (Matilda De Angelis) is the victim at the center of the HBO's new murder mystery The Undoing, the character does everything in her power to make Nicole Kidman's protagonist, Grace, as uncomfortable as possible. In doing so, she puts the audience on edge. "We want the spectators to wonder, 'What's her next move? What is she going to do next? Oh my god, she's so strange,'" De Angelis tells me during an interview over Zoom.

The scene that De Angelis is referring to is one that is designed to be discussed. Elena approaches Grace, a fellow mother at a tony New York City private school, in a gym's locker room completely naked. Elena makes small talk as Grace laces up her sneakers. She rubs her stomach and places her hand on her hip. Grace is polite, but clearly unnerved.

the undoing
HBO

For most of the first episode, you're left to wonder, What is Elena's deal, exactly? Then the shocking reveal arrives: Elena is found by her son brutally murdered in her art studio. So what does this have to do with Grace and her charming husband Jonathan Fraser, played by Hugh Grant? That is yet to be seen in the series, which based on the novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, adapted by David E. Kelley and directed by Susanne Bier. It's easy to draw comparisons between The Undoing and Kelley's last HBO project starring Kidman, Big Little Lies. Yet again, someone is dead and rich people are the accused. It's packed with big stars like Kidman, Grant, and Donald Sutherland, but one of the most fascinating people on screen is de Angelis, an Italian actress who makes her English-language debut here.

Elena is introduced immediately as an outsider. She's the subject of gossip at the fundraising meeting she attends, carrying a newborn in her arms. It seems like simple classism. Elena is not as rich as the other moms. But her behavior is boundary pushing too. She breastfeeds boldly at the table, fully removing her shirt. The camera zooms in on her nipple.

"My first impression of her was that she's really really lonely," De Angelis says. "That loneliness is in everything she does. And so when she's also really provocative, there's always this sexual tension between her and everyone basically, it's more interesting and it makes you feel, in a way, sorry for her. I had the feeling that she's kind of unaware of that. It's like some sort of shield and mask that she has all the time."

the undoing, matilda de angelis
HBO

De Angelis explains that the full nudity in the locker room sequence wasn't originally scripted. Instead, it was Bier's idea to push Elena to yet another extreme. "She told me, of course, when you're a girl in a locker room and you're in your underwear it's not strange, especially for women," De Angelis says. "But nudity is something else. And we needed that nudity to really make a statement because Elena is exactly that, is excessive, is extreme and I think the locker room is the first moment that Grace also starts to understand that there is something more going on in between their lives." Bier shoots De Angelis from below, lingering on Grace's vantage point rather than Elena's naked body. From that angle, Elena seems threatening rather than vulnerable.

As central as Elena is to the story -- who killed her and why has Jonathan gone suddenly missing as police start to investigate her death? -- she herself remains a collection of contradictory traits, however. One moment she's dominating Grace with pleasantries in the gym, the next she's sobbing at a black-tie function. De Angelis relished the enigma of Elena. "We didn't want to slip into the cliché of 'provocative mysterious woman,'" De Angelis says. "I think it's interesting that Elena always speaks the truth in her reality, but you're never going to get her completely."

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Esther Zuckerman is a senior entertainment writer at Thrillist. Follow her on Twitter @ezwrites.