‘The Morning Show’ Women Are ‘Nakedly Ambitious’ in Season 4

[This story contains mild spoilers from the first two episodes of The Morning Show season four.]

A looming question faced the writers on The Morning Show going into season four. Surprisingly, it wasn’t how the timely media drama would predict the results of the 2024 presidential election (which wouldn’t come until after the show wrapped filming). It was more basic than that, yet still as chaotic.

“When you really blow up something, as we did at the end of season three — I mean, we just set off bomb after bomb — it’s like, how are you gonna get the band back together in a way that is at least marginally credible, and that you can actually buy?” showrunner Charlotte Stoudt tells The Hollywood Reporter of that task at hand — particularly, making sure her co-leads/executive producers Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon could share the screen after their split path in the season three finale.

The third season ended with a major coup for the network at the heart of the media drama, as Alex Levy (Aniston) prepared to steer the merger between two of the media’s biggest rival brands. But as Alex readied to take her rightful seat at the table, Bradley Jackson (Witherspoon) was facing possible federal punishment after turning herself in for the role she played in a Jan. 6-related cover up.

With the first two episodes of season four now streaming, viewers are beginning to see how Stoudt and her writers room unraveled their Bradley knot, and upped the ante for every other female character. “Bradley did do her time, just in an unexpected way,” explains Stoudt of Bradley’s current predicament (she made a deal with the FBI, trading her freedom for information on Paul Marks, Alex’s tech titan ex-boyfriend, played by Jon Hamm).

Below, Stoudt (who spoke with THR ahead of season four’s release) dives into the biggest debates in the season four writers room while also sharing Marion Cotillard’s casting story, clarifying that Boyd Holbrook’s radical podcaster is not Joe Rogan (“No, not exactly”), explaining why they brought back returning star Bel Powley and diving into the “naked ambition” for all of the women in Apple TV+’s Emmy-winning series: “It’s fun to hear them just say the quiet thing out loud.”

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We last spoke right after season three, and then again when you were starting to plot out season four.

God knows if it made any sense or came to fruition!

It did, very much so! With The Morning Show, you’ve always tackled serious and timely topics, but it’s also beloved for its soapiness. I’m feeling less of the latter this season. Do you feel like entertainment is less heightened now, because everything in reality is so heightened?

I don’t know if we think of it in those terms. For us, it’s always where the characters are in their journey towards being more integrated or more whole and intentional as people. This season was where the story led us, and what we were very interested in. The issues always have to meld with the emotional lives of the people. When we were starting in this season four writers room, it looked like the [U.S.] presidential race was going to be a rematch with these two fairly old guys [Biden and Trump]. We were like, “Why does America need daddy so much? Why can’t America move on from daddy?” And pick your daddy — either one, they’re still kind of daddies. That led us to think, in a very literal sense, about parents. We had been thinking about how we talk about who Alex is, how she became the way she is. And it felt time to see what that family was like and learn a little about her history [by casting Jeremy Irons and Alex’s dad, Martin Levy].

You joked at the end of season three that you always write yourselves into a corner with The Morning Show‘s cliffhanger finales. When you returned to the room, what was the easiest to figure out and what was the hardest?

The easiest was something we’ve been wanting to do, which was to bring back Claire [played by Bel Powley] in some really instrumental way where she could drive the story. Claire’s desire for revenge, for justice; and Claire being outside the institution was something we always wanted to get back to. I wouldn’t say that was easy, but it was sitting there because we were so interested in her. When you really blow up something, as we did at the end of season three — I mean, we just set off bomb after bomb — it’s like, how are you gonna get the band back together in a way that is at least marginally credible, and that you can actually buy? That was the biggest challenge: how are we going to get these people walking down the same hallway again so they can run into each other?

You don’t outright tackle the 2024 presidential election, even though the season opens in spring 2024; instead it’s in the backdrop throughout this season. Was there anything you had to crash in, in terms of real news stories, like you did with Roe v. Wade last season?

Not that much, actually. We were in the transition from Biden to Kamala [Harris as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee] while we were just starting to film, but that was a perfect case where that wasn’t really the story we were telling. We weren’t doing an election story. So even though that happened, it was kind of not relevant to the journey we were on.

You did promise that Reese and Jen would be together on screen again, despite where you left them. You could have gone a lot of ways. How big was that debate in the room? Did you have other options you were closely considering before landing on how Bradley would make her way back to The Morning Show?

It all goes back to the core of both women. One woman believes you can improve things by being on the inside of the system, and one woman is highly skeptical of that. That is a conversation and argument they will have until the end of time: How to change things, how to make it better, how much can you attach yourself to mainstream money and power and still have independence and the ability to report accurately? That’s going to be an argument they’re going to have until they’re 85.

Did you consider following Bradley into prison?

What we tried to do — without spoilers — is to show that Bradley did do her time, just in an unexpected way. I think we had that idea early on that her incarceration would take an unlikely form. Bradley doesn’t have to be behind bars to have judgment. She judges herself extremely harshly. That was a key part. I think between seasons three and four, she’s been living in a sort of self-imposed exile in a lot of ways.

You set this season up to ask the big question: When you give the women the keys, can they do better than the men? Broadly, would you say they handle power better?

I think they do a little better in the sense that even if they develop some awareness of their biases, that is a victory. A lot of people in power just double down. They don’t go, “What am I doing wrong, or what could I do better?” Even as showrunner and having some power and trying to be a leader is enormously exposing. It’s a vulnerable job; you are confronted with your shortcomings on a daily basis and you have to keep going, even if you maybe didn’t call that one right. Certainly, Alex can reflect. She can learn. I think they can all learn from their mistakes. That is one thing you can really say about these women. They really try to do that.

Across the board — Alex, Bradley, Celine (Marion Cotillard), Mia (Karen Pittman), Stella (Greta Lee) and Chris (Nicole Beharie) — all of the women on this show are seeking empowerment, power, or a second chance. They are all are elevated this season; very badass in their quests. Did this feel like a peak season for your female characters?

There was a bit of wish fulfillment when you write these stories. It’s fun to see women be nakedly ambitious. It’s fun to hear them just say the quiet thing out loud, and be really mouthy and push back. I really delight in that. Things will happen in our lives and we bring them into the writers room, and my advice when something terrible happens is to find a way to get it on the page. It’s very, very cathartic. Whether it be your mother or an executive saying something to you, like “ouch,” you can write it in. That is the fun of writing television. Or when you think of that great comeback, but you think of it a week later, we’ll just put it in the script.

Marion Cotillard joins this season in a key role. Did you have her specifically in mind for this part as savvy media operative Celine Dumont [whose husband (Aaron Pierre), it’s been revealed, is having an affair with Stella]?

I had imagined this character as someone who was not American, who could be a little different than the other women in power. There isn’t just one kind of woman seeking power, and women don’t all seek power the same way. They have different motivations. I wanted this woman to exist very much in contrast to the women we already knew on this show. Then we found out that Marion was a big fan, and we went straight to, “Oh, gosh, how can we get you to come to this? How can we sweeten the pot?”

Marion had such a strong point of view right away. She mentioned these dynastic families in France who never elevate the daughters; only the sons. [Her character] Celine looks at her brother and says, “Why can’t I do all the things he does? Why not?” This question of, “Why can’t women do all the things men get away with when they’re empowered?” It’s like, who decided this? Marion is also quite mischievous and playful. I liked the idea that she would come in and you would see Stella [Greta Lee], who is very sincere about women and progress, compared to Celine, who has a different way of dealing with pressure than the ladies we know.

Did you bring her on in a long-term capacity, or is this a one-season story you’re telling? [Note: The Morning Show has been renewed for season five.]

I never say never. With all the characters, unless they’re dead, there’s always, who knows? In my mind, they still exist somewhere in the world of TMS, even if they’re not on screen.

A major theme you tackle this season is AI. I imagine it’s tricky when writing to know if the story will still feel fresh when it airs. But it does. When tackling deepfakes and the impact it has on your characters, did that provoke interesting conversations in the room and with your cast about how the industry should be engaging with AI?

AI is a massive, massive complex topic, so we tried to ask: How are people genuinely using it in newsrooms? Start there: what is our world thinking about AI? What is the world of journalism thinking? With all of our stories, unless the topic can bring out something emotionally resonant and challenge a character on a very personal level, then it doesn’t belong in the season. What happens when tech becomes a way to look in the mirror and ask: Who am I really? And, am I on the right path? There are many, many things we could have covered that we didn’t, that are in the world and are incredibly urgent.

You began the season with this high-tension moment of Alex saving an Iranian athlete who wants to defect. This season keeps up that intensity in every episode I’ve seen so far. How does the ending set up another season?

Certainly, I don’t think these characters have finished their journey. They haven’t quite learned enough about themselves yet.

They always need to learn more…

They do. Being a human is a really complicated thing!

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The Morning Show is now streaming its first two episodes of season four on Apple TV+, with new episodes releasing weekly on Wednesdays.