Bold. Delicious. Powerful. Diabolical. These are the words Niecy Nash-Betts, Naomi Watts, Kim Kardashian, and Sarah Paulson use to describe the vibe on set of their Chaotic Good Hulu series, All’s Fair. The campy comedy is back for its second season, which promises to be even more over the top than the first. “We really heard the audience and are leaning in 10 times more, doubling down,” says Kardashian, referencing the frenzy following the series premiere last fall. Fans obsessed over the melodramatic storylines and wild fashion, clipping and memeing their favorite moments, helping to propel the show to 3.2 million global views in three days. “I think it’s better than season one,” she continues. “Like, crazier. Funnier.”
The actress and mogul is telling me this, wearing vintage Mugler (naturally) and surrounded by her co-stars, on the set of the cast’s InStyle social-cover shoot. The day is kicking off the women’s press tour and the energy is palpable. This is a group of highly accomplished, impossibly chic women (much like their characters), but while the day is professional (we finish two minutes early!), it isn’t no-nonsense. The women are teasing and giggling like friends at a sleepover. They all agree that the best part of the show is working with each other. “We get to do the craziest stuff. Say the craziest things. Wear the most fabulous clothing. And we get to sit around in between takes and kibbitz with each other,” says Paulson. The heavily female cast means that there’s always a trusted confidant to go to for advice (Glenn Close gives the best—”she’s kind of the mama bear,” says Paulson), and plenty to bond over between takes; kids, relationships, businesses, “we cover it all,” Watts confirms.
While the foursome is careful about what they’ll reveal (no spoilers for season two plot points or the content of the group chat), the conversation is no less lively. Watch (and read) below as the actresses discuss working with Ryan Murphy, their off-screen aspirations, and playing—and being—empowered women.
What drew each of you to this project in the first place?
In unison: Ryan Murphy
Niecy Nash-Betts: I think we all said “yes” before we had ever seen a script.
What is it about Ryan Murphy that makes you immediately want to work with him?
NNB: What isn’t it about Ryan Murphy? I mean.
Kim Kardashian: I just think you know it’s going to be crazy. You don’t know what to expect. I mean, I’m just here for the ride. Anything Ryan says goes.
NNB: He’s a genius.
On that note, fans refer to it as an immediate camp classic.
Sarah Paulson: Wait ’til they see the second season.
{laughter}
We’ll get to some secrets there hopefully in a moment. What do each of you love about All’s Fair?
SP: I just love being with all these great ladies.
Naomi Watts: Great women.
SP: And we get to do the craziest…
NW: And the fashion
SP: And the fashion, yes. And we get to do the craziest stuff. Say the craziest things. Wear the most fabulous clothing and we get to, like, sit around in between takes and kibbitz with each other.
KK: I will say, I’ve really missed you guys.
SP: I know, I missed you.
NW: And we get to do the tour now.
KK: You know, like, I’m so excited for the press tour to travel with you guys.
SP: I know {rubs hands}.
KK: Who’s gonna bring workout clothes?
SP: Me! I’m definitely going to do it.
KK: Me too.
NNB: Don’t look over here at me.
SP: You won’t be? You won’t be? You’re not going to meet us in the gym?
KK: We all have to go to the gym.
NW: You can do it in that {gestures to Niecy’s outfit}.
SP: Do it in that is exactly right.
NNB: Listen, the person I’m married to likes me thick, so I’m not gonna thin it out.
KK: But just a little stroll around Rome?
NNB: I can do that.
The show is soapy and over the top in the most fun, fabulous way.
SP: What do you mean? I’m confused. What do you… Why do you say that?
NW: It’s quite serious.
SP: That’s so strange, because I don’t feel that way.
KK: It’s like Law and Order.
SP: Yeah. It’s like The Pitt, I don’t understand.
Well, for any of you who might think it’s soapy in an over-the-top way. Why is that great as a performer?
SP: You can get away with bloody murder. You get to do anything. There’s like…
NNB: Anything goes.
NW: The more outrageous, the better.
SP: Like, anytime you’re thinking about a choice that you might make in the scene, you’re like, well, I guess I go with the most outrageous one because if there’s any place that can live and thrive and survive, it’s on this show.
NW: Well said.
KK: It’s thrive and survive.
SP: Thriving and surviving: The cast of All’s Fair.
Sarah Paulson: Sacai jacket and skirt, Julietta earrings, and Fendi boots. Naomi Watts: Tom Ford suit, shirt, and heels, Beladora brooch, rings from Type, Rainbow K, and Yvonne Leon.
Credit: Luke Lovell
Tell me about the pros of working with an almost completely all-female cast.
KK: You get to have your… That means a built-in therapist on set, a built-in doctor.
SP: That’s correct
NW: Someone who knows how to run a business.
SP: All my medical questions go straight to Kimberly.
NNB: A love guru {points to herself}.
KK: All my medical questions go to Naomi.
SP: Well, I ask [Kim] all of my medical questions.
NW: She has a great list of doctors.
KK: All love, like, relationship advice, from Niecy.
SP: From Niecy. Well, Because Niecy has, like, the most…
NW: Sex.
SP: …enviable relationship. Yes, Niecy’s having more sex than all of us put together. I can promise you that right now. I mean, do I tell a lie? I don’t think so.
NW: You love it.
SP: You know it’s true.
NNB: Can we move on?
KK: Okay, I won’t say it, I won’t say… I was gonna say: If you’re ever late to work, it’s because…
SP: It’s because she’s just had a skinny dip on her way to set.
NNB: Wow.
SP: Really. Strawberries dipped in chocolate. Champagne.
NNB: What’s the next question?
SP: Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Well, listen, we’re just all, you know, happy for you.
NW: Yeah.
SP: Happy for you.
NNB: Thanks guys.
SP: We want it for you. You deserve it.
The show explores female empowerment in a fresh way. Why is that important to you?
SP: Well, being a powerful female feels appropriate for this group.
NW: We want that…
SP: We want that for other women and for ourselves.
NW: Hopefully it’s aspirational.
KK: And I think it just really shows that you can do it all. You can… I mean, we’re like these women that run these hard-core businesses that, you know, might not all get along, but some of us have really important serious relationships. And I think…
SP: How dare you. I know you’re talking about Carrington Lane, the one person that nobody likes.
NW: The difficult one.
KK: But then it’s also, like, fighting in-scene… Sometimes, I think, especially this season, different cast-mates change up their…
SP: Allegiances.
KK: …whole personalities, and it’s hard to fight with them on camera when you love them so much. And then after the fact, you just, like, start laughing after a scene and you feel so bad. I mean, I think it’s, like, important to show the, like, female allegiance, not just only on-camera, but then afterwards, you know, we really, genuinely have a great friendship and a great work relationship. And I think that’s important to show healthy relationships.
NNB: Right. Because I was going to say it is also true of us off-camera. You know, all of the things that we do: charitable work, running businesses. You know, all of the things, um, raising children, you know? So, it’s true in front of the camera and behind the camera.
Describe the vibe on set in one word—and you can’t repeat words.
SP: Oh, shit.
NW: Oh, God.
NNB: Delicious.
NW: Bold.
SP: Bold!
KK: That’s a good one. Powerful.
NNB: Come on, Sarah.
SP: Diabolical.
NNB: Ooh.
KK: That too.
What do you all talk about or bond over in the chairs between scenes?
SP: Oh my God.
NNB: We can’t tell you that.
SP: We can’t tell you that.
KK: Yeah.
SP: You are not getting that. Something has to remain just for us.
NNB: Right? If we are…
NW: You should see our chat…
You talked about Niecy skinny dipping…
SP: Well, listen, that… You know, listen, I guess that’s true. Fair point.
KK: I mean, everything and anything.
SP: Yeah.
KK: Kids.
NW: We cover It all.
KK: Relationships. Like, everything. Like, clothes. Anything you think girls would talk about… businesses…
SP: We’re talking about it.
KK: We’re talking about it.
It sounds like you guys give each other life advice on set. Can one of you share the best piece of advice you’ve gotten from one of your cast-mates?
KK: Oh, I will say Glenn [Close] gives amazing advice.
SP: Yes, she really does. She’s kind of the mama bear.
KK: I can’t tell you what that is.
SP: Cant tell you what that is. But she’s given some great advice.
KK: Yeah.
SP: We can’t… we can’t give it to you.
KK: …what she just shared in our group chat.
SP: I’ll just take it. That was… I’m sorry, this is… So sorry.
NW: A private discussion.
SP: You know, private discussions. Yeah. For the camera.
Niecy Nash-Betts: Niecy: Rey Ortiz skirt suit, Saint Laurent jewelry, and Stuart Weitzman heels. Kim Kardashian: Vintage Thierry Mugler skirt suit and Christian Louboutin heels Niecy: Rey Ortiz skirt suit, Saint Laurent jewelry, and Stuart Weitzman heels.
Credit: Luke Lovell
You alluded to this a little bit earlier, but how will season two one-up season one?
SP: Oh my God. It’s a double-down for sure.
NW: Dou-ble down.
KK: I think, honestly, at the beginning we all thought that we were going into a more serious law show.
NW: A procedural almost.
KK: Yeah, absolutely. And I don’t know if we knew it, but, like, it was really a comedy. And I think the viewers saw it that way. And so we all decided to really lean in.
SP & NW: Yeah.
KK: And I think the writers and Ryan [Murphy] and everyone saw that, too. So we really heard the audience [and] are leaning in 10 times more, doubling down. I watched the first few episodes…
NW: Oh, you really have already?
KK: It is so— I don’t know. It’s, like, way better, I think. I think it’s better than season one. Like crazier. Funnier. I don’t know if I can say that, but, like, oh my God, it’s so good.
Is there something that will really surprise fans in season two?
NNB: What, are you kidding?
KK: Everything.
NNB: Just when you think you know a gal.
SP: That’s right. New, new things are revealed.
NNB: I mean…
SP: Yeah, exactly. Powerful things happen.
NNB: What did I tell you last season? “Pin your wig back.”
SP: “Pin your wig back, Allura.”
NNB: ‘Cuz this might blow it off.
SP: The whole season. Everyone’s wigs. Just like {ahhhh}
{laughter}
At the beginning, you were talking about how amazing the fashion is on set. What can we expect from the wardrobe in season two? And have any of you taken anything from set?
NW: We’re not allowed.
SP: We’re not allowed. I mean, Kim can take it because a lot of it is Kim’s.
KK: I take it.
SP: She takes it because she, you know, she should. I think I got snuck something, a little, little, little something.
NW: A little token.
SP: A little token last year, but not this year.
NW: If we find out…
KK: Oh we gotta change that.
NW: If we find out that there’s a season three…
SP: You make a call, you can just say, yeah…
NW: …they need it. Right?
SP: Yeah. They’re worried that they might need the clothes. Although, did you wear anything from season… In season two from season one?
KK: I did
NNB & NW: I did.
SP: I did, too, actually. Yeah. Then I guess they have a point.
Who’s your favorite pop culture lawyer? (That’s not a character on All’s Fair.)
SP: Pop culture lawyer—is there such a thing? Judge Judy, you mean?
Like, Elle Woods [from Legally Blonde].
SP: Oh, oh, oh, you mean like a fictitious? Fictitious.
KK: Oh, I was gonna go with just Laura Wasser.
SP: Right. Well, because pop culture sounds… Yeah, uh, fictional?
Like Ally McBeal [from Ally McBeal] or…
NW: Oh, right.
NNB: I’m gonna go with, um, Joe Pesci—that was who he was in My Cousin Vinny?
KK: Oh, yes, good one.
NNB: Ding ding ding!
SP: That’s a really good one. Really good one.
KK: Yeah. I will… I’m Elle Woods to the day I die.
SP: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m going to go—even though I don’t think she was a lawyer—Erin Brockovich [from Erin Brockovich], because she was sort of a lawyer. She became a lawyer.
NW & KK: Yeah, she was. She was.
SP: But in the movie. Was she a lawyer then?
NW: No, she became one.
SP: She became a lawyer. Yeah, yeah, I’m gonna go Erin Brockovich. Yeah. What about you[, Naomi]? Don’t think you’re getting out.
NW: I don’t know.
SP: Come on.
NW: I haven’t got one.
SP: She doesn’t got one.
NW: Can’t think.
NNB: You can borrow mine.
SP: You can borrow her’s. Joe Pesci.
NW: I loved that.
Okay, last question. Who or what was your inspiration for your character?
KK: I mean, mine is Laura Wasser, because she’s, like, a kick-ass divorce attorney. She’s done a few of mine, so I know her well.
NW: Mine’s a woman in my life who is very buttoned-up, but she’s a little bit mischievous as well. And she’s British, and, um, you know, she presents a certain way. She doesn’t even know that I’ve stolen from her.
SP: Ooh. Really?
KK: Are you going to say her name?
NW: No, No, I’m not going to say her name. No.
SP: Mine is this woman who is a man’s rights attorney that I found on the internet. And I really like the way she talked, which was that weird voice that I do on the show.
KK: That I had no idea…
SP: She basically says that she doesn’t…
{laughter}
KK: I had no idea…
KK: …that it was a fake voice.
SP: Well, she thought it was my…
SP: She didn’t know it was a fake voice. Remember how you said that you’d say to your kids, {deepens voice} “Go to bed!”
KK: I would, I just hear her voice and I just imitate it sometimes when I’m putting my kids to bed.
SP: I talk like that. Sort of like this: “Go to bed”
KK: It’s sorta like Elvis.
SP: Like Elvis. She thinks I sound like Elvis on this show. I’m like, “Everybody go to bed. You gotta go to bed, kid. No, no, no, dah. A whole lotta love. Go to bed.”
KK: I think it sounds like Elvis.
NNB: You know, honestly, I took inspiration from myself.
SP: Yes. {snaps}
NNB: And I did that because I have three children, just like my character, Emerald, does. So for the mom, definitely myself, and for the character that I play: Neither one of us takes shit.
SP: That’s true.
NNB: So I didn’t have to look far.
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