Meaghan Takes on Young Love in “Tell Me Lies” – FBC News

Dramatizing toxic relationships can be difficult, just ask the creators and cast of “It Ends With Us.” While the film about a woman who falls in love with a man who abuses her was a box office success, it sparked debate about whether it glorified domestic violence.

Hulu’s Tell Me Lies , now in its second season, follows Lucy and Stephen’s (Grace Van Patten and Jackson White) on-again, off-again relationship. Theirs isn’t physically abusive, but it is unhealthy.

Meaghan Oppenheimer, executive producer and showrunner, says she is very careful to respect the impact early relationships have on a person’s life.

In “Tell Me Lies,” she also wanted to address how people sometimes romanticize unhealthy relationships on the grounds that the harder they are to maintain, the stronger the bond will be.

“As you mature, hopefully, you realize that happiness is the most exciting thing. The up-and-down, on-off relationships are boring because they follow the same cycle and there’s never any real growth,” she said.

We all know someone like Lucy, have been Lucy ourselves, or even Stephen, Oppenheimer says.

Van Patten says he “can understand” Lucy’s clouded judgment of Stephen.

This season, Lucy and Stephen spend a lot of energy trying to make the other person miserable. Van Patten and White date in real life, and Van Patten says that switching their on-screen personas “was really fun.”

Van Patten said they would apologize after a particularly vicious attack.

The new season introduces another unhealthy relationship — Lucy’s friend Bree (Catherine Missal) and her professor husband, played by Tom Ellis (“Lucifer”). Ellis is married to Oppenheimer.

Ellis says the role took its toll on him, but the couple’s daughter, Dolly, helped him get through it.

When it comes to characters, Lucy is harder to write than Stephen, Oppenheimer said.

Besides, Oppenheimer likes to write about the messiness of relationships.