In season 1, we thought [the] answer was her father didnt approve.
But, in season 2, we upend that," she teases.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How would you say, season 2 differs from or builds on season 1?
Hailee Steinfeld on ‘Dickinson’.Credit: Michael Parmelee/Apple
How does that complicate things for you?
Everything that happens in the season in terms of the basic plot is taken from Emily’s biography.
Sam Bowles really did come to the Evergreens where Sue and Austin (Adrian Enscoe) hosted literary salons.
She’s growing into the great writer that she will ultimately become.
You draw ever closer to the Emily Dickinson that has so long been perceived as something of a recluse.
How does that complicate depicting her relationships and building scenes with others?
But we’re beginning with this mystery, which is why did she choose mostly to hide her work?
We’re using the show and the setting of the 1850s as a funhouse mirror for today.
Everybody has to make a set of choices about how much they’re going to broadcast their own life.
We all have this experience now of putting ourselves out there.
What’s the value of not being seen?
And is it okay to be a nobody?"
Season 2 leans even harder into the fantastical elements that blur reality and imagination for Emily.
Why did you want to dig deeper there?
That’s just honestly the truth of the character and what it feels like to be this woman.
How does that shape or inform the season?
We treat it as almost like a 9/11 moment for our cast of 20-somethings.
When that event occurs, there’s no turning back.
War has become inevitable, and it’s going to change all of their lives.
Henry is leading a group of Black activists and writers in writing what is essentially illegal abolitionist literature.
They come at this whole question of fame and visibility versus invisibility from a very different perspective.
There’s certainly a sense of heightening tension throughout the season.
One thing that also makes season 2 different is that the timeframe is more compressed.
In season 1, we covered almost a whole year of Emily’s life.
In season 2, we really only cover a few months and the pace of the season accelerates.
That’s also underlined by the presence of newspapers.
There’s this sense of a media frenzy.
Sue is very changed from the first moments we see her this season.
Will we dig into what propelled that shift?
That’s really what the season is about.
In general, with all of our main characters we’re seeing new sides of them.
Can you tell me more about her arc this season?
Just the contours of millennial and Gen Z romances.
If you had to pick three words to describe season 2, what would they be?
I tried to make season 2 a sophisticated psychological thriller.
You’vealready been renewedfor season 3.
Can you tease what may lay ahead?
We’ll be going into production some time in 2021.
Season 2 has been finished for quite a while.
It’s been an odd timeline.
I just want people to catch up on Emily’s journey to where I’m at within it.
There’s definitely a lot more dimensions that come.
