The harrowing Hulu drama chronicles the start of the opioid epidemic.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for episode 7 ofDopesick.

From the jump, Hulu’sDopesickhas told the story of the start of the opioid epidemic from many different perspectives.

Dopesick

Kaitlyn Dever on ‘Dopesick’.Gene Page/Hulu

And ultimately, it became the thing she couldn’t live without.

In the series' penultimate episode, she lost her battle with addiction when she overdosed on heroin.

(The final episode ofDopesickwill be available Nov. Obviously I know of the opioid crisis, but I’ve also learned a lot from watchingDopesick.

How much did you know going into this project?

KAITLYN DEVER:I think maybe the same as you did.

I didn’t know much.

I knew about the Oxy crisis.

But I didn’t know about the Sackler family.

I didn’t know what was going on with Purdue Pharma.

I had no knowledge of any of that until I read the first script.

And also then after getting the job, I started readingDopesick, the book that Beth Macy wrote.

I had really no knowledge of the injustice of all of it and how mind-blowing it is.

It’s really, really heartbreaking.

I’ve spoken with a lot of my friends too, and it’s the same thing.

We don’t really know what was going on.

And what’s still going on, truly.

If viewers don’t care about Betsy, the story doesn’t work.

Did you feel the pressure that comes along with a role like that?

And that’s something that is a really big responsibility to take on.

We’re seeing it from really both sides.

It cannot be buried anymore."

And I think that that’s so important for a show like this.

And I just fell in love with her too.

I fell in love with playing her.

She’s such a strong, resilient person that had plans for her life and loved her job.

And what happens to her is just completely out of her control and completely unexpected.

This show is based on true stories, but Betsy is a representation of many people, right?

There’s not one real Betsy out there?

She’s a fictional character that represents a lot of people.

And you all actually shot in some of these places, which I’m sure helped.

I know you shot in and around Richmond, Va.

I loved the house that I was staying in.

I had my dog there with me.

I don’t know why.

I just really liked it.

What was that experience like?

It never feels like work when you’re doing this for a very good reason.

I mean, obviously it was hard.

I enter into a place where I completely remove myself from it.

Nothing is an inconvenience to me anymore.

I am there to serve the story and to serve the character.

I removed myself from the equation and just focused on making sure that I was doing it right.

But yeah, it was the hardest thing I’ve had to do so far.

It was the hardest thing I’ve shot.

I’m assuming you knew going into this that Betsy wasn’t going to make it out?

Yes, I read the whole story and knew her arc from beginning, middle, and end.

But I almost didn’t want to.

And she thought she was getting some medicine to make it better.

And then from then on, it was just a total decline.

Also, there wasn’t a moment in time there where she was just genuinely feeling good about herself.

I mean, this literally happened to her and she had no control over it.

It was very, very hard.

There’s so much power in telling this story on such a big scale.

This is where television could really have an impact.

It’s a story that I think really, really deserves to be told.

And the fact that it’s being told in such a big way is great too.

It’s not something that you have to kind of seek out and find.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.