“I might not always have the rosiest outlook,” Will Tracy tells EW.
Warning: This article contains spoilers aboutThe Regimeseason finale,“Don’t Yet Rejoice.”
The Regimehas been toppled.
Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts on ‘The Regime’.Miya Mizuno/HBO
Sunday night’s conclusion toHBO’sThe Regimebrought things full circle, pretty much literally.
Zubak replaces her father, and Elena now visits his corpse to talk through her anxieties.
It’s not a very hopeful ending, but it is, sadly, a realistic one.
Kate Winslet on ‘The Regime’.Miya Mizuno/HBO
Miya Mizuno/HBO
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The whole series builds to this mostly successful coup.
What were those conversations like?
Just by default, I thought she would get her just desserts.
But with a sense that what might be replacing her might not necessarily be vastly better.
I landed on this idea of, what if it’s pressing the reset button on the Nintendo?
Yeah, I would say so.
He’s sacrificed on the altar of regional political strategy.
And survival is really all she cares about.
But she’s happy to do that if it means she gets to hang on.
Why did you decide to let him go more peacefully in the end?
But he sees the pointlessness of that.
And also, he’s willing to do this for her.
It’s inevitable in some fatalistic way that that’s the way their love story has to end.
Speaking of which, does any part of her truly love him?
You could ask this question about a lot of different love stories.
She loves the way that he made her feel about herself.
A very cynical person might say that that’s every relationship.
I’m not quite so cynical.
He made her feel strong and capable in a way that she did not before.
There was something about his strength, simplicity, clarity, steadfastness, and loyalty that she loved.
Is someone like Elena, a true narcissist, really capable of loving anyone more than herself?
It’s not that kind of love.
In terms of her own self-delusion, does she feel she’s won at the end?
The final scene of the show in the mausoleum, what I read on her face is not victory.
It’s not triumph.
Maybe she feels quite powerful and victorious.
What do you hope audiences take away from that?
It can feel futile.
It is not always futile.
There are a few different hinge points on the show in which things could have gone differently.
It just so happens that she chooses, at every tack, the wrong way.
This kind of leadership doesn’t last forever.
As much as they take a stab at hang on to power, they can never hang on forever.
Something gets them in the end, even if it’s just old age.
I’m not sure what the answer is beyond that.
I might not always have the rosiest outlook.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
