This is not Betty Gilpin’s week. Or month. Or several years. In the wake of Showtime’s merger with Paramount+, it was announced that the premium cable network would no longer be moving forward with Gilpin’s Three Women. It doesn’t matter that the series starring Shailene Woodley, DeWanda Wise, and Gabrielle Creevy (as well as Gilpin) has already been finished. Nope, it’s gone, forced to sail the uncertain waters of being unceremoniously shopped to other networks. And you know what? It really sucks. It’s also far from the first time a project starting Gilpin has been unfairly cut off at the knees.
Scrolling through Gilpin’s IMDB page tells the story of an actor who has put in the work, dammit. Stints on Law & Order in the late 2000s paved the way for bigger, buzzier projects like Nurse Jackie, Masters of Sex, and American Gods.
Then there was Netflix’s GLOW. From Episode 1, it was clear that the wrestling dramedy was meant to be an Alison Brie and Marc Maron vehicle. And yet Gilpin stole the spotlight from them, as well as the rest of her highly talented cast. Through Debbie Eagan, Gilpin was able to portray a different side of a character we’ve seen a million times before: the beautiful, successful, and slightly clueless actress. Gilpin gave Debbie depth, always playing to the top of her intelligence and, as a result, transforming her privileged woes into struggles anyone could understand. With Liberty Belle, Gilpin proved that she could more than handle a leading role.
Due to circumstances beyond Gilpin’s control, though, after Netflix had already picked up GLOW for a final, fourth season, COVID shut down the production and Netflix reversed the renewal, despite multiple episodes already being filmed.
Things have mostly been downhill from there. She was far and away the best part of the the Trump-era satire The Hunt, a middling thriller that attracted controversy before it even premiered, then fizzled on release. Her recent ensemble movies haven’t faired much better. Netflix’s Coffee & Kareem was panned as was the 2020 version of The Grudge. The Tomorrow War was marginally better reviewed and received, but like most of these projects, it came and went without making much of a splash – and Gilpin herself was underutilized in a classic “fretting wife” role that downplayed her talents. Starz’s political thriller Gaslit popped for a minute before it was swallowed under the ocean of too much content, despite also starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. And now Three Women — one of Gilpin’s most promising-sounding projects since GLOW — has also been axed.
The infuriating part of all these misses is that Gilpin has done her job. She always delivers a great performance. You want sympathetic victim? She’s got you. Hardened and slightly unhinged badass? Check. Sassy housewife? Yep. Tongue-in-cheek comedy foil? You know it. She’s legitimately a great actor. And yet she’s been plagued with mediocre movies or decent series that keep getting canceled, shelved, or forgotten. It’s like Kayako really did curse her.
Not all hope is lost. There’s always a chance that some other network or streamer could pick up Three Women. After all, it’s already finished, so it probably isn’t that expensive to broadcast somewhere else. There’s also Mrs. Davis, Damon Lindelof’s show for Peacock about a nun who uses her faith to take on technology that’s set to premiere in April. And she’s set to star in Netflix’s upcoming American Primeval from Eric Newman and by Peter Berg. That said, the upcoming series will also star fellow cursed actor Taylor Kitsch, so we’ll have to wait and see.
I hope one of these projects turns Gilpin’s fortunes around. I hope that by the end of 2023 Twitter is screaming Gilpin’s praises with the same fervor it does with goddess-among-men Melanie Lynskey. But I’m afraid that’s not going to happen. Hollywood has already underutilized this absolute force too many times before. Why would it fix its mistakes now?
