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Carole Weyers of “Manhattan” on the show’s lesbian love story

Belgian born actress Carole Weyers has made a real splash recently playing the confident and enigmatic Elodie Lancefield on the WGN hit Manhattan. Manhattan may focus on the mostly male group of scientists who develop the atomic bomb, but it’s the love affair between housewife Abby Issacs (Rachel Brosnahan) and Elodie that gives the show its humanity. The slow burning illicit romance forever changes both women. Carole Weyers was kind enough to share thoughts with us on the Abby/Elodie relationship, her hopes for their future and who planted those damned papers.

AfterEllen: I’ve really enjoyed watching you on Manhattan and it’s been such a pleasant surprise. Usually we find out a little bit ahead of time if there’s going to be a lesbian, bisexual, queer character on a show, but it really just came as a surprise to us.

Carole Weyers: You know, it’s funny. I think I actually got to read the first three episodes, and it wasn’t really said. It was maybe lightly implied that Elodie might be lesbian or bisexual. It was really more a choice I made. I know roughly what the arc of the character was, but the way they presented the character to me at the beginning, it wasn’t going to that open. It wasn’t going to be that Elodie was going to open herself to Abby that much. So after reading those first three episodes, I decided, now I think need to go with it because I have a feeling that this is a very important thing for that woman. This is part of who she is and I can’t deny her that.

AE: Wow, I love that Carole because lesbians are experts at picking up on subtextual clues. From the moment you walked on to the screen, we were picking up that vibe you were sending. On Manhattan, you play Elodie, who is such a free-spirited soul.

CW: Absolutely. Free spirited is exactly how I would put words on Elodie.

AE: Then what attracts her to Abby, who on the surface appears to be holding everything in so tightly?

CW: Elodie is a very modern woman who is really listening to what’s inside her heart, and what’s inside her guts. Abby has a hard time doing that and I think all their polar opposites attract each other. Maybe that’s the science between Abby and Elodie. Maybe that’s the science in that relationship. I think Elodie sees in Abby this really shy person who’s repressed by the period. By how women need to be towards their husbands, and to be a wife and cook dinner and talk about recipes with the other friends. Elodie is really different and I think she can see in Abby this new, young wife who needs to be introduced to the real world. The real word for Abby is the exact opposite of what the boring housewife is living. Abby is really this young, subtle little flower that needs to have her heart revealed to herself. At that time, you couldn’t really open up about your sexuality if it diverges from what the norm is.

Their first encounter is when Elodie is naked and Abby is looking at her. Then the third time, they happen to be working together. There are a lot of things, I think, that are put in Elodie’s path that make her believe that there is something else that is going to be happening with Abby. Since you can’t really be open about your orientation then, you have to be smart with tricks and friendship. You can’t approach someone the same way that you would do in 2014, even though there’s a lot of things that still need to be done in 2014, but you can’t really approach people the same way. Elodie is slowly trying to figure out and navigate how to approach Abby and see if Abby would be open or not.

AE: Considering the kind of woman that Elodie is, how the hell did she end up with Tom and in this dusty little Army town in New Mexico? Do you think that Tom was her way to escape what she knew was building up to be a very tense situation in Europe? What are your thoughts?

CW: First of all, I think that Tom and I met in Paris. He was studying in Paris and I got to meet him through my brother, who was studying with him. I think there was a real attraction between Tom and Elodie at the beginning. I thin she’s always been very experimental and she’s never refused herself anything. I think she new by then that she was at least bisexual. I think she was really in love with Tom at some point,, Then came the move to California where he had to study, then soon after they had to move to Los Alamos. Elodie is just a woman who is making the best out of the situation. That’s how she lives and that’s how she thrives. By the time she finds herself in Los Alamos, the relationship between her husband and her, has really crumbled down. I think that danger that Tom represented at some point, is now becoming unbearable. You can see from the episodes Tom Lancefield is not a gentle human being. Elodie is dangerous in the sense that she does love danger. Tom represented that at some point and now he still represents that, but it’s gone too far and she’s a prisoner of that. Abby is really an open window to freedom, and to live really how she wants to live.

AE: Speaking of love and freedom, as you play the role, in your interpretation, do you think that Elodie is in love with Abby? If so, did that take her by surprise?

CW: I think it definitely didn’t start as love. Maybe at the beginning, Abby was an ally with whom Elodie could experience her life without boring rules. The more the relationship evolved, the more she is smitten by that woman. She is in looove with Abby. She’s really in love. So when Abby keeps on cold feet, I’m used to it because it’s not the first time a woman, who after experiencing a relationship with me, turns me down. I think I’m used to that. It still hurts like hell, especially since I think this is a relationship with a woman like I’ve never had before. There are a lot of complex feelings in there, and really Elodie finds in Abby this sweetheart. There is something compelling about seeing someone finally opening up to themselves.

AE: That makes it all the more complicated with what happens next. There’s been debate about this, and I don’t think it’s incredibly clear but do you think Abby was the one who turned Tom in? Do you think she went ahead and planted those papers or do you think something entirely different happened?

CW: I believe that Abby had a wake up call after she slept with Elodie. By the window she saw that perfect family that is the image that the society is implementing in you. That to be happy, you have to have a husband and children and be the great wife at home. I think it must be really tough for Abby to deny that. It’s been implemented in her head since she was a little girl. That’s what good girls are told, to be good wives to their husbands and that’s what’d going to make them happy. I think she struggled at that moment. Everything that she believes in up until that met Elodie, just came back to the surface. I think she made the very difficult choices that she had to make at that time without thinking way too much. She had to make a quick decision. So I believe she did it.

AE: It was just announced that Manhattan was renewed for a second season and I know you probably can’t divulge anything at this point, but of course I’m hoping that this isn’t the last we see of Elodie. If this isn’t the last we see, what do you wish for her in the second season?

CW: If I was to come back, I would want to see Abby and Elodie facing each other, and I would want the secret to be out.

AE: That’s good television, right there!

CW: It has to come out at some point. The secret was too important not to explode. If it actually was Abby who put the papers down, it is the biggest betrayal that one could possibly imagine. Especially after the love that they’ve experienced. I think really that Abby got scared of that love.

The season finale of Manhattan airs this Sunday at 10pm CT. You can also find past episodes on Hulu.

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