The fourth episode of the Hulu true crime drama Under the Bridge, which follows the real-life murder of Canadian teen Reena Virk, sees an intense dinner scene playing out in a flashback when Reena (Vritika Gupta) invites her schoolmates to her home.
After some persuading from her parents, Reena invites three troubled teenage girls, whom she considers to be her friends, over to her house for dinner. The trio takes some time to adjust to the new environment after their foster home caretaker drops them off and high-tails out of the Virk household, but eventually they warm up to the caring parents and even play dress-up with Reena’s mother’s religious dresses.
The leader of the girl group, Josephine Bell — played by Chloe Guidry — is the most resistant to the family’s kindness and snaps at Reena’s father after he offers misguided words of affirmation to the three over dinner.
“Everyone that should’ve protected you has failed you. It breaks my heart that you don’t have a home, a family. Children should be loved, not abandoned and left to care for themselves. I’d love to try and help you,” he tells her.
In response, Josephine snaps and calls him a derogatory word before storming out the room.
“Jo definitely saw Reena’s love that her parents gave her and that belonging and the family she never had,” Guidry told Decider over a Zoom call. “It made Jo feel weak and jealous. She wanted to do everything she could to destroy that.”
The actress continued, “At the same time, her parents saw the real Josephine and tried to pull that out. She didn’t want to feel weak, but in that moment, she did.”
During our conversation with Guidry, we also spoke about her experience working with series stars Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone, the big reveal in Episode 3 regarding Reena’s murder, and what she wants viewers to take away from the emotional series.
When it comes to acting alongside the show’s starry cast, Guidry shared that she was “honored” to work with them. “They are amazing actors, and it was a growing period for me to feed off of them. I had a good connection with both of them, and that chemistry is so important when you’re creating such a deep and meaningful story,” she said of Keough and Gladstone.
In the first half of the series, Josephine develops a close relationship with Keough’s Rebecca Godfrey, a fictionalized version of the author of the book that the series is based on. The actor explains that their bond is rooted in escapism and her character’s want for a female role model. “Josephine didn’t have that mother figure or a figure to look up to that was a good example. She relied on things that weren’t good for her, but with Rebecca, it was like a big sister role,” Guidry said. “But she knew that she could manipulate her or try to manipulate her. She wanted to find that connection of a big sister and to escape the reality that she was in. She saw Rebecca as an escape, to go to New York or do whatever she could to get out.”
In Episode 3, Rebecca is convinced that Josephine murdered Reena after leading the brutal beating of the teen; however, Josephine has an alibi. At the end of the episode, a new suspect is introduced in Josephine’s friend Kelly Ellard (Izzy G) who tells Josephine, “I did it for you.”
Guidry calls that scene “a big surprise” and recognizes it as a major emotional point for her character. “[Josephine] tried to be the mean girl, the big girl that did all these things, but in reality, she was just making up stuff for people to perceive her as strong. That scene shows that she’s so weak and she was struggling with internal things. In that moment, she’s not as strong as she is and she does have that deeper meaning of the consequences that are now being brought to her for the things that she did,” she said.
Through playing her character, Guidry hopes that viewers are more aware of how they treat others, particularly teenagers. “It’s really hard for teenagers these days with social media and everything. I go to real high school, so I see every aspect of it… Everything that you say has a meaning and will affect others.”
Under the Bridge is streaming on Hulu.
The post ‘Under the Bridge’ Star Chloe Guidry Breaks Down Intense Family Dinner in Episode 4: “She Didn’t Want To Feel Weak” appeared first on Decider.
