‘The Residence’ Killer Talks Fooling Everyone Until the Last Second: ‘It Was Fun as Hell’

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Residence.”

“The Residence” followed an intricate whodunnit within the walls of the White House, bringing the identity of chief usher A.B. Wynter’s (Giancarlo Esposito) killer into the light.

The investigation was led by the singular detective Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba), and found that it was Lilly Schumacher, the President’s social secretary played by Molly Griggs, who committed the murder during a pivotal state dinner with Australia.

Episode 8 saw as Cordelia enlisted the help of her suspect pool to narrow down the guilty party. For a moment, it seemed like Lilly’s sob story about wanting to cover up the crime for Bruce (Mel Rodriguez) and Elsyie (Julieth Restrepo) would let her off the hook, but Cordelia caught her in a lie about the “suicide note” found in A.B.’s coat pocket and was able to bring her to justice.

“It was fun as hell. It was truly a career highlight to get to work on that last episode specifically,” Griggs told TheWrap. “I felt very honored that (creator and showrunner Paul William Davies) made it as complicated as it was, and that he was really challenging me to hit all those switches and turns, and go from being a person that is seemingly being the most compassionate person on the planet to somebody who is so spoiled and entitled that she doesn’t value the lives of other human beings. I felt so excited to get to sink my teeth into that as an actor.”

In between rehearsals for her new Broadway show “John Proctor Is the Villain,” which stars Sadie Sink, the actress spoke with TheWrap about filming “The Residence” and embodying a killer.

TheWrap: You really stood out as Lilly Schumacher, which is impressive in such a huge cast of big talent. What was it like to go to set and play along with the rest of the ensemble?

Griggs: It’s a complete dream come true. That group of actors is so special because of their work ethics, but also just because of their attitude toward this script and to their own work. There was this magical combination of rigor and a sense of play. So we really just had the best time, it wasn’t too serious.

Uzo Aduba really set the bar for us. And I think all of us were like, “OK, if she has time with all of that text and everything that she has on her plate to come and really throw down like that, we do too.” It went truly beyond my wildest dreams.

Lilly ends up being A.B. Wynter’s killer, which once we see all the clues makes total sense — but still comes as a big surprise. Paul told me that you knew you’d be the killer as soon as you joined the cast. How did that inform your performance?

First of all, it was so exciting to hear that it was going to be me. I knew that I had a big job ahead of me, but I wasn’t too scared, because I really trust Paul and I really trust our directors, and we were just able to continually have a conversation before we started shooting, and also when we were on set, about really calibrating the performance to feel that were not trying to trick the audience — it’s all right there. It’s all very clear that it’s her from the beginning. But also just adding in the little details that throw you off the scent. That felt dramaturgically accurate to do it that way, because she is also trying to throw the scent off of herself, and she is socially aware enough to understand how to adjust her behavior to do that.

Her dialogue is so funny and so silly, I think that it makes the audience dismiss her seriousness from the beginning. She seems so full of herself and so wrapped up in her own narcissism that there’s no way that she could accomplish what she does. But it is those exact qualities that make the murder happen at all. So think of Paul’s writing being so well crafted and brilliant, and also just his availability on set every single day to talk to me about how to figure that out. I was very careful not to tell the secret to anybody.I barely told anyone in my real life. I just wanted everybody to be surprised, because I think it’s so fun the way it all unfolds.

The story cleverly does kind of dismiss Lilly at times to throw us off suspicions it could be her, and she almost manages to pin the crime on two other staffers in the finale before Cordelia catches her in a “blink.” Then we get to see Lilly’s true colors. How was it to go into full villain mode by the end of the season?

It was fun as hell.It was truly a career highlight to get to work on that last episode specifically. I felt very honored that Paul made it as complicated as it was, and that he was really challenging me to really hit all those switches and turns, and go from being a person that is seemingly being the most compassionate person on the planet to somebody who is so spoiled and entitled that she doesn’t value the lives of other human beings. I think that’s a tall order, and I felt so excited to get to sink my teeth into that as an actor. Complicated, rangy characters, that’s the absolute dream in this job.

You get to share the screen with a lot of the characters, as well as those big group scenes. Which scene did you find the most challenging to film?

That final summation in the yellow oval room was challenging for all of us. We kept making fun of each other, because there were certain people who got to sit on the couch, and we were shooting that scene for like 10 days, so half of us were sitting on the couches and half of us were standing and we were very resentful of the people who got the couch. We just kept joking and making fun of each other for that, and trying to make those long days feel as fun as possible.

We get those flashbacks of the moment Lilly and A.B. have their final conversation, as well as when she kills him and hides the evidence. How was it to play through that sequence?

I was very focused on the physical task at hand. Even though I don’t know what it’s like to cover up a murder, I do know what it’s like to feel like you have to do something in a high-pressure situation. So I was just trying to keep the reality of the adrenaline as much as possible, and then just focusing on the typical tasks and trusting that the directors and the editors are really going to craft the story as well as they did.

I also was aware that you were going to be hearing Cordelia’s voiceover over the top of it all. So I knew that that storytelling was going to be cared for.

“The Residence” is now streaming on Netflix.

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