Vulture Interviews Ann Dowd
Ann Dowd recently did an interview with Vulture concerning her role in the new HBO series, The Leftovers. True Detective fans, however, would better know her as Betty Childress, the sister to The Yellow King himself. While the interview mostly focuses on her past performances and current role in The Leftovers, there are a few True Detective nuggets sprinkled in. When asked about the filming of her scenes, she had this to say:
"“First of all, we were outside of New Orleans, in the woods, and here’s the snake wrangler looking for the cottonmouths, so we were all safe. What?!…This kid was like 14, and he had this thing, a stick. I said, “What are you doing?” He said he was checking for snakes, and I thought, What world have I just landed in?”"
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Dowd’s performance is certainly difficult to forget. Although she has far from a central role, her character helps further color the kind of insanity that Errol Childress comes from and surrounds himself with.
When it comes to the skin-crawling “You wanna make flowers today?” line that is so effortlessly delivered, Dowd believes True Detective have shaped — and ruined — that phrase forever:
"“Someone said they heard it on the radio in reference to that line, and I thought, “Oh, God! It’ll never mean the same [thing] again.”"
Betty Childress is just another small part that works to make True Detective what it is. You can check out the entire interview over at Vulture.