Hulu’s Phony brings two White Lotus alums together in a way you’ve never seen them before. Sam Nivola plays Sonny, a young man who awakens after a tragic accident only to be met by a mother, Connie Britton’s Ellen, who doesn’t seem like his mother. Is he just imagining it, or is something sinister afloat? The thriller pushes both actors into deeply uncomfortable and thrilling new territory that leaves the audience guessing.
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"It was very different. It's really uncomfortable, really," Britton told Newsweek. "It isn't horror for horror's sake at all."
Instead, the tension comes from the bizarre reality her character has to face head on.
“We are both playing, like, ‘Something crazy has happened.’ And we are both having to respond to that," Britton explained.
For Britton, it’s a role unlike any other she’s held before. Playing a wealthy resort guest in White Lotus or Texas football royalty on Friday Night Lights is familiar territory, but here she is actively running in the opposite direction to keep things interesting.
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"I find that every single character that I've been able to play has just been such a complete, full experience, and I feel so incredibly fortunate to be able to do it," Britton said. But she knows fans always want to talk about her past hits. "White Lotus, you know, I loved that experience and that character so much. And so that, therefore, I always try to go as far away from it as I can, you know what I mean?"
For her, this bizarre new project is about flexing a totally different muscle.
"I'm going to discover something new," she noted. "I'm going to try something different with this character than I did with those other characters. And certainly, Phony is no exception. Scary, but more in that way of like, it's jumping into the unknown and not knowing quite how to get there."
And Phony marks the real introduction of Nivola as a leading man after he skyrocketed to fame on The White Lotus. Stepping into the spotlight meant taking on a much heavier narrative load, but it was a welcome shift for the rising star.
"It's just the best of both worlds," Nivola said. "It's such a relief to have a big part like this because I think a lot of the time when you're young and you have a small part, you feel like your job is to kind of be seen and not heard. Your job is just to show up and like nail it and then kind of disappear into the shadows."
Working alongside a seasoned pro like Britton gave him the space to truly flex his acting muscles instead of fading into the background.
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"I could really engage with them creatively, almost like equals and have real serious conversations about the art and really tell them that I wanted them to push me to do my best work," he added. "We were all kind of pushing each other to do our best work, and it was just like such a relief to feel a real creative connection with these people."
But despite the added fame Nivola is bound to get from Phony, he’s keeping it all in perspective. He is already dealing with the unexpected turn of becoming the internet's newest boyfriend after a viral bathhouse photoshoot in New York Magazine, but he refuses to let the noise get to his head.
"I feel sort of relieved that I consider myself to have quite a healthy relationship with social media and I just don't really read a lot of stuff so I wouldn't know if I were people's boyfriend," Nivola joked.
For Britton, who has been famous ever since her star-making turn on Friday Night Lights, one thing will always be a fact about her: she’s got the best head of hair in Hollywood. It is a legendary supporting character all on its own and practically requires a union card. When asked about carrying the heavy burden of flawless television hair, she stays humble about the whole thing.
"It feels like I'm really lucky to have Creighton [Bowman, Britton’s longtime hair stylist] in the back who just styled it for me this morning because he makes it look great,” she joked.
Still, she fully admits that such iconic styling deserves formal industry recognition.
"I mean, my hair should have gotten a little extra bump in the paycheck,” she said.
“Or maybe an Emmy,” Nivola added. “Emmy for the hair!”