Jessica Biel's Candy Montgomery Channels Female Rage in Hulu True-Crime Series

When Robin Veith heard about Candy Montgomery for the first time, she was immediately intrigued. It was a few years ago, and Nick Antosca — who Veith had just collaborated with on the true crime dramaThe Act — asked her to take a look into this woman arrested for murdering Betty Gore in 1980. Gore was the wife of Montgomery's lover, and died after being hit with an ax an estimated 41 times. "It's right up my alley," Veith, a three-time Emmy-nominated television writer, recalled telling Antosca of the case. Veith proceeded to write a script based on this killing in Wylie, Texas that would become Hulu's Candy. One thing in particular jumped out to Veith: Where did Montgomery's explosive rage come from? 

Candy, premiering May 9, stars Jessica Biel as Candy Montgomery and Melanie Lynskey as Betty Gore. Unsatisfied with her marriage, Candy begins an affair with Allan Gore (Pablo Schreiber). She later becomes the chief suspect in Betty's murder. Veith said it was around 2019 when she first learned of the event from Antosca. "The #MeToo movement was well underway and I think women everywhere were exhaling a bit in that we could finally start talking about frustrations and rage," she told TV Guide, "and everything that we've all been dealing with our entire lives were starting to come out." Veith said the unleashing of suppressed emotions is something she also found in Candy and Betty's stories. 

"These were women who grew up with a prescription for happiness that was fed to them," she explained. The formula looked like this: Find a husband, have children, get a house in the suburbs. "That's all you need to be happy," Veith continued. "And if you're not, it's your fault." The television writer saw the stifled feelings in the characters. "It just led up to this moment of explosive rage that felt identifiable to me," she said.   

When Antosca first learned about Candy's story around 20 years ago, he couldn't quite believe the murder case was real. "It seems too strange, too lurid," Antosca said. "But when you read about Candy and about Betty and their real lives, you start to feel the currents moving under the surface that are so relatable to many people." Those currents are similar to the ones that Veith identified, which revolve around being expected to follow a pathway to happiness. "And then somehow you're not happy? And what do you do then?" Antosca said. "And then certain very specific triggers push you to a point where something that you didn't know was inside yourself comes out?"

The television writer said that many conversations in the writers' room — which included Elise Brown, Brett Johnson, and David Matthews in addition to Veith — were dedicated to finding the character's humanity. "Robin [Veith] really wanted to make sure that we empathize with both Candy and Betty and that we'd be able to go within an episode — and from episode to episode — from saying, 'Wow, she's a monster, [to] oh my God, I've experienced that myself.'" 

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On the subject of finding Candy's humanity without ignoring the horror of the crime, Veith said that much of the character was shaped by Biel's ideas. The actor is one of Candy's executive producers, in addition to starring as its lead. "She just had this concept of Candy as this sort of energetic being that just projects sunshine out of her the entire time," Veith explained. "And that's sort of like the Venus flytrap aspect to her." 

Biel found multiple similarities between herself and her character, including in the aspect of motherhood. "There [are] so many parallels I think with my experience of being a mom and Candy's experience of being a mom, which is just really trying to do it all," Biel said. To her, doing it all consists of getting the breakfast ready, sending the kids to school, making their house be the "most fun" one and much more. The actor said she often falls into the trap of trying to achieve everything. "I really connected with [Candy] in that regard and understand how hard it is to try to put on this front like you can do it all," Biel continued. "When really you're just dying inside and you're overwhelmed and you haven't had a shower." 

Feeling overwhelmed as a mom also made Lynskey connect with Betty. "I feel overwhelmed a lot of the time and I have a partner who's incredibly helpful and present," Lynskey said. "And when I'm working I have this amazing nanny who helps me, but it's a lot." In the series, Betty is mostly seen taking care of the kids by herself while her husband goes on work trips. "Some days feel endless and the thought of doing that with nobody helping you, no family around, and a partner who is not communicating — who you don't feel intimate with… was really heartbreaking," Lynskey said. "And I really sort of could relate to that, how isolating that would feel."

In the show, Betty does not have much room to voice these bottled-up emotions. Instead, the series portrays her death partly as a result of Candy's rage being released. Veith said that when the team produced the series, it coincided with a period when many were expected to put aside individual emotions. "As we started working on it, we moved into 2020 and we were all locked into our own houses and asked to do all of these things for our own good, for the good of society," Veith shared. She described a type of thought process from the time: "And like, we're all gonna do it, of course, we're gonna do it, … I'd be happy to—ask me to do one more thing and I swear to God—." Veith continued, "And then you just hope that they don't pick up an ax out of frustration, which happened in this instance."

Candy premieres May 9.

(Editor's Note: A previous version of this story reported that Nick Antosca was part of the Candy writers room. He is an executive producer and co-creator but was not in the writers room)