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When Ruffie Thorpe began shopping around for the film and television rights to her as-yet-unpublished novel Margo has financial problemsShe knew she wouldn’t be precious about it. “I’ve been very comfortable adapting a lot, and I really love it when they do that,” she says. “So I wanted someone with a vision.” Thorpe had already published three novels – Girls from Corona del Mar (2014), Dear Fang, with love (2016) and Knockout Queen (2016) – and there were very early signs of this Margo It will be different. When her film and television agents suggested submitting the manuscript to producers months before its scheduled publication on June 11, 2024, she realized she might have a hit on her hands.
The project eventually came to David E. Kelley and A24, and despite her intentions to give them complete creative freedom, she found herself particularly influenced by an early conversation with Kelley and the rest of the writer’s room. “They asked me, ‘What are you afraid we’ll do?’” Thorpe recalls. “I’m afraid you’ll forget about the baby,” I said. Margo has financial problems It follows a young college student who becomes pregnant after an affair with her married college professor, decides to raise the child on her own, and starts a highly creative OnlyFans presence (thanks to the help of her father, a former professional wrestler) to pay the bills. “Working with child actors is very difficult and it’s easy to put a child out there and not remember that that’s part of what changes her, where she finds empowerment. They take that seriously, and I can’t believe the performances they get out of these kids.”
Here, Thorpe breaks down the book’s biggest elements, reflects on its success, and shares her reaction to the cast of the hit Apple TV show.
Do you have any memories of when you found out? Margo Would it have been a hit as a book?
The ways you publish a book are usually the same: you write some lists, write some personal essays, and hope to get review coverage. I went to New York for an event, and the publishers asked me to come so we could record some videos to post on social media. They wrote me this whole wrestling scene where I get to hit a guy with a chair, and my publicist was pretending to be the referee counting them down. So I said oh, okay, we’ll have fun with this.
I know you’ve been open about asking the women who work on OnlyFans for help to help make the sex work in the book as realistic as possible; How did you find women to read the book?
I had been following a couple of different comedians who had started OnlyFans accounts, so I started reaching out to them. But they were too busy and didn’t end up talking to me. OnlyFans’ search algorithm is limited, so I’ll search for girls on Instagram or TikTok, then find their OnlyFans accounts and connect with them there.
Has anything changed as a result of these conversations?
One thing I’ve been trying to get a sense of is what men’s profiles look like. If you’re a user, you won’t be able to see other users, so I wanted to know what things are like from the creators’ side. How anonymous are people, what are their usernames, and do people use a profile picture that represents their face, their penis, or an anime character? The biggest plot change was that I originally had it that when she develops feelings for JB and tries to prove it to him, she gives him all his money back. In general, sex workers said no. This means that it was wrong to take the money. I earned this money. She did a good job, creating imagination. This is an admission of error and is incorrect. And I was like okay, you’re right, I didn’t think about it.
The show is already ready for online discussion; Have you been surprised by any of the reactions to the book?
In general, I try not to read about myself on social media. I feel like people should be allowed to talk about a book without worrying about whether or not the author is creeping them out. But sometimes you get flagged for things, and there was a group of pastors’ wives who were reading this book during their book club selection and they were like, “We think this is a God-book.” It was crazy, because not only is the book pro-sex, but the book also questions the identity of Jesus’ father and suggests that the Virgin Mary was raped. So I was blown away by the group of people who were willing to support Margo, who were sympathetic and sympathetic to her.
What is your personal relationship with religion?
I grew up around religion, but outside of it. We were Christmas and Easter types. My mom was a typical California hippie, and also believed in crystals and past lives, so there was nothing oppressive about my experience with church. But I knew that I wanted to have a lot of different opinions about sex work and whether or not it’s right or wrong, and that I wanted to have moral authority in the script. It became natural for him to be Sheyan’s friend. I try to always have things that I feel conflicted about.
What type of actress did you think of for the lead role?
Well, I knew it was going to be Elle Fanning right away because she was part of the group that bought the initial rights. What I never imagined about her was her ability to become truly animalistic and feral. And her long earrings can make her look very royal The Greatit can also make her look like a wrestler’s daughter in a really cool way.
One of the great casting discussions was, are we trying to get a former professional wrestler to play Jinx? I loved the idea, and there were a lot of people pitched to them who could be excellent, but when Nick Offerman’s name came up, he had this ability to be hyper-masculine and believably jump baby and cook lasagna from scratch.
The person I didn’t understand at first was Greg Kinnear. I thought he was too cool to play Kenny. He was so beautiful once and Kenny was never so beautiful. Can he understand a man like Kenny? I couldn’t be more wrong about that. The moment I saw the dailies, I saw how good he was at making sure Kenny was never the butt of the joke, which was a real risk.
How did Cheyenne find Michelle Pfeiffer?
If there’s any sadness I have about the book, it’s that a lot of people left it angry at Shiyan. They thought it was terrible. I see her as a tragic character who is doing the best she can, and it’s really hurtful for her daughter. The show allows you to fall in love with her even more, and Michelle really gets it. I think she must have known a lot of Sheyan’s characters.
I had a similar reaction to Mark’s character, the professor; In the book I found him despicable but in the show I found him much more pathetic.
I’ve always understood Mark as a hot dog. This is part of the reason why Margo cannot feel like a victim of him, and is almost a little embarrassed by his temptation. The problem with this whole thing is that there is no bad guy but all these terrible things keep happening.
Whose idea was it for Nicole Kidman to play a former wrestler?
I think Nicole was originally drawn to playing the mediator in the book, which is a very different character than she plays. So it was about finding a way to replace the original lawyer in the book, with a character who was an ex-girlfriend of Jinx in wrestling — it kind of combined things. Everyone was fascinated by the idea of Nicole as a professional wrestler. Discovering her personality and backstory with Jinx was a lot of fun.
I think a lot of fans of the book will want to hear about the discussions surrounding the removal of the book’s romance with JB, Margo’s client.
The love story was dropped later. They tried to keep all of JB’s love story, but there was too much material. It was really annoying to go from some of the more dramatic moments to flirting on your phone. They’re not in the same room together, and you can do that kind of thing in novels but it only translates to the screen. We tried to make it work but it’s a very different medium.
