It’s not all bad news, however, as Big Love stars Chloë Sevigny and Bill Paxton did appear at the Emmys HBO After Party later that evening, a couple of pictures of which have been uploaded to the gallery. Here’s also a video clip from the event with a glimpse of Chloë:

Update Aug 31: More than 50 new medium- and hi-res photo additions from this event have been uploaded to the gallery. Chloë wore a leopard-print Lanvin Pre-Fall 2010 dress paired with black Christian Louboutin booties.

New Photo Albums:

• Appearances in 2010 > 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards HBO After Party on Aug 29

LOS ANGELES—When we recently interviewed the two wives of a senator, the resulting conversation was amusing and uninhibited. We also talked to the senator and his third wife together—our chat was just as interesting, but nothing can top the banter between two women married to the same guy while he was not around.

These polygamists are Bill Henrickson, Barb Henrickson, Nicki Grant and Margene Heffman, also known as the characters played respectively by Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin on HBO’s Big Love.

Chloë and Ginnifer together were a hoot, as they dished on their polygamous TV family, their what-were-they-thinking paparazzi shots and what overzealous fans of the series tell them. Bill and Jeanne were more circumspect. In both interviews, Will Scheffer, the show’s cocreator, cowriter and coproducer, sat on the side and gave comments.

Below are excerpts of our laughter-punctuated interviews, held a day before they began filming the fifth season:

What kind of reaction have you been getting about the show?

Ginnifer Goodwin (GG): I’ve gotten very positive reaction. I tend to get the same reaction from women. I’m thanked quite often because, as the women always say—as if they all had come together and decided they were going to have this joint answer, “My husband or boyfriend wanted to bring someone else into the bedroom—until we watched your show.”

I walked out of a salon, and a guy driving on the street stopped his car, got out, and said, “Margene!”

Chloë Sevigny (CS): I was somewhere the other day, and someone called me “Nicki!” like he was mad, and I was like, “Oh, that’s me!” It turned out that there was someone else named Nicki in the room.

What would you like to see happen on the series?

GG: I’d like to see us go to Hawaii.

CS: I like it when scenes flip-flop. Like in a sequence, I’ll be really warm to Margene, then she’ll do something that irritates me. I’ll snap at her because, sometimes, that’s how you react to people in your family. I feel like those scenes are real. I’d like to see Bill get his comeuppance. He gets away with far too much.

GG: I do, too.

CS: I’d like him to suffer a little bit for all that he’s done, and to get some retribution. That’s what I’d really like. Men shouldn’t get away with that much stuff. The women are always suffering. I feel like he should, too.

GG: I know. He doesn’t really get punished. He gets away with murder.

CS: I feel like he’s very evil. You probably think he’s such a great guy. We’re talking about the character, by the way.

GG: We’re not talking about Bill Paxton.

Chloë, talk about your character’s relationship with her daughter.

CS: What I’ve heard through rumors in the costume department, which is where we get all our information, is that Nicki is going to become more conservative. Seeing how the world affects a young person and how much evil there is in music and television, and how tempting sex and everything else is, Nicki becomes more conservative in her thinking to protect her daughter, which is something that I might do as a parent—to shelter children as long as I can until they have to be adults.

Ginnifer, is your character really attracted to her stepson, Ben?

GG: That was a big question. I was positive that Margene wasn’t going to end up being attracted to her stepson. So, I was shocked when I got the script where she kisses Ben. I took it that Margene was feeling especially lonely and abandoned and got carried away, more than there was any kind of sexual attraction.

What’s the worst thing you’ve read about yourself?

CS: I feel like the Internet contains the worst things! At the last Golden Globes, when the man who escorted me to the stage tore my gown (he accidentally stepped on it), the whole room gasped, and everybody noticed it. I said, “I can’t believe you tore my dress.” People were attacking me for saying that. By the way, Valentino still hasn’t returned the gown, which they said they were going to repair.

GG: We did hear all of that from the back of the room.

Can you talk about the paparazzi and the tabloid stories about stars’ fashion tastes?

CS: “What was she thinking?” is a big phrase that always comes up. My mom always gets those “What was she thinking?” photos, and she puts them on the fridge. I was like, “Mom, don’t you realize they’re making fun of me?” She says, “I like it. I think you look cute!”

GG: I’m trying to get my mom to stop reading that. But, she gets excited because she’s like, “Oh, it’s a window into my daughter’s life.” Like, my mom found a picture of my sister and I walking down the street in New York. I was like, “Mom, you’re supporting the industry that’s invading my privacy. They climb on the hood of my car to take pictures.” She answers, “I know, but I got a little glimpse of my girls walking down the street in New York.”

Have you thought about the end for these characters?

William Scheffer (WS): I think we know how it’s going to end. When you get to the fifth season, you start looking toward pulling things in. It’s like past the midpoint of a typical HBO series’ life. So, you’re really looking toward where you’re growing. We pretty much started to move toward that.

The family’s polygamy secret is going to come out. How is that going to impact your characters?

Bill Paxton (BP): So far, all I know is the first episode, which we’ll shoot tomorrow. It hits me like a brick in the face: This guy’s going to face the fire. I don’t want to give anything away.

WS: The first episode is always okay to give away.

BP: We have left town, and we take our younger children. We’re camping out in the wilderness…

WS: Just for the weekend.

BP: …To let the media hype simmer down. Then, we come back to our house. Obviously, a “circus” has been played through. Our neighbors say, “Thanks for giving us some warning.” Bill has a lot of belief in himself and in the goodness of people. He’s thinking if he can just keep ahead of this thing. But, every step of the way, I’m just getting slapped in the face. It’s going to be tough, and there’s no easy solution to it. I don’t know where it’s all going.

Jeanne Tripplehorn (JT): In this season, I wouldn’t say we’re coming full circle. But, in the first season, it was about the family really sticking together, because we had a secret. At the start of this season, everybody knows our secret—so, we’re forced to come together again, because we have to protect ourselves from everybody who knows the secret!

New Photo Albums:

• Appearances in 2010 > ‘Big Love’ Beverly Hills Press Conference on Jul 12

Big Love, the series itself, on the other hand, was able to nab a couple of noms, and is up for an Emmy in the following categories; from Emmys.com:

Outstanding Casting For A Drama Series
• Big Love (HBO)
• Dexter (Showtime)
• Friday Night Lights (DirecTV)
• The Good Wife (CBS)
• Mad Men (AMC)
• True Blood (HBO)

Outstanding Guest Actress In A Drama Series
• Big Love, “The Mighty And The Strong” – Mary Kay Place as Adaleen Grant
• Big Love, “End Of Days” – Sissy Spacek as Marilyn Densham
• The Cleaner, “Does Everybody Have A Drink?” – Shirley Jones as Lola Zellman
• Damages, “Your Secrets Are Safe” – Lily Tomlin as Marilyn Tobin
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, “Bedtime” – Ann-Margret as Rita Wills
• Lost, “The End” – Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet Burke

Congratulations to Mary Kay Place and Sissy Spacek for their well-deserved nominations! Anyone else feel like using the word ’snub’ with emphasis regarding Chloë, though? Again. How very boring.

As many of you will surely remember, a couple of months ago Chloë Sevigny made headlines when she was cited in an online interview with The A.V. Club as having described the most recent season of Big Love as “awful”. As a result of the media frenzy that followed it, she later quickly retracted her comments in a statement/apology to Michael Ausiello @ Entertainment Weekly.

Although the fuss has long since died down, the subject was apparently brought up again in a recent Los Angeles Times interview with Chloë’s Big Love co-star Amanda Seyfried (aka. “Sarah”), who had the following thoughts to share on the incident:

And what does she have to say about her former cast mate Chloë Sevigny, who notoriously called the show’s fourth season “awful” and “very telenovela”?

“Oh, gosh,” she sighed. “We all make mistakes like that and say things that people take out of context. She was probably saying, ‘Oh, that’s awful,’ because she was probably envisioning herself on the show and saying how bad she thought she was. I don’t think she was saying anything bad about the show itself.”

As far as the 24-year-old is aware, Sevigny didn’t burn any bridges by making the remark.

“As long as she ties it up and calls everybody and apologizes for whatever she did, everybody’s cool,” Seyfried said. “She and the writers are all good. It’s not a big deal. I just felt so bad for her because I was like, ‘Ahh, it’s so easy to be in that situation.’ ”

Seyfried, who left the show as a series regular at the end of Season 4, also talks about why she departed from the show and hints at likely upcoming guest appearances.

Yesterday, we posted a link to the A.V.Club interview with Chloë Sevigny that’s been making big headlines in the press lately. The ruckus that followed the publication of the interview has to do with Chloë’s critical view on the colorful fourth season of HBO’s Big Love, the star of which she is alongside Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin, which she expressed accordingly in the interview.

The relevant interview excerpts from AVClub.com:

The A.V. Club: This past season of Big Love has taken a lot of flak for being so over-the-top.
Chloë Sevigny: It was awful this season, as far as I’m concerned. I’m not allowed to say that! [Gasps.] It was very telenovela. I feel like it kind of got away from itself. The whole political campaign seemed to me very farfetched. I mean, I love the show, I love my character, I love the writing, but I felt like they were really pushing it this last season. And with nine episodes, I think they were just squishing too much in. HBO only gave us nine Sundays, because they have so much other original programming—especially with The Pacific—and they only have a certain amount of Sundays per year, so we only got nine Sundays. I think that they had more story than episodes. I think that’s what happened.

[...] Me and the girls [Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin] definitely were not very happy with where it was going—or more kind of, “We really hope it’s going to work. It seems like they’re really pushing it.” I think next season, they’re going to go back to more just the family. I think that the stuff with Ben and Lois and that stuff was really great in Mexico, but… [Laughs.]

[...] AVC: Like how J.J.’s trying to inject her with an incest baby?
CS: Oh God, I know. Oh, God. It’s too much. It’s too much. But I hope the fans will stick with us and tune in next year. There’s a lot of people who really love this season, surprisingly. God, I’m going to get in so much trouble. [Laughs.]

Since the interview was published a few days ago, a ton(!) of press outlets have picked up and flagged the above comments, causing such an uproar in the media that it has prompted both the HBO and Chloë to react (and retract). First, the HBO issued this official statement via Entertainment Weekly:

“We were surprised to read the comments and knowing Chloe we trust these were taken out of context. The fans thoroughly enjoyed this past season and, like them, we look forward to another exciting year from [co-creators] Will [V. Olsen], and Mark [Scheffer].”

This was shortly followed by a statement from Chloë herself, when she reportedly called up Michael Ausiello of EW to explain herself. Her full chat with Ausiello, as follows:

Having a rough day?
CHLOË SEVIGNY: A little bit. I feel pretty terrible.

What happened? Why’d you say it?
SEVIGNY: [Long pause] I feel like what I said was taken out of context, and the [reporter] I was speaking to was provoking me. I was in Austin [at the SXSW festival] and really exhausted and doing a press junket and I think I just… I wasn’t thinking about what I was saying. You know, after a day of junkets sometimes things slip out that you don’t mean, and I obviously didn’t mean what I said in any way, shape, or form. I love being on the show. I have nothing but respect and admiration for our writers and everybody involved with the show. It’s been the greatest opportunity of my lifetime so far — the best role I’ve ever played, the best part I’ve ever had the opportunity to portray. So I love the show. I think it’s the greatest show on television. I think it’s the weirdest show. I think it is very complex and the content is amazing and it’s just very ironic that this statement would come out and blow so out of control. Because I feel absolutely the opposite. It is difficult being on a show for several seasons and having no control and having things go in different directions where you didn’t think they would go. But that’s also the most exciting part [because] they keep the character really fresh and there’s new scenarios that they come up with.

The fact is, many people were let down by last season. You didn’t really say anything that hasn’t already been said by a lot of fans and critics. Is it possible there was some grain of truth to your remarks and perhaps it just came out too harsh?
SEVIGNY: Maybe it did come out too harsh. I especially think the third season was so strong, and obviously we only had nine episodes so we couldn’t really explore as much this season, so maybe that was part of it. And I really haven’t seen the whole season because I don’t have a television. I’ve only seen about half of it, so I couldn’t even really comment having not been able to see it all the way through.

What was your primary concern when this whole thing broke yesterday?
SEVIGNY: My first concern was I didn’t want HBO or Will [Scheffer] and Mark [V. Olsen], the creators of our show, to think that I was biting the hand that feeds me because I obviously love the show and have always been nothing but positive about it. And I didn’t want anybody to misunderstand me or think that I wasn’t, you know, appreciative. I don’t want to be one of those actresses that complains about her work because I love my work and I love being on the show. I just feel like it’s like one small quote out of a million positive ones that’s just really biting me in the ass. And I feel really terrible. And I called Will and Mark and apologized profusely.

What was their reaction?
SEVIGNY: They accepted my apology. We have a great mutual respect for one another, and they know my work ethic, how I treat other people at work and them, and how I never contest anything they write for me. I’m always willing [to perform what's written]. Even if I have a little trouble with something, they’ll explain it to me in a way that makes perfect sense. So I think that what was so surprising for all of us is that I never really complain or have any problems with anything. I think I was just exhausted in Austin and just spoke out of line and said something that wasn’t really how I was really feeling.

How did the conversation go? Was it short? Long?
SEVIGNY: It was long. We talked it out. We talked for a while. [Laughs] I was a sob case, of course. I haven’t slept all night because if they said something about me, if they made a statement that they were disappointed in my work, I would feel awful. I always feel, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” And I just feel it was very out of character. I feel really awful. I don’t know what else to say except that I’m really sorry, and I’m really proud of the show, and feel blessed to be a part of it.

Did they give you any assurances that the show would get its groove back in season 5?
SEVIGNY: They mentioned a little bit about what they were working on in the room. Their schedule is really tough. They’ve been working since we wrapped. They don’t even have the time to sit down and think and breathe for a second. You know, my heart goes out to them because they’re just working constantly. They work really hard, and I want them to know that I appreciate what they do for us and for the viewing public. I think it’s a great show.

Have you spoken to any of your co-stars?
SEVIGNY: I spoke to Ginnifer [Goodwin] this morning.

What did you say?
SEVIGNY: I just wanted her to know that I’m sorry if, you know, I dragged her into it in any way. And we talked about how much we love being on the show and how it’s hard work as an actress and how sometimes the press can swing things in a way that you don’t mean them to sound. She was very supportive of me.

Are you at all worried that Will and Mark will retaliate by throwing Nikki in front of a bus in the first episode back?
SEVIGNY: [Laughs] I don’t know. I mean, I think that the Big Love viewers love me. If [Will and Mark] think that [killing Nikki] benefits the story, than so be it. I’m a team player. I really am. I signed on for six seasons after only reading the pilot and meeting with them and believing in them and seeing their genius, and whatever they choose to do, I’m going to support them and do the best job I can do.

The takeaway lesson here?
SEVIGNY: [Laughs] The takeaway lesson here is just be more careful with my words and just slow down and breathe during junkets. And to not let journalist provoke me in ways that could be detrimental to others and myself.

Her statement was then quickly countered by the A.V. Club with this:

[...] fair enough. You were caught biting the hand that feeds you Golden Globes; probably best to blame your momentary lapse into candor on everything that’s beyond your control, such as exhaustion and the rigors of doing press junkets. But as the person who conducted said interview, I’m not really sure how a statement like “It was awful this season” can possibly be taken out of context. So while the interview is all there verbatim, and I would think most readers would recognize this as necessary spin, I’m including an audio snippet of our talk below.

CHLOË SEVIGNY INTERVIEW EXCERPT:

Talk about the press making a mountain out of a molehill! While I, personally, very much enjoyed a lot of what Season 4 had to offer, there are also a lot of people who felt the season was crammed with too many storylines and too little realism. Taken out of context or not, Chloë certainly won’t be the first or the last to call the series’ latest season “awful” in terms of the level of craziness. If anything, I thought she made a very pertinent comment about the direction of the show, and one that was clearly not aimed at anyone in specific (such as the writers), only the combination of elements that’s brought the show to where it is today. After all, Season 4 was, at times, pretty intensely wild. That’s something you can either take or leave.

Reading and listening to the interview segment (as embedded above; also available via AVClub.com), to me, what Chloë said in her interview to the A.V. Club was said casually and in a general good humor, which is quite apparent just reading the interview in full. This, of course, the media quite conveniently ignored in their own reports.

But these are, of course, only my thoughts on the subject. Either way, with pretty much every imaginable party having released their official, post-interview statements by now, I think we can stamp this with “Settled.”

Chloë Sevigny recently talked about her most recent work, including Barry Munday and Big Love, to The A.V. Club, the interview which is now available on their website. What many press and gossip outlets have found noteworthy about this interview, however, is the honest criticism Chloë directs towards the fourth season of Big Love, which wrapped up a couple of weeks ago. As most of you will know, Chloë recently won a Golden Globe for her role of Nicolette “Nicki” Grant on the show.

Although the full interview a AVClub.com is definitely worth a read as well, here’s the excerpt that’s been making the news these past few days:

AVC: This past season of Big Love has taken a lot of flak for being so over-the-top.
CS: It was awful this season, as far as I’m concerned. I’m not allowed to say that! [Gasps.] It was very telenovela. I feel like it kind of got away from itself. The whole political campaign seemed to me very farfetched. I mean, I love the show, I love my character, I love the writing, but I felt like they were really pushing it this last season. And with nine episodes, I think they were just squishing too much in. HBO only gave us nine Sundays, because they have so much other original programming—especially with The Pacific—and they only have a certain amount of Sundays per year, so we only got nine Sundays. I think that they had more story than episodes. I think that’s what happened.

AVC: It sort of became like Mormon Dynasty.
CS: [Laughs.] I know, I know. I’ve heard a lot of other things like that.

AVC: What was it like when they first laid out what they wanted to accomplish this season? What was your reaction?
CS: They don’t. We only get it episode to episode. We never know what’s going to happen in the next episode until we’re almost finished shooting the one we’re shooting at present. Me and the girls [Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin] definitely were not very happy with where it was going—or more kind of, “We really hope it’s going to work. It seems like they’re really pushing it.” I think next season, they’re going to go back to more just the family. I think that the stuff with Ben and Lois and that stuff was really great in Mexico, but… [Laughs.]

AVC: A part of the show’s initial appeal was how it at least tried to stay grounded in some semblance of reality. Now that it’s gotten away from that, how do you keep things from turning into self-parody?
CS: I guess I just focus on it from scene to scene. Like, “Why is she behaving like this in this scene?” She’s a very particular, peculiar character, when you think of her circumstances. And this season, she was going through an adolescence that she never had, acting out, and vicariously living through her daughter, and realizing stuff she missed out on, and trying to find herself with the different looks. I think it was a very complicated season for her. And you know, the whole relationship with the daughter, and then J.J. [Laughs.] There’s always so much going on.

AVC: Like how J.J.’s trying to inject her with an incest baby?
CS: Oh God, I know. Oh, God. It’s too much. It’s too much. But I hope the fans will stick with us and tune in next year. There’s a lot of people who really love this season, surprisingly. God, I’m going to get in so much trouble. [Laughs.]

AVC: Even before this season, Nicki has seemed like a really difficult character to play, because her behavior is always being influenced by other men, and what she wants tends to fluctuate. How does that affect your motivation?
CS: I mean, there’s not much I can do. It is how it’s written, and I have to work it out and figure out why she’s doing the things she is. The creators are very articulate, and they help us a lot. If we have questions, like “Why? What’s the motivation?” they can like [Snaps her fingers.] in a second tell you, and it makes complete sense. I don’t know if you’ve watched any of their post-show interviews, but they’re really bright men, and they make it all make sense in your head. I just try to think how she would react in a particular circumstance. I think like, going to D.C., she brought the gun because she read about D.C., and she thought it was the most violent town in America—which it is, one of the most violent cities in America. [Laughs.] Her having the gun doesn’t seem that farfetched to me.

Well, I for one loved my weekly dose of Mormon Dynasty this season! So much fun. (Right up until the crazy finale anyway.)

Another movie blog that caught up with Chloë Sevigny at the SXSW 2010 Festival last weekend was CinemaBlend, from which the resulting article is now available for reading online. In the interview, Chloë talks in particularly great depth about working on Barry Munday and her character Jennifer Farley, but although some of it is stuff we’ve already read in previous SXSW interviews, there’s a lot of new insight here into the character and how Chloë portrayed her. She also relates working on a film to working on Big Love in an interesting way as well as talks about the downsides to working on a TV series.

Read the article in full at CinemaBlend.com; excerpts follow:

Chloe Sevigny has certainly made her mark on Hollywood, from controversial turns in Boys Don’t Cry and The Brown Bunny to her continuing role as polygamist wife Nicolette on HBO’s Big Love. One thing she hasn’t done much of is straight-up comedy, an oversight she is looking to correct with her role in Barry Munday. Sevigny appears as Jennifer Farley, the overly flirty, golden-child sister to Judy Greer’s Ginger. While she only spent a week or so shooting her part, Sevigny gives it her all, playing under-the-table footsie with Patrick Wilson’s Barry during an awkward family dinner, working a stripper pole as a dancer who may or may not be Jennifer, and selling the affection for Ginger that hides underneath their continuous sniping and name-calling. During the Barry Munday press junket at SXSW, Chloe sat down with us to talk about the challenges of making your mark with a little screen time, the differences between feature and series work, and why Judy Greer should star in every Hollywood movie.

[...] How did you approach the character once you’d decided to take the role?
I mean, she’s a supporting character, a small part in the film, but I just tried to figure out what her relationship with the other people was in the film, with her father and with Judy’s character. You just have fun with it and try to react how you think the character would react to the scenes.

How much freedom did you guys have as far as ad-libbing? Was it pretty straight off the script?
It was pretty straight. I think Patrick and Judy did a lot of that, but for most of us it was pretty straight off the script. Most of it was shot with pretty static wide shots, and it was pretty true.

Was there anything in the film or your performance that you thought worked better than you had anticipated?
Oh, I thought everything was terrible. I thought I was terrible. [laughs] I feel like I could have been bigger, I could have been broader. I tend to, in film, kind of play things smaller.

I thought that worked, though. Even when you were playing the broader moments, you still had the more subtle stuff going on as well.
I was really nervous, and I wish I had been more confident. When I watch my performance I can see I’m holding back. I wish I had been more at ease. I’ve been shooting Big Love for so long, this is the first film I’ve done in a while, so I was getting out of that comfort zone and I feel like I was a little shook up.

[...] Do you think you’ll want to do more series work after Big Love wraps up?
No, it’s too grueling. If we shot in New York I wouldn’t be opposed to it, but we shoot in Los Angeles, and I live in New York. It’s really hard to be uprooted for six months, and I miss home a lot. I’d prefer to go back to film.

How is it different preparing for a series role that’s day in, day out, as opposed to something like this where you have so little time involved?
I think it’s just a lot more pressure to make the scenes work when you’re doing a film, because when you’re doing a series you feel like, I have so many scenes, so many episodes, so if I don’t get it exactly right this time, I have another scene later. You feel less pressure. And of course I’ve been playing the character for so long, I feel very comfortable. There’s so much to feed on and so much backstory and so much true-life experience to draw upon from other people’s eyes. There’s just so much information about the character and the people who live these lifestyles, so much to draw on. I find it much more difficult to play a supporting part like in this film. It’s much more of a challenge to portray and to feel like you’re bringing something.

HollywoodNews.com has an interesting piece on the film up on their website, with some new comments from the festival screening of the film from Chloë Sevigny and director Chris D’Arienzo regarding Chloë’s supporting role in the comedy as Jennifer Farley. According to the website, the film is currently seeking distribution.

Read the article in full at HollywoodNews.com; extract follows:

“I still don’t think I’m that comedic in this film,” Chloe Sevigny said with a laugh.

That’s not exactly what you want to hear from the star of a comedy. But Sevigny, in all honesty, might be the sixth or seventh funniest person in the all-star Barry Munday ensemble, which includes Judy Greer, Cybill Shepherd, Patrick Wilson, Malcolm McDowell, Missi Pyle, Colin Hanks, Christopher MacDonald, Kyle Gass, Jean Smart and Lando Calrissian himself, Mr. Billy Dee Williams.

And she’d be the first to admit that. “It was very challenging and very intimidating, especially because (co-stars Wilson and Greer) were so funny,” said Sevigny, an Oscar nominee and recent Golden Globe winner for her role on HBO’s Big Love. “I’ve been playing this character, Nicolette, (on Big Love) for so long that I’m so comfortable there. I hadn’t been doing a lot of films because of the schedule with HBO that then when I work on a film like Barry Munday, I am just terrified to be out of my comfort zone. I’m just, like, so scared!”

She overcame her fear to play Jennifer, the beautiful and flirtatious sister of Greer’s homely character, Ginger, in Chris D’Arienzo’s comedy. “For me, Ginger’s sister, Jennifer, needed to be the coolest person. And I was like, ‘Well, who is the coolest person?’ It’s Chloe,” said D’Arienzo.

But Sevigny was hesitant, even though she adored D’Arienzo’s screenplay about a woefully injured man (Wilson) who can’t remember impregnating a geeky woman (Greer). “I have never been in a kind of straight up comedy before,” Sevigny said. “But it’s something that I have been attracted to and have wanted to do for a long time, but haven’t had that many opportunities presented to me. When this one came around, I just jumped at the opportunity.”

I love the way Chloë always talks about her role on Big Love in this sort of introductory way, as if thinking no one’s ever heard of it… So cute and unassuming!

“When I thought I couldn’t have children, I thought Heavenly Father had forsaken me. Because of some things that had happened. Things I’d done.”
- Nicolette “Nicki” Grant

Our final recap of the season! Hopefully, y’all were able to tune in last Sunday to the exciting Season 4 finale of Big Love, the critically acclaimed HBO polygamist drama series starring Chloë Sevigny opposite Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin. Here’s our recap of episode 4.09 “End of Days”, concluding the series’ fourth season; more under the cut (and please mouseover to read). As most of you will know, Big Love has been renewed for a fifth season. The recap:

When Nicki, still entertaining her new style, visits her ex-husband JJ to return their daughter Cara Lynn for a momentary stay, she is surprised to hear from JJ’s first wife that her mother Adaleen has supposedly left for Kansas to deliver her child. JJ’s wife’s vagueness about the specifics, however, instantly raises Nicki’s suspicions and she quickly leaves with Cara Lynn in tow. Her suspicions are more than justified as it is then revealed that JJ and his wife are forcing JJ’s doctor-son Roquet to keep Adaleen in a sedated state, to prevent her from escaping and blowing the lid off JJ’s actions. When Nicki later tells Bill of Adaleen’s disappearance, Bill himself goes up to see JJ and tells him that until Adaleen is recovered JJ is not allowed to see his daughter. Powerless, JJ is visibly displeased at Bill’s ultimatum, and he calls his daughter to connive her into visiting him. Cara Lynn, however, seems unwilling to return to his care, and she later tells Nicki she doesn’t want to go back to her father for the time being.

In an effort to shake off the looming shadow of Marilyn Densham, Bill tries to scare Congressman Paley into putting pressure on Marilyn so that she might stop her hounding of Bill. This is soon followed by a visit at the campaign office from Marilyn, but despite her appeals Bill remains unconvinced regarding her supposed genuineness and good intentions, and it appears Marilyn no longer has any cards to play. Meanwhile, Nicki is increasingly blatantly trying to push Barb off the “first wife” platform. When Barb takes notice and expresses her dismay to Margie, the latter lets it inadvertently slip that Nicki is infertile.

Back at the casino, Leila, the young Indian woman Barb and Sarah accidentally bumped with their car, makes an unexpected reappearance selling meth on the premises, but when Barb wants to bring in the police, Leila tells her she is protected by the Flutes. When Barb then confronts Tommy on the matter, Tommy confesses to her that Leila is his niece, and that regardless of everything they must keep it in the family. But when Barb tells him that with Bill’s plans to out his polygamy she can’t let him or Leila endanger the casino license, Tommy is able to counter by questioning if being outed is really what Barb wants. Barb finds herself unable to answer.

Meanwhile, Wanda, now staying with Nicki, is still not communicating with anyone. According to Nicki, a doctor has ruled it to be the result of emotional trauma, but how it’s come about is unknown. Joey remains at large in Mexico. Nicki then receives bads news via phone when Dr. Roquet, who’s also been treating Nicki’s infertility, unexpectedly tells her he has had to “revise his opinion” and that he now believes pregnancy “isn’t an option” for her. Nicki is mortified, but later that evening, when the wives argue about Nicki and her IVF-treatment options, they’re interrupted by a brick thrown through the window. When Bill quickly chases down the “vandal” he is revealed as being Gary, Don Embry’s son, furious at Bill for forcing Don to out his polygamy and for “ruining” his life. When Don comes to pick up his son, the strain Don’s sacrifice has put on Bill and Don’s friendship is apparent.

Alongside the family happenings, Bill has been keenly following legal developments in Kansas, where polygamists have been indicted on suspicion of incest. Bill is disgusted at the same time as he suspects JJ might be involved. Watching a news report on the subject with Bill, Barb raises her concerns about going public with their polygamy at such a time as this, but Bill defers her arguments. The situation however, gets increasingly out of control when the Walkers are implicated in the media, which Bill feels is too close to home, and even he begins to doubt whether outing them would serve its original purpose anymore.

Back at the campaign office, just as Bill begins to feel his senate seat campaign is a winning one, he is surprised by a TV reporter, who’s somehow received the information that Ana is carrying Bill’s child. Ana denies telling the press about the baby in any way and Bill immediately smells Marilyn all over the whole business, but when he pays Marilyn a visit to ask her to back off, Marilyn appears not entirely on track of what he’s talking about, though she covers it well. When the evening news then eventually don’t break the story, Barb reveals to the others that it was she who leaked the story to the press, not Marilyn, and therein, the extent of her disapproval of Bill’s plans to out them as his wives. Nicki, Bill and Margie are astounded. Meanwhile, Margie tells Ana that she wants a divorce from Goran, but not so much because of Bill than because she is attracted to her new husband. Ana, however, appears surprisingly understanding of Margie’s emotional dilemma.

Election Day arrives, but although maintaining their cool in public Bill and Barb are now on anything but friendly terms. Adding to the tension between them, Barb is furious when she finds out that Bill has had Tommy and Jerry Flute removed from the casino management as a result of their cover-up of Leila’s illicit actions when Barb had explicitly promised Tommy that she and Bill would help them. Bill counters by saying that the Flutes had jeopardized the future of the casino with their actions, and is incensed at Barb’s accusations of ambushing the Flutes when she had in fact herself done the same to Bill only yesterday.

Back home, Nicki receives a second surprise call from Dr. Roquet, who now claims to have actually misread Nicki’s file, and that not only is she not irreversibly infertile, she is in fact pregnant. Nicki is beside herself with joy, unaware that the phone call has been staged by JJ. When an elated Nicki leaves for the compound for a supposed new set of treatments, Wanda tries to desperately protest, but is still unable to use her voice. Meanwhile, over at Barb’s, Marilyn pays Bill another surprise visit and tells him a bitter Tommy and Jerry Flute have revealed to her the truth about Bill’s polygamy, even if, with the polls having closed, it no longer gives her leverage on him. Marilyn is enraged at having been duped into putting him in office, and discredits his entire religion and lifestyle in front of him and Ben. Bill patiently obliges her while Barb listens in.

When Marilyn leaves, Wanda suddenly appears, having finally found her ability to speak, and tells Bill of the danger Nicki is in; how JJ keeps his family “pure” by stealing the eggs of Walker women and replanting them. At the same time at Dr. Roquet’s surgery, Nicki is sedated and JJ takes the reigns, intending to plant Cara Lynn’s egg inside the defenseless Nicki. But before he gets so far as to the procedure, Adaleen appears, having overtaken JJ’s wife, and Nicki recovers enough from her drug-induced state to stab JJ in the back. Only moments later, Bill also arrives, having gotten Alby’s wife Laura to tell him the location of the surgery (though with no help from Nicki’s brother Alby, now borderline psychotic), and Nicki is saved in the nick of time, even if JJ is able to make his escape.

When Nicki is safely returned home, the wives and Bill receive the news of Bill’s victory with conflicting emotions. Bill and Barb then sit down to quietly discuss their future, and Barb tells him she thinks she wants “a different life” for herself, away from Bill. Leaving the conversation, Barb then looks on as Margie cuts Nicki’s braided hair short, as if she was looking at the soon-to-be new first wife.

At the compound, a vindictive Adaleen, irreconcilably bitter at JJ having implanted someone else’s egg in her, gets her own back when she burns JJ and his wife alive inside Dr. Roquet’s surgery. At the same time elsewhere, Bill finally completes his political journey to the senate and goes public with his polygamy during a press conference on the steps of Capitol Hill. In front of an astounded audience of press representatives and onlookers (including Don Embry), Bill introduces each of his wives (including Barb) to the public one by one and vows to tackle both the misconceptions regarding polygamy and the injustice and darkness that surrounds its most extreme form.

Well… that was some ride, the finale. Personally, in a lot of ways, this was the weakest episode of the season in the sense that the crazy level was just a little too high for my liking. On the other hand, this episode may have also brought a lot of those crazy storylines to an end, and we might look forward to a more coherent Season 5, especially with Bill now being not only a politician but a public polygamist, which I’m pretty sure will present a good many and colorful problems to each and everyone in the Henrickson household. Also, I hope you noticed the score towards the end of the episode, which was really quite beautifully haunting and ominous. In fact, the score and choice of music has been borderline genius throughout this season.

As per last year, I’ve written up a few questions regarding the future of the Henricksons & co. that remain unanswered:

• How will the Henricksons deal with being public polygamists? Will there be a violent response and can the family (the wives, the children) handle it? Will Bill be prosecuted for his polygamy? Will his political and public support crumble to pieces with his outing?
• Will Barb stay with Bill to face Marilyn’s predicted “shitstorm” or find a different life with someone else, perhaps Tommy Flute, to whom she appeared increasingly partial this season?
• If faced with the decision, will Margie really be able to let go of her business without it feeling like a sacrifice of independence?
• Will Margie find a new (collective) family for herself in the (oddly?) inviting Ana and Goran?
• Although seemingly recovering from JJ’s assault, how will his borderline surreal attack on Nicki affect her in the future, and is she really irreversibly infertile?
• What will happen to Adaleen, having committed a double murder in burning JJ and his wife alive? Will she be able to come to terms with the fact that the child she carries isn’t really “hers?”
• Where is Joey? Will his involvement in Roman’s death once again come to haunt Bill and his family, especially now that he is a politician? How will Wanda cope without him?
• How deep does Alby’s mental breakdown run, and will he be able to function as the new self-proclaimed Prophet despite his increasing erraticism?
• Is Marilyn Densham now really as toothless as she appears, or will she continue her efforts to bring Bill down?
• With Bill now being a fellow public polygamist, will he be able to reconcile with Don Embry?
• How will JJ’s death affect Cara Lynn?
• Will we ever see DA Ray Henry again?
• What about the Greenes back in Mexico? Will the recent incident with them make a unwelcome reappearance in Bill’s future dealings?

What were your thoughts on this season overall? Personally, I hugely enjoyed most of what this season had to offer, even if the effect of the limited number of episodes was rather apparent in some of the season’s crammed storylines. Chloë Sevigny once again shone in her role as Nicki throughout the season, and in the early Season 4 episodes in particular (of which 4.02 “The Greater Good” and 4.06 “Under One Roof” were surely highlights with their respective unforgettable Nicki moments). Ginnifer Goodwin also stood out this season imo, particularly towards its end, as did Bill Paxton and Mary Kay Place.

Finally, here’s our media coverage from last Sunday’s finale. The gallery has been updated with 547 HD screen captures of Chloë Sevigny’s appearance in the episode + promotional stills from episodes 4.09 and 4.08, while 14 site-exclusive video clips have been uploaded to the media archive. We still have the season’s first two episodes to find and cap in HD; we’ll do our best to get those for you as soon as possible.

All clips are in .MOV format, which is playable in e.g. VLC and QuickTime. Although our photo gallery is open for everyone, please remember you must be a registered and logged in media archive user to access our collection of video clips; unlogged users will not be able to view said material. Registration at our media archive is free and only takes a moment. Thank you.

New Media Albums:

• Photos > Television Work > ‘Big Love’ Episode 4.08 Promotional Stills
• Photos > Television Work > ‘Big Love’ Episode 4.09 Promotional Stills
• Photos > Television Work > ‘Big Love’ Episode 4.09 Screen Captures
• Videos > Television Work > ‘Big Love’ Episode 4.09 Video Clips