Tell Me Lies' Spencer House Wants Wrigley to Heal After Shocking Death
As Tell Me Lies continues to put Wrigley through the wringer, Spencer House's attempts to portray his character with care and respect has never been more clear.
"I really love Wrigley. I really love my role. I love the guy. And in the beginning, I remember [creator] Meaghan [Oppenheimer] and I talking because I don't really think there was a clear direction on where Wrigley was going to go," House, 32, exclusively told Us Weekly about his journey on the show. "I haven't read the book and part of the reason I didn't is because I hear that Wrigley is completely different and he's barely in it."
Taking a step back from the source material allowed House to develop his own take on Wrigley.
"We didn't really know what direction they were going to go in. And it was always very important to me — because I love Wrigley — to bring that honesty that we talked about to the work," the actor noted. "I am not a writer but there were moments where it's like, 'You could play this in a way where Wrigley is just a d—head or your average jock douche.'"
House, however, always knew there was more depth to Wrigley.
"I never wanted to play it that way. I talked to Meaghan — and, thankfully, she would agree — so I got very lucky with Meaghan as a boss in that kind of aspect. I never wanted that to be Wrigley," he admitted. "I didn't want him to be just, like, the jock douche stereotype that treats everyone poorly. I saw him originally as a good guy, and I'm glad that that's kind of gone in that direction. He is not perfect, but I'm glad that it's gone in that direction."
Based on Carola Lovering's book of the same name, Tell Me Lies is set at a fictional college in 2007 and chronicles the toxic relationship between Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White) over the course of eight years. The hit Hulu series also explores Lucy and Stephen's friend group as they get affected by their tumultuous romance.
When fans first met Wrigley, he was Stephen's friend and a star on the football field who formed a casual relationship with Lucy's friend Pippa (Sonia Mena). His life slowly started to unravel after his stepbrother Drew (Benjamin Wadsworth) was involved in a deadly car crash, which Stephen was at fault for but conveniently kept a secret.
Wrigley, who isn't in the best emotional headspace, realized at the end of season 2 that he has been battling depression.
"In 2008 — now — I don't think things have really changed all that much [when it comes to conversations around mental health]. I think we say it has, but from a personal standpoint everyone in the beginning phases of dealing with depression feels pretty alone," House explained. "That's a big part of it. There is more awareness, which is great, but I would never say that it's any easier if you're in that position now."
The mission for House — and the writers' room — was depicting the story as "truthfully" as possible.
"This guy has always had life go his way. Now he's feeling these things and he doesn't know what to do with it. And instead of confronting it and reaching out to others for help, he stifles it and he pushes it down," House noted. "That only goes so far. Sure enough, it's like a slow spiral to the top as the season goes on. Meaghan and I wanted to make that very honest."
As if things couldn't get any worse, Drew came back into Wrigley's life in the season 2 finale, but their reconciliation didn't last long . A night out took a turn when Drew mixed alcohol with some pills Wrigley gave him and ultimately died from an overdose.
"I figured Drew was going to die — I think we all did — but they kept that from me for a while," House shared with Us. "Then once I learned how he dies, it did affect the 2015 storyline. Just with how we talked about [Wrigley] being drunk is a little darker, and there's a lot more weight to it."
Looking again, House can see Wrigley blaming himself for the rest of his life, adding, "He does kill him. It's not on purpose. And people who work on the show will disagree with me, but Wrigley is with his brother at a bar. He gives him a pill that he's not prescribed and it kills him. So he does kill his brother. He doesn't mean to, but that is a thing he's always going to carry with him for the rest of his life."
Tell Me Lies uses dual timelines to show the ups and downs during everyone's college days — in addition to checking in on them in the future. For House, that has been a complicated process because of how little emotional progress Wrigley has made so far.
"Writing wise, we haven't really dived into Wrigley that much in the 2015 story line. So it's not that hard to go back and forth because usually in that story line, I just have either a funny quip or I say something that's more expositional," he detailed. "I do have Drew in mind in 2015 and that's what makes sense to me because the drunkenness gets a little bit more sloppy and a little more dark. But a lot of the stuff I do is pretty expositional in 2015."
Seeing that Wrigley doesn't get to a better place — yet — has made House question whether Wrigley could get to a place of healing , saying, "That's the unfortunate thing about these flash forwards and these flashbacks is that already he doesn't. So in a third season it would be difficult to be like, 'Is Wrigley going to rise from this?' We already know that he's not."
He continued: "I felt like this season was a spiral but now I don't know where they're going to go. Can you do another spiral for a whole season? I don't really know but we do know that he doesn't get better. So I think they have the work cut out for them."
House didn't rule anything out though, especially after hearing Us' theory about Tell Me Lies flashing forward even more to check in with Wrigley. There's also the topic of Wrigley's relationship with Pippa , which came to an end in season 1 but has since rekindled. Drew's death made the exes press pause again, but there's still six more years left unaccounted for with the fan-favorite fictional couple.
"I like Wrigley and Pippa because it's so common at that age. These two are not bad people. They're just young and they're trying to make it work. But they don't know what they're doing so it's like they're running into brick walls every day and not understanding why they're doing," he shared. "With Stephen and Lucy, a lot of it is shocking. But Wrigley and Pippa aren't malicious."
Tell Me Lies season 2 revealed that Pippa ultimately finds love with Diana (Alicia Crowder), which didn't surprise House.
"I called it and it was funny. But I'm rooting for Wrigley. I'm rooting for Wrigley and Pippa as individuals to find their own path," he said. "But it's a disaster [between them] and it's got to play out. You have to play that out and see it through."
Since Tell Me Lies hasn't been renewed for season 3 yet, House is just focused on the current season and the work he put into the show.
"My job is to tackle Wrigley — not everyone else — or the whole grand scheme of things. Wrigley is my job so I sympathize with him, really have his back and try to make him as natural and realistic as possible," he told Us. "It is funny to go into season 2 and to be doing a scene and you completely have his back. Then there's that little voice in your head that's like, 'Oh, people might judge him for this.' You got to get rid of that voice because I don't want to judge him for this or else the scene won't be good."
Tell Me Lies is currently streaming on Hulu.
