‘The Morning Present’ Star Greta Lee Confirms Stella’s Present Exit

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the sixth episode of season four of The Morning Show, “If Then.”]

Stella Bak has exited The Morning Present, stage left.

The fan-favorite character performed by Greta Lee, who joined the Emmy-winning Apple TV sequence in season two, has exited the sequence. Within the sixth episode of season 4, titled “If Then,” Stella’s gamble with AI implodes when the CEO of the media firm on the coronary heart of the sequence suffers a public breakdown that, in case you ask showrunner Charlotte Stoudt, was a very long time coming.

“I used to be excited by Stella as an individual who grew up in tech, who all the time considered tech as one thing like a superpower that would improve her. What occurs when tech turns into a method to look within the mirror and ask, who am I actually? Am I on the fitting path?” Stoudt just lately advised THR about writing Lee’s closing episode.

After Stella’s affair with the husband (Aaron Pierre) of her new boss Celine Dumont (performed by Marion Cotillard) is uncovered throughout a malfunctioning presentation in regards to the firm’s new gamble into AI, the CEO walks out on the media empire she had been so dedicated to rebuilding, and hopes to fulfill Celine’s husband on the airport for a getaway. However in the end Stella is jilted on the airport, and he or she walks onto the aircraft alone along with her future left unwritten.

“It was very emotional [filming her final scene]. Simply interested by it, I tear up. It was very laborious to depart her, regardless that it was time for Stella to go rediscover some a part of herself, and he or she couldn’t do this at UBN,” explains Stoudt of Stella’s goodbye. “She needed to get on that aircraft by herself. While you actually are at a crossroads, individuals can help you, however you may’t have a buddy. It’s a must to should determine it out by your self.”

After talking with Stoudt, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Lee herself to search out out what precipitated the in-demand actor’s exit from the sequence (she’s additionally at the moment starring in Tron: Ares) and the way she imagines her character’s highway to rediscovery as she confirms her sequence farewell: “It was time for her to go,” she explains under.

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After I spoke to Charlotte Stoudt, she mentioned that is the top for Stella on the present. I need to hear it from you… that is your exit from the present?

That is the primary time I’m saying it out loud however yeah, that is the top. That is goodbye.

I hate this!

I do know, it’s horrible!

I figured Stella would return in some unspecified time in the future later within the season. [Note: Four episodes remain.]

I do know, I do know. It’s stunning. However, that is it. That is the top of the highway for her, and I really feel all types of issues. We’re with these characters for therefore lengthy, it’s surreal. I haven’t been in a position to say something as a result of I didn’t need to spoil it, however I’ve identified for a while now that that is the top of the highway for her and that is her goodbye.

What was your dialog like with Charlotte going into this fourth season? While you came upon this was her arc — how did you react?

There have been a whole lot of elements. After all, I might have cherished to have stayed on indefinitely. That is like household to me. I moved to L.A. due to this present a couple of years in the past from New York. I had my infants whereas doing the present and a lot has occurred. Nevertheless it received to the purpose the place it simply wasn’t doable. These exhibits are such a dedication. We stored attempting and it simply received more durable and more durable, scheduling-wise, to be there, and to have the ability to hand over my assets and time to maintain being on the present. So this was the place we needed to land. I used to be like, “Effectively, I’ve this period of time whereas filming Tron and Late Fame and Kathryn Bigelow’s film A Home of Dynamite,” so the writers got here again with this storyline and it’s so bittersweet, however I additionally really feel this was the top. Typically it’s that tough factor the place it’s time. It’s time for a personality to maneuver on.

It was all the time actually essential to me to not present a false joyful ending for the sake of it. It’s all the time been a part of Stella’s legacy that she has needed to navigate all types of issues in her place. The altering world and her personal altering relationship along with her ambition and what she needs. On the one hand, it might go on and on. However I additionally don’t know the way sensible that will have been by way of actually displaying all of the completely different challenges that include being Stella on this world.

Effectively, it makes me really feel higher that this was a mutual choice.

It was time to go, actually. I want I might cut up up into completely different individuals and simply maintain doing every thing, however that will be bodily unattainable.

When you concentrate on Stella getting on that aircraft, what do you think about her highway to rediscovery appears to be like like? Do you see her returning to media finally, or operating a tiki bar someplace?

I feel she’ll go to the tiki bar and perhaps final a couple of weeks. It’s so ingrained in her to be a fighter and a employee. I like her. She’s good and such an innovator; she’s the final word big-picture thinker. The whole genesis of her eager to tackle this job and leaving the world of tech to return onto UBA, which is now UBN, is that she actually believed in redefining what the information may very well be. As we all know, that’s a query that’s definitely occurring now, and that’s not going away anytime quickly, and I like that about her. She’s pondering, “How can I make the most of the information in one of the best ways it might presumably be utilized, and what’s the future?”

She actually was interested by all of that, however I feel the tragedy typically is that the world, each in media and at giant, typically can’t help your imaginative and prescient. And it’s heartbreaking. So in my fantasy, I think about there are Stellas on the market in every single place who’re plotting their comeback and who’re interested by the longer term and who’re dedicated, and might’t not give it some thought another manner. I feel she’s plotting and scheming and will likely be again ultimately.

What was your interplay with AI whereas making AI Stella for the presentation?

They’d some superb tech. It was particular results; a whole lot of it was put in later. However I’ve by no means needed to do a scene with myself, and I discovered it very odd. I feel that speaks to how weird that entire second was. We needed to point out in actual time our personal collective awkwardness with AI and ChatGPT. On daily basis, our relationship turns into extra intimate, however that is all a rising factor that’s taking place proper now. We needed to point out the sloppiness of that — to say the least, contemplating what occurs. I feel it’s nice they didn’t need to lean away from the pitfalls of what can occur, on its worst day, if this sort of tech is left unchecked, and let run rampant. I feel we have now to be very deliberate and never be passive in watching how all of this evolves, and ensuring we’re placing in some guardrails up as to the way it’s regulated and who precisely it’s serving ultimately.

I perceive the final scene you filmed was strolling down that hallway after the presentation. We didn’t see your face. What feelings have been you feeling, and the way did you react once they referred to as “reduce”?

Sure, proper after the presentation. I really feel emotional now. There have been undoubtedly some tears. The crew — we’ve been household for years and years, and have been via a lot. We got here collectively in COVID and have been one of many first productions up and operating once more, attempting to navigate this entire new frontier. We’ve been via the strike collectively, the L.A. fires. I all the time felt with Stella like we have been doing one thing new. That was one thing I might by no means take as a right day by day I used to be at work. Given every thing that occurred and figuring out we have been transferring in direction of this goodbye, it was painful. I’m not one to hold issues house with me, as a result of I’ve two younger children who’ve zero tolerance or persistence for that; but it surely was laborious.

That scene — we filmed the massive AI presentation on the Academy Museum — I received so sick. I received some kind of bug. I not often get sick, and we needed to cease and shut down manufacturing with all these extras. Millicent Shelton, our unimaginable director, needed to maintain my hair again! I used to be shaking and it was horrible. I keep in mind [producer] Michael Ellenberg on the time was like, “Wow, is that this technique?” I used to be like, “No!” I’d by no means been that sick earlier than and it’s on the day, in fact, that I’ve to go up and provides this presentation to 100-plus background actors. I actually felt for myself, however I felt for Stella in that second.

Perhaps you have been having a response to leaving the present.

It’s overwhelming to consider goodbyes. It’s bittersweet. Nevertheless it’s trustworthy, I feel, by way of the place her story is and the place she finds herself in season 4 with all of the relationships she’s had. And it’s not informal. It’s so heartbreaking. The scene we did with Mia, with Karen Pittman, the place I needed to inform her she didn’t get the job after years of promising her — in our sophisticated, lovely relationship as coworkers and associates — having to ship the information of that betrayal was so terrible. We have been crying. It was torture. That actually sucked. However on these laborious days, we attempt to keep in mind we’re simply being trustworthy about what the dynamic is and what it might be like for them.

I hope you come again for not less than a Jon Hamm-style two-episode arc in season 5.

(Laughs.)

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The Morning Present streams new season 4 episodes on Apple TV, with new episodes dropping on Wednesdays.