When Netflix announced that its new Western series, The Abandons, from Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, would star Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey as rival matriarchs of warring families, it was as if a supernova went off for lesbians across the internet.
The reaction was understandable. After all, both of these women have long been adored and admired by sapphics across generations, and to see them come together and face off—decked out in western gear, no less—felt like the answer to a prayer.
Today, Netflix released the first season of the series, which is set in Washington Territory in 1854. It’s a tale of class, family loyalty, romance, and the American struggle as embodied by two very different families. On one side is Constance Van Ness (Anderson), a widow whose wealthy family runs the town of Angel’s Ridge through her sheriff and mayor proxies. She’s using aggressive—to say the least—tactics to buy up all the surrounding land and the silver within it, and she will stop at nothing to get her way. That is, until she comes up against the immovable object that is Fiona Nolan (Headey), the mother figure of a chosen family made up of orphans and outcasts who see their land as their God-given right and their peace. Fiona is working to rally her neighbors to fight back against Constance’s campaign of domination.
As if that weren’t explosive enough, a tragedy involving children in both families kicks off a series of violent and murderous events. It also means audiences get to see these two incredible actresses going toe-to-toe—and, yes, it’s every bit as thrilling as it sounds, for both viewers and the stars themselves. “I was hugely grateful for what Lena brought to all the scenes. I was incredibly impressed and in awe at how well she was able to match the stuff that Constance believably throws at her,” Anderson tells PRIDE, recalling the actors' electrifying and tense scenes. “Lena came full force, prepared and ready to have a showdown.”
Lena Headey and Gillian Anderson in The Abandons
Netflix
The feeling was mutual. “You come to do kind of tense long [scenes], we had pages of scenes together—Gillian had more to learn than me, which I was grateful for. But I think we match each other in focus and fuckery, so we can mess around,” jokes Headey to PRIDE.
But it’s not that their characters are simply ferocious, although they certainly are, but that they often tip from being anti-heroines into becoming outright villainous. Still, there’s something that remains exciting and revelatory about witnessing women behaving badly. For Anderson, who has made a career out of more heroic characters, the change of pace proved to be very satisfying. “I've never played a baddie before, and I was looking forward to leaning into that. It is cathartic. I enjoyed it,” says Anderson.
For Headey, whose turn as Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones is arguably one of the best and most complex villains in television history, she noted how their new roles flipped the script on typical gender dynamics. “It usually would be two men, especially two men of our age,” she says. “It's kind of amazing that you get these two women of our moment together and doing and being ‘the dudes.’ It's wild and exciting.”
All of which is to say, the sapphic panic heard around the lesbian world was justified, and both actresses are happy to know their mere presence on screen together is enough to elicit such a massive response. “I didn't know that, but that's pretty cool,” laughs Anderson. “Yeah, I'll take that.”
“We'll take it,” agrees Headey. “We’ll make you proud.”
'The Abandons' is streaming now on Netflix. Watch the trailer below.
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