Sarah Snook and Dakota Fanning talk 'All Her Fault' and the pressures of modern motherhood
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Ralphie Aversa, USA TODAYNovember 7, 2025 at 12:19 AM
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(From left) Dakota Fanning as Jenny and Sarah Snook as Marissa Irvine in Peacock's "All Her Fault."
It is a mother's worst nightmare: Your child goes missing. You're left retracing every step, every interaction and every person your child has been with lately in an attempt to not only find your kid but figure out how this could even happen in the first place.
That nightmare is lived out by actress Sarah Snook in the crime thriller "All Her Fault" (all 8 episodes streaming now, Peacock). Snook, who shares a 2-year-old daughter with comedian Dave Lawson, tells USA TODAY she couldn't help but think about her own child as she took on the role.
"It was useful to have that experience to draw on, to sort of reflect in my own life what it would be like," says Snook, 37. "It's also not useful because you don't want to go too deep into ruminating on what it is like to have your own daughter go missing. That's just too much."
"All Her Fault" — based on the Andrea Mara novel, which takes place in Dublin — was shot primarily in Snook's native Australia. In between filming, the Emmy winner found moments of joy by returning home to her daughter, "just be able to give her a cuddle and know that it's all gonna be OK."
Snook was also thankful that in her real life, she makes much different decisions than those of the character she plays on the show.
'All Her Fault' explores modern motherhood
The limited series follows Marissa Irvine (Snook), a wealthy working mother who goes to pick up her 5-year-old child Milo (Duke McCloud) from a play date. But when Marissa arrives, the person who answers the door has no idea who Milo is and says there was never a play date. A tense search begins to find out where Milo is, who kidnapped him and how it happened.
A blame game also occurs: Why didn't Marissa properly vet the play date? Milo was supposed to be with Jenny's (Dakota Fanning)'s son. Is Jenny culpable for hiring a sketchy nanny, Carrie (Sophia Lillis)?
"I think Marissa kind of feels like she is responsible," says Abby Elliott ("The Bear"), who plays Marissa's sister-in-law, Lia. Elliott, 38, is a mother of two in real life. "And then, it shows how society kind of will shift the blame to someone else, or a woman will pit another woman against another one. ... That's such a theme of the show, of how society just blames women for a lot, or expects a woman to kind of have all the answers when it comes to children."
In the midst of the blame game, the expectations put on working mothers also comes to surface.
"We meet her at kind of the limit of what she can handle," Fanning, 31, says of Jenny, who is balancing parenting with a burgeoning career in book publishing. "I think a lot of women can relate to that. I think we've all felt at one time or another that there's been a lot of pressures put on us.
"And we're also supposed to be smiley and nice while we're doing it too, you know?" she continues. The expectation, she adds, is, "Don't really show the struggle that you're going through on your face." Fanning enjoyed playing that part of her character the most. She won't name names, but points to her best friend as inspiration in for Jenny's character. Fanning is the godmother to her two young children kids.
In "All Her Fault," both Marissa and Jenny are also dealing with their husbands' expectations. Peter Irvine (Jake Lacy, "The White Lotus") supports Marissa and his extended family while Richie (Thomas Cocquerel, "The Gilded Age") is dead weight, leaving parenting duties supremely on Jenny. Fanning says Cocquerel sometimes struggled with his role, asking why his character wouldn't help out more.
"I think men and women in a heterosexual relationship are just like, their brains work in a different way a lot of the time," Fanning says. "So it's not that (Richie is) a bad guy or doing any of this on purpose. He just is oblivious."
Jake Lacy as Peter and Sarah Snook as Marissa in "All Her Fault."'All Her Fault' had the 'summer camp' vibe in Australia
Elliott says with the entire cast in Melbourne, the group got close "pretty quickly." Snook acted as their tour guide, showing them around the country. And Elliott enjoyed having her two kids there for the shoot, grabbing "really great" pizza and ice cream on off days.
Lacy made it a point to "punch in and punch out," retreating home for a routine of gym, dinner and a book.
"That was a healthy balance," the actor, 39, says. "It is a grind to just take your imagination and go 'OK, and now imagine this awful thing's happened.'"
In addition to her family in Australia, Snook found moments of joy in between takes.
crime thriller limited series, which stars "Succession" lead Sarah Snook and is based on the 2021 book by Andrea Mara.
" style=padding-bottom:56%>Dakota Fanning donned a sheer black gown for the premiere of Peacock's latest drama series, "All Her Fault," at SVA Theater in New York City on Nov. 3, 2025. Fanning plays Jenny in the new crime thriller limited series, which stars "Succession" lead Sarah Snook and is based on the 2021 book by Andrea Mara.
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1 / 7See Dakota Fanning, Sarah Snook at the 'All Her Fault' red carpet
Dakota Fanning donned a sheer black gown for the premiere of Peacock's latest drama series, "All Her Fault," at SVA Theater in New York City on Nov. 3, 2025. Fanning plays Jenny in the new crime thriller limited series, which stars "Succession" lead Sarah Snook and is based on the 2021 book by Andrea Mara.
"Short of doing yoga on set, we were trying to make each other laugh," Snook says (that comment alone makes Fanning laugh). "But I don't think I really understood the level at which I would be crying all the time, the emotional rollercoaster of eight episodes" of being frantic about your child.
Snook recalls the first scene she shot, which was when Marissa and Jenny run into each other in the bathroom, wearing the same dress.
"I thought, 'Oh, this is going to be great," she says with a laugh. "It was really all downhill from there."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sarah Snook reveals how her daughter impacted 'All Her Fault' role
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
