Why Rachel Griffiths Moved From Films To TV - Exclusive

Prime Video's "The Wilds" Season 2 is available for streaming starting May 6, and the upcoming season promises to be just as thrilling as the first. "The Wilds" is an intense TV drama centering around a group of teenage girls learning to survive after being stranded on a deserted island. But unbeknownst to them, their dire circumstances were orchestrated as part of a social experiment run by former professor Gretchen Klein.

In advance of the new season, Rachel Griffiths sat down for an exclusive interview with The List to discuss the series. This season, Griffiths is returning to play Gretchen Klein, the villain in the first season. During her conversation with The List, the actress shared what made Season 2 of "The Wilds" such an exciting project and how her character developed. She also revealed why she's more interested in TV than movies right now and why she thinks a lot of viewers are also drawn to TV.

Rachel Griffiths is well-known for her roles in big films like "Step Up," "The Rookie," "Muriel's Wedding," and "My Best Friend's Wedding," but in recent years, she's taken on more roles in several TV shows. Along with "The Wilds," she's recently been in "Total Control," "Aftertaste," and "When We Rise" (via IMDb). During her exclusive interview with The List, the actress shared that she's been loving taking those TV roles because they give her more of a chance to explore her characters. "I was really frustrated with how limited your scale is in most films that you get to do. In television, you get these two-page speeches and a huge variety of opportunities to show different colors," Griffiths said.

That's also why she's so excited for Season 2 of "The Wilds." Because she'd already played Gretchen Klein in the first season, she got to dive even deeper and make the role more nuanced. 

"The gift of the second season is you've established the characters — the writers know the actor that's playing it. They can see how they're going to handle certain situations. They've got a sense of where they can take a character and whether or not the actor can do it," Griffiths said. "Every second season, it feels like the characters are richer ... A movie would've been the first two episodes of "The Wilds," and that's the only Gretchen you would've ever got to see."

Rachel Griffiths added that the depth of character allowed in a TV show is also beneficial to the fans of that show. "That's why audiences love these shows so much because the writers can really dig down into deep characterization, and it's a joy as an actor to play," the actress said.

In the second season of "The Wilds," Griffiths said she did her best to reckon with her character's immoral actions. Season 2 will give "The Wilds" fans more time to examine her character too. Griffiths described her role as one driven by a motivation familiar in many villain characters, saying, "It's exploring that crazy thing of people who really believe they're doing the right thing. They're driven by this higher purpose that they believe in so passionately that they really find a way to not morally reckon with the collateral that they cause to real people's lives."

"The Wilds" Season 2 premieres on Prime Video on May 6, 2022.