Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched the first two episodes of The Beauty on FX or via Hulu subscription (or Disney+ subscription), so be warned!
With so many upcoming book-to-movie adaptations on the way, one can often be forgiven for not keeping up with every comic book series also getting the live-action treatment. But The Beauty should be on everyone’s watchlist, given its fantastical cautionary narrative, its applause-worthy gore and physical effects, and its A+ cast of series regulars and one-off cameos. Oh, let’s add “jaw-dropping twists” to that as well, as Episode 2’s ending essentially marked co-lead Rebecca Hall’s exit. And what a gooey exit it was.
Let’s break down exactly what happened to Hall’s FBI agent Jordan (and her partner Cooper, portrayed by Evan Peters), why it was such a twist from Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley’s comic source material, and what Rebecca Hall told CinemaBlend about her rather hasty exit, as seen in the video above.
The Big Jordan Twist, And How It Changes Up The Comic Book Arc
Let me first say that Evan Peters’ Cooper and Rebecca Hall’s Jordan are technically different characters from the comic’s Dets. Drew Foster and Kara Vaughn, though they share some of the same characteristics, as well as the same kinetic friendship bond. Here in Ryan Murphy‘s world, though, Cooper isn’t a married man, and the duo are banging the first time audiences meet them. Which was the first sign to comic readers that other big changes were at play.
A few issues into The Beauty‘s first arc, which itself takes place two years after the titular STD has become a worldwide phenomenon, it’s revealed that Vaughn has the disease, without any clue as to how long she has left before things get all head-explode-y. When Hall was revealed to be cast as the Vaughn counterpart, I fully expected the second or third episode to reveal that – surprise! – Jordan has had the Beauty all along. But her and Cooper’s libidinous action in the premiere turned that assumption upside-down.
Instead, following the two agents’ half-candid and half-emotionally guarded convo about their casual status, Jordan rather quickly fell in with a too-attractive mate and bedded him without realizing how much it will affect her life and investigation. Because the consequence here is suffering a complete body-wrecking transformation that will no doubt make her kinship with Cooper even more complicated.
What starts with Rebecca Hall’s body writhing and contorting across the bathroom floor soon becomes a giant skinbag of goop from which the new and “improved” Jordan emerges, now portrayed by The LIttle Mermaid‘s Jessica Alexander. It’s like a mash-up of The Substance‘s monstro-body horror mixed with The Fly‘s ecto-nasty. A win-win, I’d say.
Rebecca Hall Reacts To Jordan’s Big Twist And That Transformation Sequence
When I spoke with Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall about their shared (if brief) journey on The Beauty, and I of course had to ask for her thoughts on her character’s wild reveal, and how that played into her taking the role. She told me:
I mean, it was pitched to me very much with that twist built in. And I thought that was sort of fun, conceptually. Because, you know, there are people in the show who want to take the Beauty, who want to change themselves. And there’s people like Jordan, who will do what she can. She’s not looking for any major changes. Then it sort of ends up becoming a bit of a nightmare, actually, if you think about it. No matter how gorgeous you are, which she is, it’s still you look in the mirror and you’re somebody else. It might not be what everyone wants.
Indeed. At no point in her two episodes did Jordan 1.0 come across as someone who needed more outside validation, or who felt insecure about herself. So it is an interesting tweak to the source material that our female lead has accidentally infected herself, especially given how it might change things up for everyone.
Hall continued, making a Psycho comparison between her here-and-gone arc to the aftermath of the scariest scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller. (Which also involved someone making themselves more beautiful, if anyone wants to look at it that way.) As the actress put it:
I thought that was also sort of interesting to be the kind of bait and switch, the sort of Janet Leigh of the situation, which is kind of also fun for the viewer. Play with your expectation there. There was a lot of fun to be had. I mean, I loved playing Jordan for the time that I got to play her. She’s good fun for me. Nice to just play someone who’s a bit funny and sounds like me for a change.
I didn’t fully realize it until watching the third episode, but The Beauty definitely suffered a loss by taking Rebecca Hall out of the loop. Which isn’t a knock on Jessica Alexander’s performance or anything, but more appreciating that the Iron Man 3 vet got to play a character that vibed with her own personality so well. Jordan and Cooper feel like two of the only people who represent normalcy in this show, so losing one-half of that equation is a bummer.
Still, it helps that Rebecca Hall’s exit was so visually memorable, and she talked to me about filming that herky-jerky sequence, saying:
It was pretty gnarly. I didn’t have to come out of [it] . I mean, I think the other side of it is arguably more… I didn’t have to deal with too much goo, is what I’m saying. I had to have a lot of sweat and do a lot of water drinking and a lot of throwing myself around, and some low-level contortion. That was pretty fun. I mean, I like doing physical stuff. So, you know, it was a good challenge.
While a stunt performer was no doubt also utilized for Jordan’s harrowing transition, especially the moments where Jordan’s hair is hanging in her face, it does look like Hall filmed a lot of it herself. Thankfully for her sake, Alexander was the one who had to emerge from the fleshy coccoon with all that sinewy goo.
What will Cooper and Jordan’s next interaction look like? When will it happen? Will Cooper also get the disease this season? Answers will come as new episodes of The Beauty air and stream every Wednesday on FX and Hulu.
