‘The Undoing’: Even Matilda De Angelis Was Shocked by the Ending

The HBO whodunit thriller, The Undoing, kept viewers guessing but it even had the series murder victim unsure who killed her character.

Italian actor Matilda De Angelis, who played murder victim Elena Alves said she changed her mind over and over again about who was the murderer when she read the script. “Try as much as you want, but believe me, it’s impossible,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “I think I’ve changed my mind about 100 times while reading the script. And I was sure like, ‘Yeah, it’s this, it’s this, it’s this!’ And then, no.”

She referred to filmmaker David E. Kelley as “a genius, a master.” Kelley’s signature stamp is on The Undoing, much like his other hit HBO series, Big Little Lies, which also includes Nicole Kidman in the ensemble cast. Kidman plays Grace Fraser in The Undoing. Her husband Jonathan Fraser (Hugh Grant) is being tried for Alves’ murder, but did he do it? De Angelis says the series kept everyone guessing.

Matilda De Angelis describes Elena Alves as ‘lonely’ and ‘desperate’

De Angelis told Harper’s Bazaar that her character was the true mystery of the story. The series continuously showed clips and memories of Alves intimately interacting with Jonathan but also Grace.

“I was really intrigued by Elena because she is the mystery of the story,” De Angelis said. “The thing that I loved the most and the thing that drew me to her, was that I couldn’t completely get her. It’s really difficult to understand her. Even while reading the script, I was like, ‘Why is she acting like this? Why is she doing that and that?'”

“You can see her as a very, very sexual and sensual and provocative woman,” she continued. “And then, I realized that there was so much more beneath the surface, and under this femme fatale attitude and behavior. I think she’s really fragile and really lonely and really desperate. And she has this melancholy all the time, and I’m really attracted to these kinds of characters. Elena is really confusing, even now.”

The ending will ‘really upset you’

Now that the ending has been revealed, fans and Twitter are buzzing about the final 10 minutes of the series. “People overthinking the Undoing has to be the clearest sign we’ve been in quarantine too long,” one person joked on Twitter. Another person pointed out this nuance. “A crazy twist in The Undoing is that Noah Jupe, who plays the son, was born in London and is somehow the only one with a convincing accent.”

But as fans continue to go back and track clues and hints, De Angelis says the ending was very emotional. “Well, it’s going to be crazy. It’s going to be … it will blow your mind absolutely, because as I told you, I think it’s very hard to understand who did it, how, and when, and why,” she said. “And I think it will really, really, really upset you. Really upset you.”