‘Y: The Last Man’ — Was Amber Tamblyn’s Character Kimberly Cunningham in the Comic Books?
The FX drama Y: The Last Man makes many changes from the comic book on which it is based. Updating it for 2021 meant adding trans and nonbinary characters to the story. Showrunner Eliza Clark also created some brand new characters. Amber Tamblyn plays Kimberly Cunningham, a conservative pundit who’s very much in favor of the patriarchy when an event kills everybody on Earth with a Y chromosome.
“Kimberly’s a new character,” Clark told Showbiz Cheat Sheet in a Zoom interview on Aug. 25. “There’s a bunch of new character or characters that are inspired by composites of people [in the comic] which is fun. It’s very lovely and generous aof Pia [Guerra] and Brian [K. Vaughan] to let us play in the world they created.”
Tamblyn herself is anything but a conservative. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants star has been an outspoken advocate for Times Up and Democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton. Clark said that’s what made Kimberly fun for Tamblyn.
“We have a lot of fun with that character,” Clark said. “Amber is an activist and a writer and an actor who has made her positions very clear publicly. But I think one of the things that’s so incredible about her portrayal of Kimberly is that she really got inside of her. I really feel like she is not making fun of her.”
Existing characters from Y: The Last Man include the survivor Yorrick (Ben Schnetzer) and his mother, Jennifer Brown (Diane Lane). Brown was a congresswoman in the comic book. She is a senator on the TV series. The show introduced them as well as new characters like Kimberly in the series premiere on Sept. 13.
Fans who tuned into the premiere of Y: The Last Man saw Kimberly tout traditional roles for women. When there are no men left in the world, it will become even more challenging for Kimberly to defend her position.
“[Tamblyn] is trying to understand a person whose politics she really disagrees with,” Clark said. “I think her performance in that character is pretty incredible because Kimberly is a character who is deeply tied to the patriarchy, who has her entire identity and her sense of herself and the power she wields in this world is all tied to men. That starts to crumble for her. Anyway, I think she’s a pretty incredible character in the story.”
Tamblyn and Clark may personally disagree with the views Kimberly expresses. However, they still see what happens to her in Y: The Last Man as a tragedy. It’s already a tragedy that so many human beings die in the event. For Kimberly, it’s no longer a matter of debating her position. She is forced to reconcile a new reality.
“I think part of what is so interesting about her is that you feel for her,” Clark said. “She has lost everything [and] she isn’t wrong about some of the things. She is obsessed with how are we going to get the sperm banks back online? She’s desperate to become a mother again and you realize that a lot of the behavior that makes her scary in this world is also rooted in her grief and trauma. You like her in spite of yourself.”
Kimberly remains as feisty among the survivors as she was as a talking head on television. Look for Kimberly to create friction as the survivors try to rebuild society.
“Yeah, I think that she definitely has an edge,” Clark said. “You’ll see. It gets even edgier.”
New episodes of Y: The Last Man premiere Mondays on FX on Hulu.
