Lulu Wang Always Knew How Expats Would End

For years, Lulu Wang (The Farewell) has captivated audiences with brilliant, gut-wrenching and transformative bodies of work. Now, with Expats, her Prime Video limited series adaptation of the Janice Y. K. Lee best-selling novel The Expatriates, Wang is on a journey to create rich conversations around the immigrant and expat experiences on-screen.

Expats is a brilliant series that examines what it feels like to be othered often in this world, and work so hard to be seen in places and spaces that are often not designed for you, whether you're an immigrant or, like this writer, a Black woman with deep roots in the United States. Wang's show centers women, highlighting their remarkable resilience in navigating complex relationships, families, careers, mistakes, fears, and regrets in a community that isn't always kind or forgiving. While viewers may not always be able to understand nor agree with the characters' choices, their journeys open up the audience to empathize and realize that every single one of us is struggling with something that could require grace at a moment's notice.

With the limited series now concluded, we sat down with Wang to talk about the process of adapting Lee's book, if forgiveness and healing are indeed found amongst the characters, her choices around the final shots, and so much more.

First, what was your process for adapting this project from the novel?

The process of adapting it was much more driven by intuition and the emotions, layers, and textures of the novel. I wanted to translate that instead of putting the book into a plot-driven format. The engine is this world or these characters and what happens to them.

Did you always know that you wanted to end the series with Mercy's (Ji-young Yoo) voiceover about essentially putting one foot in front of the other over Margaret (Nicole Kidman) visually attempting to do just that?

I always knew from the beginning what the ending was going to be in terms of the images we were going to see. I knew I wanted it to be one long take of Margaret walking through the city, being amongst the people. In that scene, we're taking her from The Peak to the streets of Hong Kong. She's got her backpack on and is now alone in her sacrifice. She is giving up her family at home to continue on this journey of looking for Gus.

With Mercy's journey, I always knew I wanted it to reflect her learning to move on from this colossal mistake she made for herself and her now child. We spent this whole time being so upset with her and frustrated with some of her choices and behavior, and that vulnerability when she's with her mother was something I also always envisioned.

The voiceover, though, was something I had at the end when we were editing. I hoped the sense of resilience was coming, but I needed something to tie these two women together. They are so separate, Hilary (Sarayu Blue) included, but there is something that I wanted to connect these three women's stories with, and it is this sense of resilience. Because we opened Episode 1 with Mercy's voiceover and her admittance of being a perpetrator and not knowing how to move on, we end Episode 6 with her talking about how she is going to move on.

Oh, I love that. You led right into my next question because I wanted to know why you chose as a director to have the three women's conversations almost fused as one. Did these conversations give each of them the healing and forgiveness they sought? Were each of them fully able to let go of the grief and the weight of their responsibility in those moments?

I think the abstract nature of that conversation is because we rarely get what we're looking for from these types of conversations. We don't necessarily get an apology, and people don't always say what we want them to say. But the beauty in this scene is that all of these women could be saying the same thing. Anything that one woman can say, whether it's an apology or a desire for empathy or understanding, they all feel that way. They all have something to apologize for, and they all have something misunderstood.

So, I wanted to play with perspective and not knowing who was saying what, and I also left it in this vague space where no one is giving a finite apology. No one allows the other person to live because only you can give that to yourself. And going back to the voiceover, she's alluding to that. You have to permit yourself to be happy because no one else can give you that.

The show touches on the crushing weight of our parents' expectations. Throughout the series, you see how these parental figures pick at their decisions when these women are at their most vulnerable and almost at rock bottom. We see that very closely with Hilary and her mother. So, how do you think these harsh criticisms shaped these women's choices throughout the rest of the series, particularly Hilary? Does her conversation with her mom immensely change how she views herself?

I relate to these women and their mothers so much. While there are specific things mothers of certain cultures do, there are also things all mothers do. Hilary's mom had a tough life, and a lot of her parenting choices are so Hilary doesn't suffer and end up in the same position she did, but her approach comes out sideways. So, for Hilary, it isn't easy because I imagine she is not someone who has ever experienced unconditional love. Her love is conditional to how she performs, her success in business, and her ability to bear children in her marriage. And yet, out of all three women, she's closest to her mother. Getting feedback and criticism from the person you're most connected to sets her on a different journey. She separates from her mother's expectations, family, culture, and society. She starts figuring out how to give herself unconditional love, even when that's not been her experience.

What about her father? She initially goes down this path of retaking ownership of her life, but when she goes to the hospital, she lies to him about being pregnant before he dies. Was that to give him something he wanted to hear before she realized she needed to free herself from that entire situation and be honest and transparent with him about how she felt?

I love that moment because it does start with a lie that comes from a moment of weakness. Because her mom urged her not to share anything negative before his surgery, she wanted to keep it positive initially. But that's what she's been doing, telling him this lie to make him happy. So, she decides to regain control. Even though she doesn't address the lie or the truth, she uses it to hurt him.

But ultimately, she realizes, coming out of that whole experience, that direction needs to be corrected. Whether she's lying to make herself smaller or holding on to anger and resentment, both are incredibly harmful. So, she realizes that she is responsible for her own life, emotions, and anger. And she doesn't want to hold on to that anymore. And because it also applies to the choices she's made in her personal life with David and everything else. We all repeat patterns when we have unhealed traumas, and those can cause us to repeat choices.

That leads me to the choices these women make around their chosen family. Hilary moves throughout this world, ensuring everyone knows she's not in the service industry and almost behaving like she is better than them. While Margaret views Essie (Ruby Ruiz) as family, there is even a hint of jealousy regarding Essie & Gus's relationship. Can you talk a bit about this idea of a chosen family and Margaret's sacrifices to make this kind of family work? Part of the guilt she feels about Gus' disappearance is that she allowed him to spend so much time with Essie, and now she can't get that time back.

Yeah, that's such a great point. Hilary is a brown woman in a very colorist society who feels the need to exert her privilege because she doesn't have the same luxuries as Margaret, who is automatically perceived as of a particular class due to her outward appearance. Hilary has to dress a certain way for people to know her class, so she's much more upfront. Margaret wants to be seen as a good American and not a bad white woman. So, she's always going to be different with Essie.

For Margaret, this chosen family is complicated because of all these complex feelings, and Essie is family until she crosses a line, right? And look, Essie loves these kids, but you can see how they've absorbed specific classist values as they get older. The daughter tells her parents that Essie does work for them, and that moment provides a certain clarity for Margaret. I wanted to explore all those differences because, as immigrants, my family and I got a lot of love, help, and support from Western American families when we first came to this country. And it wasn't straightforward because it sometimes felt like we weren't allowed to do better than the privileged or instead become more privileged than the privileged people.

While this was billed as a limited series, would you be open to a Part 2?

I'm not sure. It has to stem from a creative and unique idea because this was created as a conclusive piece with a clear ending. But I'm always open to it if there is an exciting idea or if I'm driven by a component enough to make a spin-off. But for now, we have to let it be a complete piece.

Well, listen, I would love it if we could do a spin-off with Olivia [Flora Chan]. I need to know more about her since her story was only told in the fifth episode. Her journey had a lot of parallels to other characters, particularly with regard to their relationships, so, yes, more of her and her family! She takes that to heart because there are so many layers in her conversation with Hilary about how she can't be a divorced expat.

I love that you're an Olivia fan. Sometimes, I watch things with my father, and he says, "Nothing is happening!" And I almost made Olivia's story thinking about my father and laughing because it's a woman who packs her bags and then unpacks.

After seeing Mercy’s entire journey, I gained a lot more empathy. That happened when I saw her relationship with her mom because the reality is she made a mistake, albeit a huge one. But we all make them, so what do you hope audiences take away from the series? Do you want more women to watch this and give themselves permission to have grace as they do hard things?

I always think that the grace we extend to others reflects the grace we extend to ourselves. And so when I see someone who extends no grace to anybody else, that's how they see themselves. Like, I'm not allowed to behave this way or perform this way to be loved, just living in this finite definition of who you are. And that's not true. We are not defined by one particular moment or one particular action. As human beings, we are continually evolving, changing, and growing. I hope people take away from this series to question what empathy is—not simply feeling bad for someone because that's a pity. I mean empathy because empathy requires curiosity about other people, even ones that we don't agree with or even ones that we don't like. It's ok to be empathetic to someone and not like them. And that is a more courageous type of empathy, to understand and recognize their nature as human beings.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Expats Season 1 is now streaming on Prime Video. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.

Kay-B is an Entertainment Journalist, Producer, Digital Content Creator & Host of On-Call with Kay-B on iHeartMedia. You can find links to all of her content here.