Brenda is trying to embark upon this happily-ever-after-life, and the day before the wedding, she miscarries, which is a wretched shock for anyone. And it triggers all of these repressed emotions that she's had about her own past , about her sexual history, and her anxiety about being able to be a mother, a partner , a good woman--every sort of self-hating fear that she has. This scene is the apotheosis of all of her fears.

Lisa shows up and articulates everything that's been brewing within Brenda, which is always the case with the dead appearing. They're the manifestations of the character's own dark side. It's Brenda attacking Brenda. The actors often find it very difficult to play themselves dead, because they're not really playing their characters. Lili had some problems with some of the dialogue in the original draft of this scene-there were things that were really harsh and horrible and she just couldn't connect Lisa to the harshness. We ended up doing a re-shoot and I gave the line to Brenda directly.

I think it's a really hard thing for an actor to grapple with. Richard Jenkins, who's always been a ghost, has never had a problem with it. He's been able to create a sense of a person, even though in reality, he's really just each person's memory of that person.

Pregnancy loss can really bring up the most intense feelings of failure, failure as a woman. And here is this woman who just got pregnant very easily. And whose pregnancy led to the union that she had longed for and this beautiful child, with whom Brenda has a slightly complicated relationship, because she loves Maya and wants to be a mother to Maya, but Maya's not her own daughter and is sort of a constant reminder of this very tragic past.

Brenda is an unusual character in that she's a woman with a very active sexual trajectory. But her sexual behavior was an expression of her psychic pain. The hard thing is you don't want to imply in any way that she's being punished for her sexual history. But her psychic truth is, she fears that. A lot of women when they miscarry have a lot of anxiety: 'Did I bring this on myself? Was it the fact that I had an abortion? Was it the fact I was promiscuous?' There's so much self-loathing around female sexuality.

Just the fact that Brenda is getting married is a huge step for her. We need to see the ways in which it's very difficult for her to move into a place of commitment in her life. Brenda and Nate are evolved, but they're also still who they are. Which I think is truthful. I don't buy that people hit thirty, become adults, meet the right person and everything becomes easy.