When you start a show titled Imperfect Women, you expect to witness some pretty outlandish, unforgivable behavior from the female characters on your screen. But as the series goes on and the so-called “imperfect” leading women of the series, Mary (Elisabeth Moss), Nancy (Kate Mara), and Eleanor (Kerry Washington), continue to make poor decisions, you begin to recognize a pattern: they only ever act immorally on a whim, and are often led to these destructive points by the men around them.

More fittingly, the show, and the psychological thriller by Araminta Hall that it’s based upon, probably should have been titled “Imperfect Men.” Throughout the series, the male characters served as foils for the ugliest parts of these women, their own behavior and actions in comparison were more harmful than their female counterparts, often premeditated or repeated. 

**This is a good time to point out that you’re about to encounter spoilers for Imperfect Women Season 1 Finale, “The Bridge,” now streaming on Apple TV. Come back later if you haven’t watched it yet.**

The series finale revealed that Corey Stoll’s character, Howard, accidentally murdered Nancy, his wife Mary’s best friend, with whom he was having a secret affair. In his attempt to cover his tracks, Howard intentionally gives a lethal dosage of drugs to his young daughter, calls Child Protective Services on his wife, and attempts to kill her in the same spot where he killed her best friend. “Once the cover-up begins, that’s when he really turns [evil],” Stoll said of his character.

Nancy’s husband, Joel Kinnaman’s character, Robert, allowed his insecurities and inadequacies to get the better of him and those around him. Before her death, Robert kept secrets from Nancy about his family’s illegal financial practices, which led to their marital issues and her deadly affair with Howard. Despite his furious reaction upon finding out about his wife’s affair, Robert rebounds to sleeping with Eleanor, Nancy’s best friend, a mere week after her death. “He’s a bit of a whore,” as Kinnaman put it. He fails to take responsibility for his part in Nancy’s death, and instead of repenting in his grief, he recedes into his same old drinking habits and anger issues, and continues to play the pawn for his self-righteous father.

Decider spoke with Corey Stoll and Joel Kinnaman to discuss the many wrongdoings of their characters. While the actors admit that their characters acted diabolically at times, they also argue that their characters acted out as a result of gender-based societal pressures that men face. 

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DECIDER: Corey, we learn in the second half of the series that Howard is Nancy’s secret lover whom she was having an affair with in the time right before her death. We also come to find out that he’s an evil mastermind of sorts who often thinks five steps ahead. How much of their relationship do you imagine was planned out by Howard in advance?

COREY STOLL: Oh, I think he’s just as surprised as the audience. At least that was how I played it. I don’t know if that’s what the writers had in mind, but it was much more fun for me to play the surprise of this relationship blossoming and to let it happen in real time. 

Were you surprised by their affair and the ensuing fallout? When did you find out what Howard’s arc would be? 

CS: I was only given the first four episodes when I was offered the role. When I read the script, I thought, “Oh, okay, this is a fun character. It’s intriguing. I don’t know where this is going.” And then I read Episodes 5 and 6 and was totally hooked. I thought, “I can’t not play this role,” because it’s pretty rare when you’re reading a script that you get so surprised; you think a character is one way and they’re completely another. That was really exciting. 

D: Both Howard and Robert have poor coping mechanisms and tend to lash out in destructive ways. Do you think there’s a larger lesson that men should take away from the show?

Yeah…Don’t be like that. I think loss of status is a really crippling experience for anybody, but especially for men. Even though our characters are coming from completely different ends of the socioeconomic scale, they both feel that they’re losing something: losing power, losing status. But they respond to that loss by behaving in exactly the wrong way. 

D: Joel, in the very last scene of the series, Mary and Robert exchange an ambiguous look that could possibly hint at something romantic blossoming between the two of them. Do you think that’s a possibility after everything?

JOEL KINNAMAN: Well, Robert is a bit of a whore, you know. So I think anything is possible. 

D: Corey, what is your relationship to Howard, and how do you personally identify with him or reconcile his terrible actions? 

CS: I think Howard had great expectations for his life, and he’s deeply disappointed with where he’s at. He’s looking for an escape, and I think we can all relate to that. When what happens happens, it’s not intentional. It’s everything he does afterwards that is truly evil. There are certain things, as I was reading the script, I was like, “Okay, that I could stand behind or rationalize.” But once the cover-up begins, that’s when he really turns. 

JK: But he’s some kind of malignant narcissist. 

CS: Yeah. Something like that.

JK: He’s definitely on the scale of psychopathy. Because he’s very cold about it. He doesn’t seem to be breaking down in shame.

CS: The thing is, I think these sorts of psychological terms are only helpful from the outside. But as actors, it doesn’t really help because you really just have to play the scene and let the determination of where these characters lie on any sort of scale happen from the outside. 

This interview has been edited and formatted for clarity.

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