Truth be told, we love a fictional bad boy. Examples include Chuck Bass, Damon Salvatore, and Joe Goldberg, to name a few. They are brooding yet handsome, manipulative yet charismatic, dangerous yet comforting. Despite all the glaring red flags, we can’t help but succumb to their charms. Of all the rebellious types that have graced our television screens over the years, Tell Me Lies‘s Stephen DeMarco, played by Jackson White, just might take the cake. Just when you think the intense Baird College student can’t get any more diabolical in his ways, he one ups himself. Every. Single. Time.
It’s not just Stephen. His on-again, off-again love interest Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) is equally as toxic and calculating, making their relationship—or shall we say entanglement—a cat-and-mouse game of who can hurt the other one more. That tumultuous dynamic along with the transgressions of the show’s other key players made the Hulu title, an adaptation of the 2018 book by Carola Lovering, an instant hit when it premiered in the fall of 2022, activating a hyper-engaged fan base eager to debate and analyze their every move.
Early on, White knew they had something good on their hands. “The first season was so special because I hadn’t seen anything like that on TV before, and the people who did watch it had a very visceral reaction,” the actor says. “They took these characters on, they saw parts of themselves, and it was a warning sign for people they don’t want to be. It was a very personal reaction, which is really all you can hope for.”
Not surprisingly, Tell Me Lies was promptly handed a renewal following its debut, but fans would have to wait two years before seeing what was next for the polarizing students of Baird College. As they say, good things come to those who wait, and season two takes the show’s juicy drama up a notch.
For White, the break, which was extended further because of last year’s actors’ strike, was necessary but tricky. It’s not easy getting back into the mindset of someone so stoic and locked in as Stephen. “I feel like I was loose for so long that I had to tighten back up to play him again,” he says. This time around, the Los Angeles native wanted to have as much fun with the character as possible. In talking with showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer, White was adamant that Stephen couldn’t just be this horrible supervillain all the time and that there had to be some level of charm and likability to justify why these people keep hanging out with him. “Usually, your most narcissistic friend can also be the funniest friend, so I think we just tried to find a lot of humor and levity as best as we could. Small moments. If you blink, you miss them, but we’re trying,” White says.
It’s true. Those real, human moments are subtle and often outshined by Stephen’s downright horrific actions. White may not agree with or even fully understand Stephen’s decision-making in a lot of cases, but he admits there’s something quite freeing about playing the bad guy. “I think it’s a really great version of relinquishing control. I get to have the freedom to show this guy in all the ugly parts and the good parts, and it’s something that I get to let go of and not worry about how he’s going to be judged because the character is going to be judged and I’m not,” he says.
The relationship between Stephen and Lucy is as complicated and toxic as ever this season, a dynamic that real-life couple White and Van Patten had a lot of fun exploring. The pair started their off-screen romance before season one even began filming but kept it mostly under wraps from eagle-eyed fans until finally going public on social media later. Being able to channel that innate chemistry and the strong trust they have built with one another into their work has paid dividends for the actors, whose authentic connection is palpable on-screen.
“We know each other very well, so we’re very in tune with each other’s realness,” White says. “If either one of us is unsure about something or maybe tired that day, we push the other person to keep it real and to go further, so you actually get some really interesting scenes where we’re really locked in with each other. And then the director calls cut, and it’s very sweet. It’s very supportive and hilarious. We’ll say some things to each other and then stop and go, ‘Holy shit!’ It’s great. I love it.”
While season one saw Stephen and Lucy in their turbulent courtship phase, season two inevitably shows more space between the characters. That time apart was useful for White and Van Patten, who channeled it into their performances. “It was almost like a Christmas present every time I got to be around her because we were just waiting for that moment to be around each other, and it felt so loaded up,” he notes.
As for Stephen’s current-day relationship with Lucy’s best friend Lydia, White definitely asked the same question that we’re all thinking: “What are you doing, man?” He, however, guarantees there’s something there that made him latch onto her, even if there may be ulterior motives at play (knowing Stephen, there definitely are), which he hopes we see in the future.
As we inch closer to the climax of this season, one question remains—when will enough be enough for Stephen? White himself isn’t sure there’s an answer. “I think that’s part of his brain chemistry. I don’t know if he has an off switch,” he says.
A third season hasn’t been announced yet, but we play hypotheticals with White on what could be next for Stephen. He describes the different waves of the character’s life so far. Season one, it was the survivalist. Season two, it was the moral dilemma of whether he’s actually a bad person or he just did bad things. In White’s mind, the next natural progression is to see some real-world tests and consequences for Stephen. “I’m curious to see how he deals with some larger-than-life problems instead of just the college realm. We’ve just seen him in this isolated group of friends where he has a lot of control, and it would be interesting to see him get his ass kicked in the real world,” he says. “We need to tell Hulu to make more.”
Season two of Tell Me Lies is now streaming on Hulu with new episodes airing Wednesdays.
Photographer: Dennis Leupold
Stylist: Monty Jackson
Stylist Assistant: Bota Abdul
Groomer: Candice Birns
