‘His & Hers’: Tessa Thompson On Dual Perspectives, THAT Ending, Valkyrie’s MCU Return, & ‘Creed 4’ [Bingeworthy Podcast]

There’s a specific perverse pleasure in watching a murder mystery show that knows exactly when to let you feel confident and exactly when to pull that confidence out from under you. Netflix’s “His & Hers” does that trick over and over again. You think you’ve got a handle on it. You start building your little internal conspiracy corkboard. Then it quietly slides one detail out of place, and suddenly the whole picture looks different.

The series follows Anna (Tessa Thompson), a once‑prominent journalist who returns to her hometown just as a murder investigation begins to unravel long‑buried secrets. Told through competing points of view between Anna and her estranged husband, Jack Harper (Jon Bernthal), the show builds its tension around who controls the narrative, and what happens when truth becomes a weapon rather than a destination. The ensemble cast also includes Jon Bernthal, Pablo Schreiber, Marin Ireland, Sunita Mani, and more.

Joining Bingeworthy is star and Executive Producer Tessa Thompson, who discussed what initially drew her to the project and why she wanted to be involved in its development beyond just starring in it. For her, the appeal started right on the page.

READ MORE: ‘His & Hers’ Review: Tessa Thompson, Jon Bernthal & Director William Oldroyd Cannot Save This Failed Mystery Thriller

“I just enjoyed reading the book so much,” Thompson said. “The way that Alice Feeney structures it, going between these two different stories, two different narrators that you suspect are both maybe a little unreliable, I just thought that was so compelling.”

That structural tension becomes harder to pull off once the story leaves the page. Internal monologue disappears. Tricks that work in a book suddenly don’t work on-screen. Thompson said the challenge was figuring out how to translate that push and pull into something that could be visually felt.

“One of the fundamental challenges is that something you love so much about a book has to change dramatically for a visual medium,” Thompson said. “So how do you preserve that structurally in television? Eventually, we thought a really subtle and elegant way to show these shifts in perspective is to have different lenses, literally, for his and for hers. The visual style of the piece changes depending on whether you’re in her world or in his world.”

That same thinking carried through to the show’s big swings. Thompson was adamant that the series shouldn’t sand down its edges or play it safe once it started building momentum.

“The thing that I loved about the read is that at the end I really had a holy sh*t moment,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that that person ended up being the killer. We really wanted to preserve a reveal that felt satisfying and also very surprising to audiences.”

That instinct extends directly to Anna herself, a character who doesn’t bother trying to win the audience over. She’s messy. She makes bad calls. She lives in the gray. And Thompson likes her that way.

“I sort of like to play morally ambiguous characters,” she said. “Characters that are fallible and flawed and might do things that on paper are unlikable. I think they’re human and honest. Being able to tell a story about somebody who maybe doesn’t always make the best decisions, but is worthy of our attention, feels important.”

As “His & Hers” moves toward its final episode, the intention was never to simply land the plane, but to make sure the ending reframed everything that came before it.

“We always wanted to do something that felt super, super fresh,” Thompson said. “What mattered was what the ending does to Anna, not just who did what.”

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

The series ultimately breaks from the novel’s final revelation, pivoting away from Anna as the killer and revealing her mother instead. It’s a choice that reshapes the story entirely, turning it into something generational and maternal rather than singular.

“I think it shifts it pretty wildly in some ways,” Thompson said. “Part of the joy of the end of the series is, what will Anna do with this reveal, with this revelation? How does it change her relationship with her mother? How does it change her relationship to her new life, newly earned position back as a top anchor, the reconciliation of her and her husband, then now the family that she has, which has to do with these sort of heinous things that her mother has done?”

Instead of closing the book, the ending cracks it open wider.

“The show has always been about the secrets that we keep, both from each other and from ourselves,” she said. “So in my mind, it’s very fitting that the show would end with the revelation of a secret and also make for a whole new secret that lives because of that reveal.”

That final burden rests squarely with Anna, and the audience is left to sit in discomfort alongside her.

“This secret will either be kept by Anna or not,” Thompson said. “And that will leave audiences to wonder. I think it feels like a perfect ending in that way.”

That sense of unresolved possibility also opens the door for what comes next.

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“I think there are loads of possibilities because it’s left on a question, which is my favorite way to end a story instead of with an answer,” Thompson said. “There could be another his and another hers. There are many stories that can be told within this idea of dual perspectives and trying to wonder whose version of the truth is the one, or if there is even any empirical truth.”

The conversation eventually drifted into franchise territory. Thompson was careful not to confirm anything about a potential return as Valkyrie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but she didn’t hide her affection for the character.

“I can’t confirm anything…but I just love the character so much,” she said. “There are so many tonal spaces you can explore inside of a Marvel movie, and I would always be interested.”

She struck a similar note when discussing the future of the “Creed” films and her character, Bianca, describing the series as something that evolves alongside real life.

“We always start from where they are now,” Thompson explained. “The time that passes between making these movies is more like the life that Mike and I live separately, and we embed that into the characters in a real, honest and vulnerable way. It’s always an exploratory process.”

“His & Hers” is now streaming on Netflix. You can listen to the whole conversation with Tessa Thompson below.

Bingeworthy is part of The Playlist Podcast Network, which includes Deep Focus, The Discourse, and more. We can be heard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud, and most places where podcasts are found. You can stream the podcast via the embed within the article. Be sure to subscribe and drop us a comment or a rating, as we greatly appreciate it. Thank you for listening.