With each passing episode of Grosse Pointe Garden Society, we are one step closer to finding out who was murdered. In Episode 4, which aired tonight on NBC, Doug (played by Alexander Hodge) appears to have been killed by Brett (Ben Rappaport) amid a heated fight over Alice (AnnaSophia Robb). But as Taylor Swift once sang: no body, no crime. And until we see these friends pull Doug’s body from the cold hard ground beneath their town garden, we can’t be sure that he was the true victim.
Looking back on the moment everyone found out who was murdered, Hodge said he heard “screams in the hallway,” noting that there was a “huge reaction” from everyone on the cast and in the crew. As for whether it’s safe to assume Doug is the victim — which we’re led to believe by the end of Episode 4 — Hodge urged fans to keep watching the show to find out.
“We’ll see. I mean, that’s what makes the ‘who-was-it’ so amazing,” he said during his recent visit to DECIDER’s studio. “Everybody can take turns at being a bit of a bad guy. So I think by Episode 4, it’s Doug. We’ve got a few more episodes to go so let’s see who else there is.”
The episode ended with a massive fight scene between Doug and Brett, during which they rolled around on the floor and crashed into a glass case. According to Hodge, the scene was so intense that Rappaport’s stunt double even “cut his forehead open” on the first take.
“That’s why I don’t do that job,” Hodge said, before adding, “But it was absolutely amazing. We worked with our stunt coordinator and our stunt doubles for a couple of days, rehearsed our fight, which was so much fun, and then we spent 12 hours filming that one stunt.”
The actor also spoke about that shocking dog plot line and what it’s like to work so closely with Robb. Check out our full interview with Hodge below.
DECIDER: I am absolutely loving Grosse Pointe Garden Society. How was the show pitched to you and what made you decide to sign on?
ALEXANDER HODGE: Okay, so I hope this isn’t a spoiler alert, but I was pitched, “Love triangle.” And my immediate thought was like, I don’t want to play some kind of lifeless, loveless marriage where someone’s always looking on the outside for something else. But the pitch was very much in the vein of Past Lives type triangle where nobody’s right, nobody’s wrong. It’s just life. And that’s kind of what I loved about Doug within Grosse Pointe Garden Society.
You’re so right because as a viewer, I’m not rooting for one guy over the other. It’s not like she’s in this bad marriage and we’re hoping she goes with Brett.
Choosing to take that as a compliment. Yes. No. You’re right. That’s the thing where what I love so much about it is that in the world that we’ve created in Grosse Pointe Garden Society, there are really big personalities and really big reactions which can be funny and then it can pay off. But, you know, the situations are very real, and especially in the dynamic of Alice, Doug and Brett, it’s something that we’ve all found ourselves in, whether it’s career, whether it’s love, whether it’s where we want to live. We’re always sort of looking over the fence just to see whether the grass is a little bit greener. And yeah, I think that’s what makes it kind of hit home a little bit.
What do you think of the comparisons to shows like Desperate Housewives, Pretty Little Liars, and Big Little Lies?
Love, love, love. Like, honestly shows you’re excited to talk about, shows where you’re like, “Oh my God, did you find that? Did you see what happened? Hurry up, get on Peacock. Now watch it. I can’t hold these spoilers.” That kind of fervor for talking about a show, I missed that on network TV, and I don’t think I’m the only person. So Grosse Pointe being likened to Desperate Housewives – love.
Doug is kind of this starving artist – but he also has this dark side we see in later episodes. Are there any existing characters you took inspiration from when molding the way you wanted to play Doug?
Yeah, I think with his sensitivity, he’s quite a sensitive spirit. I definitely look to people who are struggling with that in their work. I think who comes to mind at the moment, Adrien Brody is somebody who really brings a lot of wonderful sensitivity and internal kind of combustion and struggle with a sensitive soul in a harsh world, particularly as an artist. But other than that, I think it was sort of real world. You know, I’m sensitive and I can take things the wrong way sometimes. And I think Doug is also in that regard where, on a bad day, if somebody is antagonizing a little bit, maybe he’s maybe he doesn’t always turn the other cheek. I understand Doug.
You get to work closely with AnnaSophia Robb who’s beloved for her roles in Carrie Diaries, Soul Surfer and Bridge to Terribethea, to name a few. Were you a fan of her work before?
I’ve been a fan of AnnaSophia as a person – the way she carries herself in the world, the way that she uses her platform, the way that she amplifies voices and the way that she brings herself to work. I think watching Rebel Ridge before we got started was amazing because first of all, I love contemporary Westerns, and Rebel Ridge was one of my favorite films from last year. And seeing her work, it got me really excited to jump on set with her and be like, “Okay, cool.” Like, I know it’s a bit of a tête-á-tête. I know I’m going to be up against something, you know? There’s someone who’s bringing it. So I wanted to be able to find that vulnerability within myself, that space. But then also the rhythm in working with her. And I think we found a really great rhythm in working together on set.
What was it like to play her onscreen husband?
Okay, first of all, her real life husband is so cool, so handsome, so smart and tall. He’s so much taller than me. It’s really annoying. So thankfully, he’s not on screen, it’s me. And I can pretend I’m as tall and handsome and intelligent as he is. But it’s so much fun because she, again, is someone who’s so available. When we work together. She is always so enthusiastic about finding the music of a scene and and finding the emotional story and arc and from episode one to episode 13 through to then page one to page 60. And then from the beginning to the end of the scene, there’s always music to be found. And AnnaSophia is such a great partner in crime in finding it.
While most scenes between Alice and Doug are pretty tense, there are some more comedic moments – like when Alice had the dog’s ashes in a sandwich bag on the table or when she pulled out Doug’s gun during their therapy session. How do you go about doing these heavy scenes that have these light-hearted undertones to them?
It’s funny. As we were beginning to shoot the shot, it was always one of those kind of things where we always have conversations between takes of like, “Was that it?” We’re not really sure, because we’re not really sure what we’re aiming to hit. But once the episodes were being edited and we saw how it was being edited together, the world kind of made sense, where, yeah, these scenarios are really quite stark and quite shocking, but there is always just a moment of humor in awareness, in the way a character responds to something – in the awareness that we are watching something that is a little outlandish sometimes. It informs the responses in the show.
Speaking of outlandish, you know all bets are off if the writers are willing to kill off a dog. What were your thoughts on that plot point?
Oh, goodness. Please, please, not me. Whatever it is, my career wouldn’t survive killing a dog. It was one of those moments of like, “Wow, that is bold to start the show there and see if we can take people on this journey.” But look, I’ve learned not to doubt the creators, Jenna and Bill [are] just phenomenal. The writers room they’ve assembled, I call them the Avengers because, like, they literally are just titans of writing. And they have created such a compelling story where that not only fits within the world, it’s not as bold as it seemed at the beginning, but the way we learn about it as we go is just so compelling. It is juicy. It’s almost an insatiable need to find out what happened next.
There have been a lot of theories floating around about who killed Alice’s dog. What do you think of the theory that it was Doug’s parents?
Look, I think Doug’s parents might be a little overbearing, but they just want a baby. I don’t know about your parents but my parents are not so subtle about it, but I don’t think they’re killing dogs. That said, who knows? I’ve enjoyed watching the audience response. You know, there’ve been some really wonderful things I haven’t even considered. Some people are really wonderfully creative and imaginative, and it’s been fun reading some responses.
There was a point where Alice thought it was Doug who killed Molly. When you were reading the script, did you ever think he was someone who would be capable of doing something so terrible?
I was just praying he wasn’t. I really was praying he wasn’t. Again, the writers are just so incredible. We spent a year shooting this show and we’re still shooting it and we didn’t know who were responsible for major plot points until we read them in the scripts, because they kept everybody on their toes and the misdirects fooled all of us. So, you know, I kind of enjoy the idea of perhaps being a part of an idea or a possible suspect or victim. But as long as I’m not the one who killed a dog, I hope I’m going to be okay. We’ll see. We still actually don’t know that. I’m on my best behavior around the writers because I feel like if they don’t like me, I might suddenly be the one holding the smoking gun.
You’ll be the dog killer.
Please. Please. I like my job. I don’t want to do this.
No one in the cast knew who the Garden Club killed while you guys were filming. Did you guys each come up with your own theories? Were any of you right?
Oh, we’ve had some elaborate, elaborate stories where we’ve come together. We’ve thought, “Okay, what about this person?” And then a new episode will be in our inbox and we’re like, “Okay, it doesn’t make so much sense anymore. But what about if it’s this person?” And so we will, like, pitch to each other, and then we sort of take our bets on who we think it is. But I think as we go on, it’s an interesting concept. We’re so used to the whodunit, but this is a whowasit. And so it’s fun how the scene of the crime builds out a bit more. And this sort of this, this figure that we know about, we’re just chomping at the bit to uncover and identify. And we just inch closer and closer and it builds out and it becomes just this like a very compelling story.
On a scale of one to 10, how shocked were you when you found out who was murdered?
Thirteen.
Without spoiling anything, can you talk a bit about your reaction and maybe the rest of the cast’s reaction?
Oh, my goodness. So the episode hit our inboxes at 8 p.m. on a Friday night, and I was working and I had just wrapped. And as I was leaving my dressing room, I heard screams in the hallway and I realized it was because people were finding out who the victim was. And I had to yell into every room on the way out, “Don’t say a word, because I want to go home and read this, and I don’t want any spoilers.” So yes, I would say there was a huge reaction.
I want to jump to that Episode 4 ending. You and Ben Rappaport had a pretty tense fight scene. How did you prep for that? Did you guys do your own stunts?
So we did the fun part of the stunt. The scary part of the stunt? We did not do. I sat by very safely from the edge of the room and I watched people crash into glass, and it was terrifying. On the first take of the stunt, Ben’s stunt double cut his forehead open.
Oh wow!
I know, yeah, exactly. That’s why I don’t do that job. But it was absolutely amazing. We worked with our stunt coordinator and our stunt doubles for a couple of days, rehearsed our fight, which was so much fun, and then we spent 12 hours filming that one stunt. Yeah, it was very involved. A lot of camera angles. A lot of, I think they’re called cowboy switches. A lot of Ben and me face acting and then switching out and then the stunt doubles doing the real work. And then us subbing back in to give more face acting.
We’re led to believe Doug was the one who was murdered – but we haven’t seen a body yet! What was your reaction to reading the script to this episode for the first time?
I had so much fun. I mean, it introduces such a new dynamic in the show because I feel like we’ve talked about a crime a lot, but we haven’t necessarily seen anything too violent or graphic. And we see a fight and it doesn’t cut away. It stays in the tension of the scene. There’s not much comedy in this moment of the episode. So we really shed new light on the depth of where this world goes. And I think for the first time, it makes the murder real, you know? And I think it was just such a fun way to do it. And I’m so glad that I got to be the one in the middle, learning all the stunts and having fun doing it.
Do you think it’s fair to assume Doug was killed or are things maybe not exactly what they seem?
We’ll see. I mean, that’s what makes the whowasit so amazing. Because we have 13 episodes, everybody can take turns at being a bit of a bad guy. So I think by episode four, it’s Doug. We’ve got a few more episodes to go so let’s see who else there is. Again, job security. Let’s hope it’s not Doug. But if it is, then it is. I think that’s the fun of it – is that like we were when we were on set, we can all place our bets and our minds are changing every week. But, you know, we won’t know until we see it.
What else can you tease about the rest of the season?
There are people looking at me in this room hoping I don’t spoil anything! I am so excited. I’m so excited. There is so much that I want to tell you. And oh, can we just sit back down here in like a month and like, go over this again? Because there is so much, so much. And it’s worth it. It’s worth it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
New episodes of Grosse Pointe Garden Society air Sunday nights at 10/9c on NBC.
