The actress talks with ET about playing the 'vigilante' who wants Joe Goldberg to suffer for his murderous ways.
Warning: Do not proceed if you have not watched the entire second season of You. Major spoilers ahead. Hear what Penn Badgley, Victoria Pedretti and James Scully had to say about the season's shocking ending.
Candace had one mission in mind: Bring justice to Joe Goldberg. Unfortunately, it was she who met a tragic end.
It happened during the penultimate episode of You's killer second season, when Joe's ex-girlfriend came face to face with his current love obsession, Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), at the eerie storage unit where Joe (Penn Badgley) was being held hostage in his own glass box. Up until this point, there was no indication that Love had a murderous streak as well -- quite the opposite, in fact -- and when Candace blindly ran after Love after the aspiring L.A. chef exhibited signs of morning sickness, it was a complete shock when Love, gripping a broken glass bottle from the trash can turned around and slit Candace's throat.
"Holy s**t," You star Ambyr Childers told ET when she came across the Love twist. "What plays like such a beautiful, innocent, vulnerable person and then you see this dark side to her, it just shows you that everybody has their shadows."
ET spoke with Childers about Candace's tragic fate, why she's intrigued by the notion of a spinoff with her character at the center of it and her thoughts on the discourse surrounding the series -- and what she hopes viewers take away from the latest season.
ET: In the books, Candace is a character who stays dead, so it was a bit of a twist at the end of the first season to see Candace alive and well. Heading into season two, because it's a blank slate for your character, what input did you have with where her story would go?
Ambyr Childers: When I signed on to do the project, I knew I was going to be coming back, so that's a secret that I had. I knew since the beginning. But as far as storylines go, that's really something that most of the actors, we don't really get to choose. It's this part of making TV that, if there are issues there or something that's concerning, we can bring them up. But other than that, the storyline... we give that to the discretion of the creator.
Had you read both books by Caroline Kepnes?
I read the first book on my way to New York when I got the job. I got the job fairly quickly and had to get to work fairly quickly, so I read it within a week, but I did not read the second book. I just wanted to get the tone and the gist of what the show was about, the story, because I was obviously coming in the second half of the series. So I did want to be caught up, but really my character's kind of... I don't really need to know what's going on with the show and I tried not to let it put certain expectations or thoughts in my mind or my head just for how I do my process.
What fascinated you about Candace?
She's the only one in the show that really comes after Joe. She's the vigilante. She's a very strong woman and I love that. I think we're in a time in Hollywood where this character represents so many different avenues of where women are. I know some of it's to the extreme, but she's not a killer and she just wants to take care of the other women that could possibly get into Joe's tactics because she knows how dangerous he is.
There is a lot going on with your character this season. She really is the only one who is calling everything like it is and is the only one who's transparent about her drive and motivation -- to give Joe what's coming to him. What is your take on how Candace approaches the whole Joe-Love situation and how she goes about attempting to protect Love?
I think she has to be very clever about it. Her ticket into the world of Joe, I think, is very clever. The way she has to approach Love and even Forty; they're both really fragile people and she knows that. I think she reads people very well because she's always looking for the right time. But unfortunately, the right time never really happens until the end of the show when she's like, "Ha! I finally got Joe in the f**king cage, let me present to you what I've been doing and trying to help you with and been saying for the last however many months." And unfortunately, with the big twist at the end, it's like, OK, she did the best she could and unfortunately, she had no idea that Love was also a murderer.
Let's talk about that twist. When you read that moment in the script, what was your immediate reaction?
Holy s**t. I think it was such a good idea because no one sees it coming. What plays like such a beautiful, innocent, vulnerable person and then you see this dark side to her, it just shows you that everybody has their shadows. Candace really sees it. What do you do for Love [now]? It makes you question going into the third season. OK, is Love a murderer or did she really do it for love and is she now trying to protect him? That's the lingering question at the end of the second season, which is great.
A part of me was rooting for Candace to get through to Love, that they would somehow team up and bring Joe down. But of course, that's not what happens. Did you think that Candace's story was always going to have a tragic end?
I really think you see Candace in this vulnerable state when she finally -- after all she has been through, all that she knows about with Joe, all that she knows about Beck, all that she knows about him burying her alive -- she hits this moment of, "Oh my god." Just the fact that she could actually put him back into the cage and then she goes to console with Love and then obviously she gets [killed]... I think it's a beautiful ending for my character because I think her goal was to allow Love to know. It's not that Candace didn't accomplish what she wanted or what she set out to do, she very much did and now she has to maybe, whatever that relationship turns into, she said everything. This is not a show about unicorns and butterflies, this is a show about murder and death. I feel like Candace was going to have a tragic end at some point, so that's my personal take on it.
What do you remember about filming Candace's death scene?
I've never died onscreen before, so that was my first onscreen death, I believe, on television. It was weird, but it was more weird because it wasn't like a normal setting. We were in a storage unit, which is so eerie. Now when I go back to my storage unit that I have, I get so freaked out! I can't stand it. I'm always looking down the walkway. It's so creepy to me. It's terrifying. That part definitely had an effect on me; now I'm always like, "Does anyone want to go to my storage unit with me? I'm too scared."
What do you think Candace's lasting impression on Joe is?
I don't think you can change people. I think she was trying to stop him from what he was doing, but alternately you can't make someone not be a murderer. He is who he is. Her goal was to stop him. And Candace is smart enough to know that she's not going to corner him and say, "Shame on you, don't do this anymore." She had that opportunity to kill him and she doesn't. She says, "I'm not like you, I'm not a murderer."
At some point in the first half of the season, Candace is nowhere to be seen or heard but when she comes back into the fray, it's as "Amy Adam" and she's seducing Love's twin brother, Forty. It felt like at that moment, it was a bit like, "Oh, Candace is not playing around and she's going to do whatever she can to infiltrate Joe's inner circle."
That's exactly right. She knows what she's doing. She knows Forty is not the smartest and knows that she could manipulate him and get what she needs out of the relationship, which is really sad. She's smart and she's very determined. Sera Gamble did a very good job creating this character and allowing her to be this very determined, smart, clever woman.
Do you think, in some alternate reality where things were less complicated and murder wasn't on the tip of everyone's tongue, that Candace could have gotten out of this alive?
Joe tried to bury her alive. She takes off to Italy. And she makes a very bold decision to come back and fight this guy. She knows that Joe is not a nice guy. I don't know if that's the right word, but she just knows that he is a murderer and that's pretty f**king wolf of her to be like, "OK, you know what, I'm going to go after my attacker." That's a very heroic character because she knows what he continued to do. Maybe things would've been different if she knew that he didn't do it to Beck. But he made a decision. I think knowing that decision that he made, she knew that there was a possibility of her own death. She had nothing to lose. Candace had nothing to lose by going after him; everyone thinks she's dead anyways. So it's like, "F**k it. Why not go after the guy who put me in the ground?" I mean, I think if I was in that same situation, oh god, I don't know what I would do. Would I come after him? Yeah. Probably.
I feel like Candace is such a strong-willed character that she could be the main character of her own story.
That's funny you say that because I was thinking, "God, that would be..." Candace having her own show, that would be so interesting because if Joe continues to do this with other people that she knew or if she helped other women, that would be such a... I don't know, we might have to text it to Netflix. You could just put that in your article. You think Candice deserves her own show. That would be amazing! I'll make you a celeb if you make that happen.
You had so many pivotal moments this season. What was one scene where you thought, "I can't believe I get to do that or say these words"?
I love the scene with Victoria and I [where Candace reveals who Joe really is to Love]. You really got to see not the crazy Candace, but you really see her with the layers peeling back and really see who she was inside. I'm doing this for this reason and I seem crazy but I'm not crazy. This situation is making me crazy because I don't want you to get hurt. And if it's not Forty or Love or whoever, someone is going to die, it's just a matter of time. I really appreciate and love all that -- all those scenes that the writers gave me because they're really allowed to humanize Candace.
A line that really stuck out was when Candace tells Love, "If he loves you, that's the most dangerous thing."
Yes! People are really blinded by love and it's really scary. Once you get to know somebody and you get an opportunity to see all of them -- the good, the bad, the ugly -- and sometimes it can be dangerous.
The discourse surrounding You has been illuminating; conversations are often about how charming and attractive Joe is, despite all the horrific things he's done in his life. What do you want the message of this season to be?
The most important thing is to understand how much information of ourselves we give away on social media. I know it doesn't seem like it, but a lot of the world is really naive in the sense that there are dangerous people out there and it's really scary. And we have to be very careful with the things that we put out there and information that we give people. It's important to protect ourselves from these unfortunately sick people who don't just prey on young children, but it's men and women and you don't have to necessarily murder someone. But again, people will do really crazy s**t for love or passion.
When someone's obsessed with you, it makes you... I watch a lot of Dateline and all the murder mysteries. If you hear these people's stories, most of the time something happens with their brain that makes them turn. That's terrifying. I think it's really important to understand that we have to be careful with what we put out there on the internet. I have two young daughters and my daughter's getting a cell phone for Christmas. I'm a bit terrified, but luckily we have apps that could protect our children, but you still have to be smart.
The second season of You is streaming now on Netflix.
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