Brie Larson has a newfound love for science thanks to her “Lessons in Chemistry” character Elizabeth Zott.
In the Apple TV+ miniseries, the Academy Award winner plays a woman whose dream of being a scientist is challenged by a society that says women should be housewives. Determined to not let societal pressures stop her dreams, she accepts a job on a television cooking show, where she sets out to teach women across the country that they are more than their recipes.
And turns out Elizabeth taught Brie some things too.
“I learned a lot from her, that is very clear,” Brie told Access Hollywood. “I mean mostly I learned about like what a pyrimidine and a purine is, which I did not know previously, and I didn’t care and now I do find it really interesting. So, she got me interested in science in a way that I just didn’t think was in the cards for me in this lifetime.”
But Brie didn’t just learn something from her character, she resonated with her as well.
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View Gallery“I think with any character I play, there’s always a connection because it’s me playing the character. You just can’t separate those things,” Brie said. “I don’t have a belief that like other people are different from me. I think that we’re all basically the same so there’s a lot of course of just like the human struggle and overcoming obstacles and having belief in yourself. Those are all big themes that live in her and live in this story and of course I relate to those.”
The 34-year-old also produced the mini-series, which she said made her performance better.
“I definitely want to keep producing, I just love it so much and I love it in tandem with acting,” she said. “I think producing the things that I’m acting in just really makes the work better. Like if people think my performance is good in the show, I think a huge part of that is because of producing and being able to see and be part of those decisions that were being made.”
New episodes of “Lessons in Chemistry” come out every Friday on AppleTV+.