Episode 3 of 1923 was intense. Not only did we finally get a resolution to last week’s wolf attack, Alexandra finally arrived at Ellis Island, only to have an even worse time than she did on the boat to America.
After being punched in the stomach by an immigration officer, Alex is immediately subjected to three, back-to-back invasive and dehumanizing medical exams with three separate doctors. It’s difficult to watch, especially knowing Alex is pregnant with her and Spencer Dutton’s child.
Despite having a great intimacy coordinator on set and knowing how the story plays out, actor Julia Schlaepfer found filming the scenes extra challenging. “My body doesn’t know the difference. I know that I’m acting, but my body doesn’t,” she shared in an exclusive interview with People. “I thought that I would be able to just leave it at the door a little bit easier.”
Still, it was important to Schlaepfer and writer/creator Taylor Sheridan to share what a single, pregnant woman immigrating through Ellis Island would go through at the time. “It felt so important to me to tell this story,” Schlaepfer told Deadline about the episode. “So many people went through this and I felt honored that we got to tell that side of the story.” Researching Ellis Island before filming, Schlaepfer noticed much of the historical record was positive and that finding documented negative experiences was difficult. Her own great-grandfather came to America through Ellis Island during the same time period as the show, and her family has passed down his negative experience through word-of-mouth. Given the lack of written reports of poor treatment, Schlaepfer suspects most families descended from Ellis Island immigrants share their history in the same way.
Searching for details on what medical examinations were like for women immigrating through Ellis Island was more difficult than anticipated, though what information is readily available paints an unpleasant picture. The New York Historical Society’s Women and the American Story (WAMS) curriculum describes most examinations as only lasting seconds. If a woman—typically traveling without a male relative and/or pregnant—was detained, legal and medical examinations could take up to seven hours. According to the AMA Journal of Ethics, only one percent of immigrants were turned away for medical reasons, but roughly 20 percent were temporarily detained according to WAMS.
Even though the majority of immigrants coming through Ellis Island were allowed to enter the country, the process could still be as harrowing as that of Alex’s, especially for women traveling solo. Now, over 100 years later, it’s still scary to travel alone as a woman, never mind immigrating. That fear helped inform Schlaepfer’s performance in episode 3. “It didn’t surprise me that Alex went through this kind of treatment,” she told Deadline. “Even as a woman in the world in 2025, there’s a level of fear that I understand in regard to traveling alone.”
You can watch episodes of 1923 on Paramount Plus.
Published: Mar 12, 2025 02:42 am