‘1923’s Julia Schlaepfer teases that Alex should expect the worst in season 2
Alex hasn’t had an easy go of it on 1923 this season. And Julia Schlaepher isn’t giving us hope that it will get easier for her either.
Schlaepher spoke with TV Line about the episode that led Alex to Grand Central Station in New York City. It doesn’t end the best way for her as she ends up getting robbed and beaten while there, barely knowing where she is going as she boards her train to try and get to Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) in Montana. What doesn’t bode well for fans of Alex is Schlaepher’s little hints that things will get worse before they get better.
“After Elis Island, she feels a little like, ‘OK, I can do this. I did that on my own. I didn’t have anyone protecting me. Spencer wasn’t here. I survived the unimaginable. This is the worst thing that possibly could have happened,” Schlaepher told the outlet. “Alex goes into Season 2 naive to what the world is like. She doesn’t fully understand it. And then, in Grand Central she gets these bits of kindness from the newsstand man and the Grand Central worker. I think it’s this moment of like, ‘OK, people are good. People are OK, and not all bad.”
She went on to hint that Alex thought she was “through the worst of it” but then chuckled making it seem like there is a lot more coming her way. “She is continuously, this season, digging deeper to find her will to keep going.”
The modern woman’s struggle in 1923
Most of what Alex is going through is, unfortunately still relevant today. Which Schlaepher pointed out. She shared that she lived in New York as well and told TV Line about her own feelings and how they, in her own way, mirror that of Alex’s.
“There’s something that feels so modern about it,” she said. “Obviously, it was so much worse back then. But today, as a woman traveling alone? I lived in New York City for 10 years. You’re on edge. There’s a bit of fear. There’s anxiety in your body.” She shared that shooting that scene for Alex “resonated with me and all of the female crew members on that set.”
And, if you’ve lived in New York, you probably also felt a kinship with Alex when she fully sprinted to the train. Who hasn’t been there? But Schlaepher shared that she was the one who got rid of Alex’s shoes in the process. “We rehearsed it once and my director [Ben Richardson] was like, ‘You’re not running fast enough.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s the shoes! I can’t be in these shoes. She needs to rip them off.’ And so yes, he let me rip those suckers off.”
Alex’s struggle is one many of us can relate to but it is also frightening to see that Alex…might not be in the clear yet. If it wasn’t enough watching her go through Ellis Island, it is going to be scary to see what happens to her next.
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