‘Gaslit’ looks at the drama behind Watergate

Behind the scenes? Another story. In “Gaslit,” a STARZ limited series, producers attempt to show what kind of intrigue was afoot in the Nixon White House.

Mitchell, played by Julia Roberts, wasn’t hiding anything.

“Back then, (public figures) were very stiff, Norman Rockwell versions of themselves,” says Betty Gilpin, who plays Maureen Dean. “Now, we’re inundated with people being their true, authentic, loud, brash selves. Martha Mitchell was sort of refreshing, even to people who didn’t agree with her politics.”

Mitchell went on talk shows, told her truths and was viewed as someone who was unstable.

Based on Slate’s podcast, “Slow Burn,” the eight-episode series, looks at those whistleblowers who weren’t in the spotlight. While Watergate pulled the Mitchells apart (John Mitchell served as Nixon’s campaign chair and former Attorney General), it brought John and Maureen Dean closer together. Dean, the White House counsel for Nixon, pleaded guilty for his role in the cover-up. Today, he works as an author and political commentator, warning about the actions President Trump took during his tenure.

“Gaslit,” Executive Producer Robbie Pickering says, doesn’t focus on the minutiae of the case, but the two marriages “and how complicity either destroys or binds relationships together. We like to think of it as a relationship drama as well as a political thriller.”

The women in many of the films made about Watergate after the scandal were “largely ignored,” according to Executive Producer Sam Esmail. “Until you listened to that podcast and watch this show, you (don’t realize) what actually went on.”

Pickering says Martha Mitchell was the first person to publicly blow the whistle on those involved in Watergate. “Hopefully, we can correct the record a little bit with this show.”

Dan Stevens, who plays John Dean, says he did a deep dive into the Watergate era. What he found was how the human stories lifted off the page – “what you don’t read on Wikipedia or any history books is about the wives and daughters of these men who were mentioned.”

Gilpin says when you see the Watergate story from the female perspective you realize “they are women in 1972 struggling with the obstacles that women of the time dealt with. I think that’s also why we don’t hear about it. Even the heroes of the story were racist and sexist and marginalizing the people whose stories should have been told.”

Says Pickering: “Martha was like every Fox News personality rolled into one. She was a total conservative cheerleader and a segregationist. I have always been fascinated by conservative women like that. It’s like you want to root for them because a woman in this movement is kind of punk rock but also it’s like, ‘you’re punk rock for horrible things.’ A lot of it was she was doing it because she was jealous of the hold Nixon had over her husband, which is kind a selfish motivation, but that’s the way heroes are made.”

Mitchell, he adds, wasn’t some “drunk, crazy lady. She was the first person to publicly blow the whistle on these people. Hopefully, we can correct the record a little bit with this show.”

“Gaslit” begins April 24 on STARZ.