Apr 8, 2026 3:15pm PT

‘Imperfect Women’ Star Kate Mara on Nancy’s Traumatic Past, That Affair With [SPOILER] and Her Last Few Months Alive

Arushi Jacob

Plus Icon

Arushi Jacob

Latest

‘Imperfect Women’ Star Kate Mara on Nancy’s Traumatic Past, That Affair With [SPOILER] and Her Last Few Months Alive

40 minutes ago

Sundance Institute Selects 7 Fellows for Cultural Impact Residency Honoring Michael Latt – Film News in Brief

6 hours ago

Peacock Crime Thriller Series ‘M.I.A’ Drops Bloody, Neon-Soaked Trailer (TV News Roundup)

7 hours ago

See All

Courtesy of Apple TV

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains stories from the Episode 5 of “Imperfect Women,” now streaming on Apple TV.

There’s a lot to learn about Kate Mara’s Nancy Hennessy in “Imperfect Women.”

The Pasadena socialite – whose murder kickstarts AppleTV’s mystery thriller – is hard to figure out. Growing up in a trailer park in Bakersfield, Nancy has led a difficult and complicated life that the audience sees only in glimpses, before eventually marrying the wealthy and affluent Robert (Joel Kinnaman). Over the first three episodes of “Imperfect Women,” told through the perspective of her best friend Eleanor (Kerry Washington), we learn that Nancy was having an affair with a mystery man named David.

With both the police and Nancy’s friends believing her lover to be responsible for her murder, David’s identity is seemingly revealed in Episode 4 when a bartender with the same name begins flirting with Nancy at a New Year’s Day party at her Pasadena mansion. But when she turns him down, the audience is back to square one, until she refers to Howard (Corey Stoll) — her other best friend Mary’s (Elisabeth Moss) husband – as “David” in the episode’s closing moments as part of an inside joke.

Nancy faces a series of blows in Episode 4: She has less than ideal interactions with her husband, her husband’s father, and her daughter, whom she slaps in front of everyone at the party. Mortified, Nancy runs out and is followed by Mary and Eleanor, plagued by memories of her traumatic childhood, which includes being repeatedly assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend and being blamed for it by her mother — who crashed a car they were both in as a form of punishment. She tries to apologize to her daughter, Cora (Audrey Zahn), and is shut out by both her and Robert, eventually discovering what she assumes are divorce papers on his laptop.

The threat of an impending divorce hanging over her head, Nancy starts working on a production of “Ariadne” at the L.A. Metro Ballet in Episode 5, where she lands an unemployed Howard a job as an academic consultant as a favor. Spending every day together, Howard and Nancy strike up a friendship that escalates into an affair after a drunken night celebrating the show’s wrap.

Later, Nancy finally discovers the reason Robert’s been pulling away for months – he’s lost a large chunk of money in a bad business deal and tells her they should probably separate to protect her from the financial fallout. Nancy, overcome with relief, assures him she loves him and doesn’t care about the money. (“Your money did not rescue me. I’ve been living without your love for three months now and I’m a total mess,” she cries). The pair reunite to make it to the opening night of “Ariadne” – where Nancy calls off her affair with Howard despite his aggressive pushback, and return home happy. That is, until Robert discovers she’s been having an affair, thanks to Howard anonymously sending him illicit photos of her. Following a violent outburst from Robert, Nancy gets in her car and flees in the last scene of the episode.

Below, Mara spoke with Variety about Nancy’s past trauma, the character’s relationship with Robert — and why she began the affair in the first place.

'Imperfect Women' Star Kate Mara on Nancy's Traumatic Past, That Affair With [SPOILER] and Her Last Few Months Alive