‘It is badly behaved, very smart, funny, hooky and full of eye-popping characters’
What do Taylor Swift, Blake Lively and Coleen Rooney have in common? They’ve all been the subject of high-profile legal disputes in recent years.
The Forge delves into this world of celebrity legal battles with its 6 x 60-minute glossy scripted series Reputation, starring Naomie Harris and Christina Hendricks. The drama follows Lena (Harris), a formidable lawyer who has built her career defending free expression, and who gets pulled into the case of the decade representing global pop star Davina Knight (Hendricks).
However, when Davina releases a new song accusing her ex-husband Billy of abusive behaviour, and he retaliates in kind, the couple’s private breakdown quickly turns into a very public legal battle.
Reputation shows the various machinations that kick into effect when a case goes beyond the courtroom into the court of public opinion: PR machines deployed, laws bent and social media users become judge, jury and battleground. Even Lena finds her own personal life put in the line of fire, testing just how far she will go to win.
George Ormond, executive producer and joint managing director of The Forge, says the inspiration for the timely drama came through a conversation with writer Anya Reiss, who was interested in exploring how addictive and polarising celebrity trials can be and how they appeal to “our most tabloid instincts”.
He explains: “Celebrities lock into gladiatorial legal combat, airing their dirty laundry in public and dragging each other into the gutter – but they are also often lightning rods for polarising issues. The online world goes nuts, people get heated about who they support and what they feel about the accusations – we were excited about that.”
He continues: “We had an inspirational early conversation with a senior libel solicitor who talked about how hard it is to control rich and powerful clients. Anya ran with that.”
The natural conflict that arises in the central relationship between Lena, a libel lawyer who has always represented journalists, and Davina, a coddled pop star who does not like being told what to do by a lawyer, turns Reputation into a legal show unlike any Ormond has seen before: “The show is badly behaved, very smart, funny, hooky and full of eye-popping characters.”
Matt Creasey, senior executive vice-president, world excluding EMEA, at Banijay Rights, agrees, lauding Reiss’s writing. “She has a distinctive storytelling style that will draw audiences in, while giving them a look behind the scenes of celebrity PR and the oftencomplicated world of fame.”
It wasn’t the legal aspect of Reputation that caused the biggest challenge: it was Davina’s career as a singer. “Putting a US pop star on screen convincingly, with authenticity and confidence, was one of the things we knew we had to get right from the start,” notes Ormond. “Christina nailed it.”
Though it is “too early to mention” international sales, for Creasey, the hooky, timely premise of the series and the strength of its cast, combined with the quality The Forge is known for, means the series has “all the ingredients to attract international audiences”.
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