‘Lady in the Lake’ Star Y’lan Noel on Changing Maddie and Ferdie’s Ending

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Lady in the Lake Season 3 finale, “My Story.”]

Lady in the Lake has come to a close with more than a few twists and turns building up to the Apple TV+’s limited series finale, “My Story.”

After the revelation that Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram) was actually alive after she and Reggie Robinson (Josiah Cross) made Dora Carter’s (Jennifer Mogbock) overdosed body appear to be her’s in the lake, Maddie (Natalie Portman) was clued into the unfolding situation and used her reporting to help. Ultimately, Maddie was aided with information that helped shine a light on Shell Gordon’s (Wood Harris) criminal enterprise, allowing Cleo to make a getaway with her family, while also giving Maddie a shot at a big story.

Despite the triumphs, one aspect of Maddie’s new life wasn’t so happy as she and Ferdie (Y’lan Noel) parted ways, but not before he was dismissed from his police job for being caught going into her apartment late at night, as interracial relationships in Baltimore are considered illegal during the ’60s-set story. While he offers Maddie a chance to make their love more official by moving to Virginia, Maddie decides to stay in Maryland and maintain her independence, revealing she has no plans to marry again after her recent liberation.

Below, Noel opens up about book changes onscreen, playing into Ferdie’s good guy tendencies, collaborating with Portman and showrunner Alma Har’el, and reveals what scene was cut from the final edit.

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What were some of the biggest book changes that surprised you?

Y’lan Noel: The biggest thing that changed was characters were a lot more fleshed out. Cleo for instance, was a character who was a lot more fleshed out. Slappy Johnson was a character who was created for the TV show, which gave us some more access to Cleo’s world. All of these characters just came alive a little bit more in the show. It’s always going to be different, an adaptation, but I would say that Ferdie was a lot more mysterious from my perspective, and it was fun to bring a little bit more life to that in the show.

By the end of the season, it’s clear Ferdie is one of the most moral characters in this series. How did you toe the line between the mysterious sides of him and the reality of who he really was?

Yeah, I think that that was one of the draws for me in terms of his character was how much integrity he had. I was able to see that from the book, of course, but it’s always interesting in a whodunit. You never know what people’s intentions are. The thing that sort of kept me going through was that quality of integrity, I liked the fact that he didn’t get into the backdoor [dealings with Shell]. But he didn’t feel obligated to play by the rules, whether it be in his occupation at work as a police officer or romantically. Because it’s the 1960s and the racial taboo and all of that suggests that you shouldn’t be in a relationship with a white woman. He resisted authority while at the same time maintaining his integrity, which is a really fine balance. It was definitely a draw for me when I looked at the character. I said, “Okay, this is something that I could really get behind.”

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Do you think Maddie’s decision to step away from her relationship had anything to do with protecting him from the truth about Cleo’s status?

Yeah, that’s interesting. I think it has a little bit more to do with the launching of her career. I don’t know if she’s in love, but falling in love and being in this romantic entanglement with this man was just a part of her actualizing her liberation and now she’s flourishing in that. So the concept of being back in a situation where she’s tied down to a man during this time where she’s finally gotten from under the thumb of her previous relationship, I just don’t think it’s practical. That’s sort of the sad thing, is that love is impractical and Ferdie is clearly somebody who has found himself fully invested in that impracticality. One of the things that I think that he falls in love with Maddie about is her search for truth. She lacks self-awareness in a lot of these endeavors, but I think it mirrors his fascination and curiosity with truth, and that’s what separates her from the other women that he had been in relationships with.

What was it like working on the evolution of Maddie and Ferdie’s relationship with Natalie Portman?

Yeah, we navigated it together, and with Alma’s help. It was great because I’m such a big fan of hers. I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, and we did with one scene in a diner where he was talking about going to Virginia and I remember that was one of the first times I shot my coverage prior to her shooting her coverage. So I shot it, and then it’s done. You can sort of take [the foot off] the gas a little bit, at least energetically and emotionally, and that was the first time I had that opportunity to just see Natalie Portman act and be able to just witness brilliance. That scene was very heartbreaking because I think that’s when she realized how invested Ferdie is and how her investment didn’t necessarily match and she wanted to reciprocate, but because she was once again flourishing in her own liberation, she couldn’t, and I watched Natalie navigate that really deftly.

Does Ferdie care more for Maddie than she does for him?

I think the timing is off. I think that’s the big thing. I don’t know if anyone cares a little bit more, I think the viewers would sort of be left off with the feeling that Ferdie cared more, but I think that’s just mostly circumstantial considering the relationship initially was Maddie wanting to be seen out in public with him. That’s the tragedy of the relationship, as soon as he started to crack open and say, “Okay, this is real.” That was around the time when she started to distance herself and become more liberated and want to be more independent. So it was just a little bit too late, more than anything. But in terms of their feelings towards one another, I think that they were on the same page. And that’s part of the tragedy.

Do you think there’s a world in which Maddie and Ferdie have a happy ending?

I think so. We actually had shot a scene where they did cross paths. In the book, Ferdie becomes very successful, so viewers can be more at ease by the fact that he doesn’t end up dejecting in poverty or something like that. He ends up becoming very successful, and I think that if it wasn’t a limited series, we could see more of that. But they do cross paths. He comes to a book signing of hers and just to sort of say, “Hey, I’m proud of you. You did it.” In the end, they just realized that it wasn’t necessary. It was more effective.

Lady in the Lake, Streaming now, Apple TV+