There has been a lot of discourse around the reasoning behind the cancellation of the AppleTV+ series titled The Custom Of The Country. The series, created by Sofia Coppola (Pricilla, Marie Antoinette), was announced in 2020 but was canceled in 2021 by AppleTV+. According to Variety, Coppola spoke in an interview with the New Yorker as to why it was killed and who was supposed to star in it.
In the interview, Coppola revealed that Oscar nominee Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Little Women) had been cast in the leading role. Pugh was set to portray the character Undine Spragg, the leading lady who is described as a girl from the Midwest who ventures out to the east coast to attempt to climb up the social ladder in New York City.
Along with the reveal that Pugh had been cast in the project, Coppola also talked about the reasoning behind why the show was canceled in the first place. At first, she talked about how it was due to funding and there not being enough for her work, but then after some digging, Coppola told the New Yorker that the real reasoning may have been something more deeply rooted in some frustrating misogyny.
Coppola said to the New Yorker, “They pulled our funding. It’s a real drag. I thought they had endless resources.” Previous to speaking with the New Yorker, she had a conversation with the New York Times in which she went into detail about how she was feeling about the reception of her leading character.
“They [Apple execs.] didn’t get the character of Undine,” she said “She’s so ‘unlikable.’ But so is Tony Soprano! … It was like a relationship that you know you probably should’ve gotten out of a while ago.”. She then went on to tell The Times that the execs at Apple did not want to spend a lot of money on a series of great lengths where they didn’t like the main character.
“The idea of an unlikable woman wasn’t their thing,” Coppola said. “But that’s what I’m saying about who’s in charge.”
She then continued, “The people in charge of giving money are usually straight men, still, there’s always people in lower levels who are like myself, but then the bosses have a certain sensibility … If it’s so hard for me to get financing as an established person, I worry about younger women starting out. It’s surprising that it’s still a struggle.”