Eliza Scanlen Is Skating Away With ‘Sharp Objects’

Sharp Objects is basically a show about dead girls. They drive the plot and haunt Amy Adams‘s Camille Preaker, who has to contend with the specter of her beloved sister Marion, the memory of her friend Alice, and the unsolved murders of two poor girls — Ann Nash and Natalie Keene. But the most unsettling part of Sharp Objects might very well be a living girl. Camille’s sister Amma is a study in the hellacious pain of being a teen, and actress Eliza Scanlen tears through Sharp Objects with equal amounts of sass and sorrow.

Amma Crellin is a really fascinating character. Without spoiling too much of Gillian Flynn’s novel, she’s got a vital part to play in how Camille unravels the mystery choking the tiny town of Wind Gap, Missouri. Plot-wise, Amma has a connection to Ann and Natalie. The two girls were her peers, and since Amma has positioned herself as the town’s teenaged Queen Bee, she’s got a unique insight into who those girls were and who the primary suspects should be.

Beyond the nitty-gritty of the story, though, Amma has a hold on Camille. You can see it in last night’s episode, where she plays upon Camille’s own insecurities. She peacocks for her sister, bragging that she’s almost a woman, and then as Camille remains stiff-backed and nervous, Amma shifts her strategy. She nestles herself against Camille and acts like a baby. In real time, we’re seeing how easily Amma occupies the awful, confusing netherland of being a teenager. Britney Spears might have once bleated, “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman,” but Amma Crellin does her best to be both, and then some.

Being a teenaged girl is its own special kind of hell. It’s a liminal existence, where you’re not only trying to figure out who you are as a person from the inside, but the world is telling you where you fit based on what’s outside. Amma doesn’t just understand this; she’s mastered it. She’s her mother’s little princess, simpering and throwing temper tantrums like a kindergartener. She’s the sexy queen bee who reigns over the town — every single person in her thrall. She’s a holy terror and a victim trying to break free. Amma is a character torn between all these different “performances” of what being a teen girl is, and yet she remains in total control. Rather than be someone else’s puppet, she is the one masterminding her own virtuoso performance.

So many of the great dramas about women are about the performance aspect of femininity. Beyond the pageantry of ornate hairstyles, made up faces, and picture perfect outfits, womanhood is about appealing to what others want to see in you. Mothers are required to be nurturing and selfless, daughters are supposed to remain sweet and unspoiled. Women in general are supposed to be a maddening list of contradictions: sexy, innocent, smart, humble, pretty, non-threatening, and most of all, likable. The crazy thing about Amma is that she effortlessly accomplishes all this and more. She is a living doll, and she seems to draw power from her ability to shape shift according to the situation. It’s unnerving and intoxicating to watch her go.

Because of all these contradictions, I find Amma to be the most extraordinary character in Sharp Objects, and Eliza Scanlen is the show’s secret weapon. While it’s true that stars Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson are dominating the conversation around the show, Scanlan is the one delivering the most shocking performance. She’s meticulously creating a character out of multiple personalities, all of them shockingly endearing, if not also maniacally seductive. She is the teenage dream that will keep you up at night: the wild woman child who can’t be tamed. The reason she can’t be tamed? Because she’s the one who has brought everyone else to heel.

Where to Stream Sharp Objects