Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks, stars and executive producers of Prime Video’s limited series The Better Sister, reflected on their collaboration and the story’s emotional layers during a panel at the Deadline Studio at Prime Experience.
Banks described their immediate rapport as instinctive. “It was very natural,” she said, joking, “I just started sh*tting on you pretty quickly, and then you took it, and then you gave it back a little. And then we just were like, ‘This is what it’s supposed to be.’”
The series is based on Alafair Burke’s novel and centers on Chloe (Biel), a high-achieving professional whose life is upended by the murder of her husband, Adam (Corey Stoll). While caring for Adam’s teenage son Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan), Chloe must navigate the return of her estranged sister Nicky (Banks), a recovering addict who is Ethan’s birth mother and Adam’s ex-wife.
“With my own sisters, there are very few things that they could do where I would never want to talk to them again,” Banks said. “Sleeping with my husband probably is one of them.”
Co-showrunners and executive producers Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado said the book’s themes aligned with their longstanding interests. Milch explained, “The second we read it, we felt like, ‘Well, we’ve got to do this.’ I think both Regina and I are so drawn to stories about family, about sisterhood, and this idea of what does it mean to have different experiences of your parents?”
Biel emphasized how the production encouraged creative openness. “There was so much to mine, from the amazing scripts to the book,” she said. “Then there was nothing but an open channel of collaboration. Anything that we felt that we wanted to add or adjust… everything was allowed.”
Banks spoke about grounding her character through Nicky’s connection to recovery programs. “I’ve been to meetings, I’ve been to Al-Anon. I have friends and family who work that program whose lives are really helped by it,” she said. “What it gave to the character was, I knew from how it works, that you have to own all your bullsh*t when you go through that program.”
She added that Nicky’s sobriety shaped her perspective as someone who had already confronted personal trauma, in contrast to Chloe’s internalized responses.
The cast includes Lorraine Toussaint and Kim Dickens, with Matthew Modine playing Adam’s boss. The series also features a largely female production team and department heads, though Corrado said the dynamic was recognized only in hindsight. “I never thought about it as all women. I just thought, ‘These are professionals that we’re so lucky to work with.’”
Biel described a set culture shaped by flexibility and collaboration. “Everyone was very humble to, ‘What does it need? What does it need to be the best possible product?’” she said. “Nobody cared about that. It was a macro view of what we were doing… and we had a lot of chai and snacks.” She added there was also “so much ice cream.”
Corrado said the core of the story was always about family dynamics. “We love dysfunction,” she joked. “That was always what drove the train.” She described the process as one rooted in personal reflection. “We are extremely honest with our own damage and our own journey.”
Milch explained that the narrative’s focus is on the process of reconnection. “Two sisters diverged in the woods, brought back together by murder,” she said. “Not in the illusion that they are different, but in the understanding that they are connected — and what that connection demands.”
All episodes of The Better Sister will be available to stream on Prime Video starting May 29.
