She-Hulk creator and head writer Jessica Gao reveals she had to fight keep the women's bathroom scene from episode 1 in the final cut.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law creator and head writer Jessica Gao has revealed that she fought hard to keep one scene in particular in the first episode of the series. Marvel Studios' She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, the latest Disney+ series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, follows Tatiana Maslany's Jennifer Walters, a Californian lawyer who transforms into the 6-foot-7 She-Hulk after a car accident exposes her to her cousin Bruce Banner's gamma-irradiated blood. She-Hulk is the last Marvel TV series to be released in Phase 4.
She-Hulk episode 1, "A Normal Amount of Rage," introduces Walters as she learns to live as a Hulk under the tutelage of Banner on his private Mexican island. Early in the episode, after Jen experiences her first She-Hulk transformation following the car accident, she stumbles into a bar bathroom looking to recollect herself. Having turned back into her human form, Jen looks worse for wear, drawing the attention of other women who enter the restroom. Believing Jen was the victim of domestic abuse, the group helps her, offering her shoes, makeup, and a phone so she can call Bruce. It's a small, but important moment that Gao was adamant stay in.
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In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Gao discussed the bathroom scene and why she felt it was important for it to be in the episode. She explained that she had to fight for it to remain in "A Normal Amount of Rage," as some people thought it could easily be cut for story purposes. Check out her comments in the space below:
"That scene is so important to me. I had to really go to bat for that scene, because a lot of people didn't understand why it was so important. If you look at it from the surface level, you're like, "It's kind of an extraneous scene. It doesn't serve a plot purpose." You could cut it, and you'd still understand what was happening in the story. But I was like, "This is the single most important scene in that entire episode to me." Because it really shows the magic and protective warmth of the women's bathroom. It is a beautiful and safe environment. Outside at the bar, maybe these women would have fought each other. But for some reason, when you get past the barrier of the women's bathroom door, it is the most protective and supportive and loving environment. A girl that you meet in the bathroom of a club will go and help you bury your dude if you need her to."
The scene that Gao references is an important one in the context of the entire series, not just episode 1, especially as it is immediately followed by a scene in which Walters is surrounded and pressured by a group of men whose advances she rejects. The women's bathroom scene is an important show of female solidarity, which will seemingly be a running theme in the series as Walters compares the Hulk's anger and fear-induced transformations to "the baseline of any woman existing". The scene also presents an opportunity to spend more time with Walters in her human form, particularly as Gao and the show's directing team, led by Kat Coiro, were urged to cut down on the amount of She-Hulk scenes in the series.
The inclusion of more light-hearted scenes, to reflect She-Hulk: Attorney At Law's more comedic tone, and scenes of Walters in her human form have had greater significance placed on them since the release of the debut episode and after the negative reaction to the CGI in the series trailers. Placing such emphasis on CGI-reliant characters in a serialized format shows the challenges faced by Gao and the directing team in adapting the character to the small screen. The early She-Hulk reactions are positive, and suggest that Gao has already found a healthy balance between She-Hulk action scenes and quieter, emotional scenes with Jennifer Walters.