Last year Rihanna announced that her first TV role would be reprising the iconic role of Marion Crane in Bates Motel, the prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho. As a fan of the show, she was stoked to fill original actress Janet Leigh’s shoes — or rather, shower.
This week, we’ve been given our first look at the star’s take on the infamous part. Although she only briefly appears at the end of the new season five trailer, her incarnation of the character will reportedly have more to do than the 1960 original.
In the Hitchcock classic (spoiler alert) Marion is murdered soon after checking into the Bates establishment. But Rihanna’s character will have a multi-episode arc. Executive Producer Kerry Ehrin has even suggested her fate might not be the same as the original Marion’s. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he said “We’re taking threads of that story and definitely using them so it’s recognizable, it’s just where we go with it is very different.”
He noted this new direction will build on the experience of female characters more. “In Psycho, you just see the outside of that more. It was trying to do a story about a contemporary woman with some edge, with some expectations, who isn’t perfect, who isn’t always perfectly sweet, who is in that situation, but we’re rooting for her to get what she wants.” Sounds very Rihanna to us.
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Text Wendy Syfret
Screengrab via YouTube