When Betty Gilpin gets a role, the first thing she usually does is write as if she were that person. She imagines her greatest fears and wildest dreams. But when she landed the role of Lina in Three women – based on Lisa Taddeo’s book of the same name – that work was already done for her. So how did she find Lina? “I remember writing to Lisa and saying, ‘Over-caffeinated deer with cum in its mouth?’ And she said, ‘Yes.'”

That’s how you could describe Lina, one of the title characters at the center of the upcoming Starz adaptation of Taddeo’s bestseller. When Taddeo’s book came out in 2019, it offered a startlingly honest look at women’s sexuality, told through the stories of Lina, a housewife in Indiana whose husband hadn’t shown her true affection in years; Sloane, a happily married woman in Rhode Island whose husband enjoyed watching her have sex with other people; and Maggie, a young woman whose world had been warped by a high school teacher who began a sexual relationship with her when she was 17. And when she was strong enough to come forward, no one believed her.

In Taddeo’s book, for which the author spent eight years getting to know her protagonists, Maggie was the only character who did not use a pseudonym. It was precisely for this reason that Taddeo felt she needed to have a conversation with the real Maggie before adapting the story for television.

“One of my first feelings after we talked about the adaptation was all this fear: Will fewer people believe Maggie or more people believe her, will that be good for her?” says Taddeo. After speaking to Maggie and all the real people in the book, Taddeo decided that Maggie’s story needed to be heard. “Everyone agreed that her world should be portrayed both accurately and that she would feel compassion, love and care when she watched it.”

Gabrielle Creevy plays Maggie on screen, following her journey both in the past as she builds a relationship with her teacher, and in the present as she makes accusations and tells her story. “You see her grow and regain her strength,” says Creevy. “I felt really strong doing that. She knows what’s right and she didn’t stop. That’s what’s amazing about her.”

“Her story is one of resilience, determination, strength and bravery in the face of adversity,” adds showrunner Laura Eason. “That ability to face whatever was thrown at her when she rose to the challenge shows real drive and drive.”

Maggie’s story parallels those of Lina (Betty Gilpin) and Sloane (DeWanda Wise), with Lina being the aforementioned deer. “I was such a huge fan of the book, and when they first announced they were going to make a show out of it, I was skeptical,” says Gilpin. “What makes the book so incredible is that there are no images, because you don’t attach a person to it, you see yourself in all three women. Lisa let us make almost no judgments about them because we were so immersed in their psyche. But I think, oddly, it felt like when we had the answers to the test, when we were doing the show with the book as a map, she didn’t give us the opportunity to get it wrong.”

Lina’s story is one of a midlife awakening when she reunites with an old high school flame and begins an affair. “I didn’t want to play the sad mother. She’s so much more than that,” says Gilpin. “I really wanted to capture her hope and her childlike love of romance. So much of her is frozen at 16, in a heartbreaking way but also in a wonderful way. She’s one of those people that when they talk to you, you take a deep breath, hoping they’ll take a deep breath, but that’s never going to happen because they’re a runaway train of desire and need.”

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And then there’s Sloane, the absurdly beautiful, incredibly confident, happily married bisexual woman. Together with her husband Richard (Blair Underwood), they are the only representation of a happy marriage in the series. “Ultimately, their relationship is rooted in love, respect and mutual admiration, but most of all, love,” says Underwood. “He idolizes this woman.”

Sloane finds herself attracted to another man in a way that tests her love, but the show isn’t just about crushes and sexual desire. It’s about the inner lives of these women — what drives them, what makes them happy and how they experience the world. The camera doesn’t turn away from the sexy moments…or the rough ones. “It’s so much about the majesty of the everyday,” says DeWanda Wise. “You’re drawn into the very real lives of these women. Anytime you see a woman in a restroom, we’re going to tell the truth. You know what I mean? If you were a fan of this book, and I am, you could imagine reading it and thinking, ‘Oh, they did the slick Hollywood thing?’ Nobody wants that.”

The stories of these women are told by Gia, while Shailene Woodley plays the role of Lisa Taddeo, who also struggles to figure out what she wants out of life. “When I met Lisa, I immediately thought, ‘Where have you been all my life? It would have been so much easier if I had met you sooner,'” Woodley recalls. “For me, Gia is a character that is obviously based on Lisa and a lot of her own experiences, and just the nature of the world and how art works sometimes. I can really relate to Gia the person and the life that Gia lived. Sometimes we find it easier to get lost in someone else’s story and chaos and help them feel less alone than to do the hard work on ourselves. In some ways, she’s fearless – she travels all over the country meeting strangers – and yet underneath it all is this constant, trembling fear of, ‘Am I going to be OK? Is life a safe place to live?'”

More than three years after filming the 10-part series, the team hopes the show will find a safe home. In her introduction to the book, Taddeo writes that she set out to “capture the heat and sting of female desire so that men and other women can more easily understand it before they judge it.” The series has a similar goal.

“What’s really important on the show is that you don’t allow yourself to be judgemental and give people space to be themselves,” says Eason, adding, “When you really dive into your desires, trust your gut and really go for what you know deep down in your heart is right for you, it can produce incredible things. I think that’s true of the message of the show, the content of the show and the experience of the show.”

Three women Premieres Friday, September 13, on Starz.