Tessa Thompson has built a career playing women who refuse to be easily categorized. From the swaggering Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok to the quietly devastating Jackie in Passing to the time-traveling TVA agent in Loki, she specializes in characters whose surfaces hide depths that aren’t immediately apparent.
In His & Hers, the six-episode Netflix thriller now streaming, Thompson brings that complexity to Anna Andrews, a news anchor living in “haunted reclusion” who becomes obsessed with a murder in her hometown. The result is a performance that keeps you guessing about what’s real, what’s performance, and who’s actually telling the truth.
Thompson also executive produces the series, which represents her continued expansion into producing the kind of stories she wants to tell. “I am beyond elated to be collaborating with a filmmaker I have long admired and an incredible team to make a fresh offering in a genre that I can never get enough of,” she says of working with director William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth, Eileen). The collaboration pays off in a series that feels both classic and contemporary, a psychological thriller that understands its genre conventions well enough to subvert them.
Jon Bernthal co-stars as Jack Harper, Anna’s estranged husband and the detective investigating the murder that draws her back to Dahlonega, Georgia. Bernthal brings his signature intensity to a role that requires him to be simultaneously suspicious and sympathetic. The central dynamic—two people who know each other too well but trust each other not at all—drives the narrative’s relentless tension.
Thompson and Bernthal have the kind of chemistry that makes domestic warfare compelling; their scenes together crackle with unspoken history and barely contained hostility.
The supporting cast includes Pablo Schreiber as Richard, Anna’s cameraman and the husband of her professional rival; Crystal Fox as Alice, Anna’s mother who lives alone and maybe shouldn’t; and Rebecca Rittenhouse as Lexy, the ambitious anchor who stole Anna’s job. Each character adds layers to the central mystery, creating a web of relationships where everyone has motive and opportunity.
His & Hers is based on Alice Feeney’s 2020 novel, though the setting has been moved from a British village to Georgia. Thompson was instrumental in this relocation, arguing that filming on location would add authenticity. “There is also a genuine feel when shooting on location in Atlanta and Dahlonega, which allows us to engage with the local community, like newscasters and police, to add authenticity to the show,” she explains. The Southern heat becomes almost a character itself, amplifying the claustrophobic atmosphere of small-town secrets.
Oldroyd’s direction emphasizes the physicality of Thompson’s performance. Anna is a woman who has let herself fade away, and Thompson embodies that decay without ever becoming pathetic. When the murder investigation snaps her back to life, the transformation is gradual and believable—a professional remembering her skills, a woman remembering her appetites. It’s the kind of role that requires an actor to suggest multiple timelines simultaneously, and Thompson navigates these demands with apparent ease.
The series asks its audience to choose sides: his or hers. But Thompson’s performance makes clear that Anna is unreliable not because she’s lying, but because she’s been lied to—by others, by herself, by the stories we tell to survive. His & Hers is twisty, seductive, and ultimately devastating, a reminder that Thompson is one of the most interesting actors working today.
Stream His & Hers now on Netflix and watch Tessa Thompson deliver a performance that will keep you guessing until the final frame. The truth depends on who’s telling it.