The new Netflix mini-series called The Perfect Couple explores the story of a luxurious wedding that turns into a murder investigation. Based on Elin Hilderbrand’s 2018 novel and directed by Emmy and Oscar winner Susanne Bier, the show unpacks the story of middle-aged woman, Amelia Sacks as she prepares herself to become a bride to a member of one of Nantucket’s richest families portrayed by Eve Hewson. Her groom’s mother, Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman), is a great novelist who wants to make the wedding unforgettable. However, soon the location of celebration turns into a crime scene where a dead body washes ashore, and soon it is seen that everyone has his own skeletons in the closet.
Nicole Kidman portrays Greer Garrison Winbury as one of the most intriguing characters in The Perfect Couple. Greer is depicted as a powerful and renowned novelist, and her life feels almost as though it could be drawn from real life. This leads many to wonder: Is Greer Garrison Winbury inspired by a real person?
Is Greer Winbury Based on a Real Novelist?
No, Greer Winbury is not based on a real novelist. She is a fictional character created for The Perfect Couple. However, her character might be inspired by the life and experiences of Elin Hilderbrand, the author of the novel on which the series is based. Hilderbrand, like Greer, is a successful author, but there is no direct connection between Greer and any specific real-life novelist.
Elin Hilderbrand, who is often called ‘the queen of the summer novel’, has her books based on and in Nantucket which is where she lives. Hilderbrand is also an author of many books; however, the major part of her work is the romance novels. The Perfect Couple was the first time she decided to give murder mysteries a try and added the element of summer-time tropes with a darker aspect to them.
It is notable that Hilderbrand’s own life experiences are reflected in her works. She is a breast cancer survivor and has revealed how the fight affected her novels especially in how she depicts female characters as tough. In The Perfect Couple, a mother of the bride character in the novel has stage four breast cancer: it was important for Hilderbrand to depict true characters’ lives with this disease. It is for this reason that such characters are believable even though they can never be real people in the real sense of the word.
Elin Hilderbrand was born on July 17, 1969, in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, but as she grew up, she used to spend her summers in the Cape Cod, thus she had a special fondness for beach plots in her stories. Hilderbrand studied at the Johns Hopkins University and also became a writing fellow at the University Of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She began writing in the early 2000 and her books were hot cakes because of the portrayal of the summer life, characterization and the plot.
Hilderbrand was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, and had a double mastectomy removed from her body. She has included issues to do with illness and overcoming the illness in her books and this after having to go through cancer. she endures the aforesaid odds and brings out a new book each year and for this reason, she is known as ‘queen of the summer novel’.
Nicole Kidman portrays Greer Garrison Winbury, the strong and successful woman author of the series. Kidman also referred to the role as strong and powerful and this made her enjoy portraying the role. She stated that with Greer, it is somewhat different than any other character she has portrayed offering her a challenge. Kidman added to this by say how interested she was in being part of a murder mystery because she used to love it.
Even through Greer Winbury is not a direct portrayal of Elin Hilderbrand or any other real novelist, the character represents the kind of assertive and complicated women that Hilderbrand loves to write about. The fact that Greer’s character is an author of popular mystery novels is a very effective and rather playful twist of the plot as the actual story of the murder is quite similar to the events that happen in her books.
So in conclusion, while Greer Garrison Winbury may only exist in the imagination of the readers, her character has the basis which is drawn from Elin Hilderbrand’s own life experiences. The glamour, mystery, and drama inherent in Greer, as a TV character akin to a mystery woman on a soap opera, speaks volumes about Hilderbrand’s talent and ability to develop deep and interesting personalities for the onscreen characters as well as for the spectators.
The Perfect Couple: Is the Netflix Series Based on a True Story?
The Perfect Couple Filming Locations: Where was The Perfect Couple Filmed?
