Question: What’s the experience of adapting your own work like?

Stephanie Danler: One of the reasons I signed on to do this is because I wanted to expand the world of the book and make something new. It’s such a deeply collaborative process, so much different than the kind of loneliness you encounter writing a novel. It was hard work but it was never difficult.

Question: Is the show girl power? How far are you going with that?

Stephanie Danler: The show is really about strong women. The show is really about the relationship Tess develops with her mentor, Simone. How Tess is imagining who she’ll become and how she’s going to turn a somewhat inarticulate woman into a strong woman who doesn’t apologize all the time and knows how to say, “No.”

Ella Purnell: This show is about a young 21 year old lady developing a palate and becoming a person. And she gets a taste for everything. She gets a taste for sex, love and lust and wine and food and music and poetry and so many things. It’s just one small element of what makes her her by the end.

Stu Zicherman: This show is very much about a sensory awakening. There are people in the world who grow up in places where they don’t have the luxury of experience, right? And more than a coming of age, this show is about finding a place where you can begin to experience all the things that form who you’re going to be as an adult.

Question: What is the plan for the overall series?

Stu Zicherman: We’re just six episodes. We’re not biting off that much of the book to begin with. What I love about the book is it’s this incredibly immersive world. So what we’re trying to do in our first season is immerse Tess into this world. The theme we talked about for Season 1 is intoxication. Hopefully our audience will become intoxicated and fall in love with this world. But we have a lot more to go with the book.

Question: What were you seeking from actors during the casting process?

Stephanie Danler: I was looking to have my stomach flip. When I saw tapes of those actors, my stomach flipped. I also wanted people to feel singular to me and didn’t feel like actors. They felt like real lived-in, grounded people that could be working in a restaurant. I didn’t want it to have too much of a fantasy quality to it.

Stu Zicherman: When you see the show, I think you’ll see it’s a real ensemble. When you go to work in a restaurant, it’s sort of like an island of misfits. To us, the show is so much about belonging to something and we wanted to build a world that felt like a family that Tess has to try to fit into. I think we found a really incredible, complex group of actors.

Question: Ella, Tess says she doesn’t know what she wants to do. Can you tell us about when you knew what you wanted to do?

Ella Purnell: I think I still don’t. I just turned 21, it’s a really weird age because you’re trying to figure yourself out and find your place in the world. And Tess just grabs all her stuff and leaves in the middle of the night, and that’s such a brave thing to do. And I think all throughout her life she never really found her thing. I’m quite fortunate because I know my thing is being creative. I think I always knew. I always attracted to music, acting, and film. And with Tess, she has qualities which are actually perfect for the industry she ends up in, even though she doesn’t know that.

Stu Zicherman: That’s something that’s really a central thing in our show. Tess is not like every other character on any other show – she’s not aspirational. She doesn’t come to New York to make it. She really just wants to put one foot in front of the other. A lot of times that’s when your life starts, when you’re waiting. By the end of Season 1, she realizes, “Oh my God, the place I went to go wait, my life is actually starting.”

Question: We’re in a climate now where there’s a lot of accusations of sexual misconduct, harassment at work. Will that affect the way you tell these stories?

Stephanie Danler: It hasn’t changed the way we’re telling our story. It’s a workplace environment. We have a young woman in that environment and she’s navigating a lot of tricky situations that are very true to life. Our show is excited to be part of the conversation. We’re just trying to show what it was like to work in a restaurant in 2006.

Stu Zicherman: I don’t want what’s going on in the culture to squash what’s beautiful about romance and about how people meet and connect. We’re trying to tell a story that’s about a sensory awakening. And part of that is meeting people you connect with, the first time you feel lust, the first time you feel love, the first time you feel passion. And so I think that’s part of the conversation.

TESS (Played by Ella Purnell)

Tess arrives in New York City as a blank slate ready for a new life. She has no friends or specific ambitions beyond finding a job. Despite her lack of experience, Tess’ charm and observational nature find her training at one of New York’s best restaurants. She thinks it’s a temporary solution — a safe place to wait for her life to begin — until she meets the people, and the challenges, that will come to define her.

JAKE (Played by Tom Sturridge)

Jake is a recklessly beautiful bartender, who is mysteriously attached to Simone. Jake awakens a sense of lust in Tess that she has never felt before and a triangle develops amongst him, Tess, and Simone.

SIMONE (Played by Caitlin FitzGerald)

Simone is the embodiment of self-possession, beauty and authority at the restaurant. She has an effortless command over the guests, her co-workers and her wine list. Tess instantly becomes infatuated with her.

HOWARD (Played by Paul Sparks)

Howard is the owner of the restaurant as well as father-figure and mentor to the group of polished professionals who work there. He is poised, thoughtful, and warm -- a man who appears to be exactly where he wants to be.

WILL (Played by Evan Jonigkeit)

Will is the backwaiter assigned to train Tess throughout her "trails,” and her first friend. He’s kind to her and develops feelings for Tess, longing for her the way she longs for Jake.

ARIEL "ARI" (Played by Eden Epstein)

Ariel, known as Ari, is a backwaiter by day and an adventurous lesbian and DJ by night. She and Heather are a fearsome duo, who treat gossip like a professional sport.

HEATHER (Played by Jasmine Mathews)

Heather is a server who is postponing law school and hiding from her academic parents who don’t understand why she’s working in restaurants.

SASHA (Played by Daniyar)

Sasha is a Russian immigrant-turned-backwaiter who loves watermelon flavored vodka and pop music - he's exceptional at his job and desperate to get his green card sponsored.

BECKY (Played by Katerina Tannenbaum)

Becky is the bright and beautiful restaurant hostess. She is the first face guests see as they enter and the last one they see when leaving, setting the tone for their entire dining experience. While she appears sweet and perhaps a little vapid, she also harbors a darker secret that could potentially change both Tess’s perspective and the restaurant as a whole.

NICKY (Played by Todd Gearhart)

Nicky, first known to Tess as “Clark Kent Glasses”, is the restaurant’s longtime bartender. His crooked bowtie, Long Island accent, and general unpretentiousness have been drawing people to the bar for decades. No longer considered one of the kids going out to dive bars after work, Nicky is set apart from much of the staff by the normalcy of his life outside the restaurant. He has children and a wife he met at his own bar a decade ago. While he is kind to Tess, he doesn’t hesitate to tease her mercilessly.

MANNY (Played by Gabriel Gutierrez)

Manny, in his mid-30s, is the restaurant’s prep cook. While it may not seem obvious at first, Manny is menacing and not afraid to assert his mafia-like power in the restaurant when Tess oversteps her bounds.

SANTOS (Played by Rafa Beatos)

Tess arrives in New York City as a blank slate ready for a new life. She has no friends or specific ambitions beyond finding a job. Despite her lack of experience, Tess’ charm and observational nature find her training at one of New York’s best restaurants. She thinks it’s a temporary solution — a safe place to wait for her life to begin — until she meets the people, and the challenges, that will come to define her.

SCOTT (Played by Jimmie Saito)

Scott is the restaurant’s handsome, strong-minded sous chef. His incredible kitchen skills represent a fresh new direction and future for the restaurant, but his innovative menu ideas are mostly rejected by the traditional higher-ups. Scott is commanding and intimidating in the kitchen, and while he originally views Tess as nothing but a nuisance, they eventually develop a friendship.

If you want to know nothing about the episodes at all, skip this section. Provided by STARZ, this episode guide includes general episode descriptions and specific plot details.

"Salt"
May 6, 2018 at 8:00pm ET/PT
Tess, a 22-year-old, moves to New York City without friends or a specific ambition; after an interview at one of the best restaurants, she's invited to train there; Tess attempts to keep up while observing her new co-workers.

"Now Your Tongue Is Coded"
May 13, 2018 at 8:00pm ET/PT
When Tess forgets her wallet at the restaurant, she goes back to discover what happens after-hours: shift drinks. At the end of shift, each employee is entitled to one drink ­ or ten. As Tess sips her wine, Simone teaches her about the coding of our tongues: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, leading Tess to become even more enthralled by Simone. Sasha then recruits Tess to find his missing "green card wife." Along the way, Tess finds out where everyone goes after they've clocked out for the night.

"Everyone Is Soigne"
May 20, 2018 at 8:00pm ET/PT
Tess is beginning to master some essential backwaiter skills, but there is still one thing she struggles with: the three plate carry. She asks Will to help her practice after work, which leads to her first romantic encounter with a coworker. The next shift, Tess meets Serena, an alumna of the restaurant who married one of their wealthiest guests, Fred Benson. Serena and Simone were best friends until Serena chose to leave the restaurant and settle down. To Tess, Serena has the picture-perfect New York life. But Simone teaches Tess not to believe everything she sees.

"Simone's"
May 27, 2018 at 8:00pm ET/PT
Tess finally has a day off from the restaurant. Instead of running errands or doing laundry, she wants to explore her new city. She goes to an art museum, where she runs into a childhood friend and her mother. They startle her, and her life doesn't sound as impressive as it feels. Her day is definitely not going as planned. Tess decides to go to Simone's apartment unannounced to borrow her wine books. Simone¹s apartment is all Tess could hope for: filled with artifacts from traveling the world, various books Simone has read, and a perfect bathtub directly in the middle of the kitchen. After Simone invites Tess into her intimate world, her abrupt expulsion leaves Tess lonelier than ever. She goes back to the only place she knows: the restaurant.

"Weird Night"
June 3, 2018 at 8:00pm ET/PT
Tess arrives at the restaurant in high spirits, but soon realizes this is a night where everything will go wrong. The dishwasher is broken, a hostess and bartender are missing, and Sasha is upset that Howard still will not promote him to server. After an exhausting and chaotic shift, Tess and Sasha embark on a drug-fueled night of dancing and adventure to burn off the stress of work.

"It's Mine"
June 10, 2018 at 8:00pm ET/PT
After a long night of partying until sunrise, Tess finds herself in a less than ideal state for her big day at the restaurant. Today is her final exam, and she will either pass her trails and be hired as a backwaiter, or fail and lose her newfound family for good.