Rachel Griffiths has more sympathy for her Six Feet Under character 20 years after the show's debut

Salon.com

"It was always hard for me to just understand this girl's inability to get sh*t done," Griffiths says of Brenda Chenowith, her Six Feet Under alter ego. "I kept trying to find jobs for her where she could actually function in the world. To me, she just seemed like an anomaly. I didn't know many women in my life, young women, who were so talented and smart, and so trapped in their own neuroticism." But with hindsight, Griffiths wonders if Brenda helped pave the way for more nuanced TV portrayals of women. "From watching television, I think she would say, 'Thank Christ we are getting closer to actually far more accurate portrayals of what women feel like in themselves, and in their bodies, and what they struggle with and, and a more inclusive notion of what woman is, you know, including non-binary trends,'" she says. "I think she would love this movement to self-definition...And television's a lot more interesting too! There's a lot more good sh*t on television."