Cynthia Erivo on the Deeper Messages That Inspired Roar

At first glance, Roar‘s “The Woman Who Found Bite Marks on Her Skin” is a thriller about a mysterious ailment. But as the episode unfolds, it becomes clear that there’s something else eating at Ambia.

As Cynthia Erivo told E! News, her episode of the Apple TV+ anthology series explores the guilt that women feel when trying to balance motherhood, a career and even their own relationships. “To turn something that is usually a conversation into a reality, into a physical manifestation, it’s a really clever thing to do,” she explained. “I think that most people can understand that, even if you aren’t a mother or a parent.”

She noted that the use of “fantasy [and] horror” emphasizes how deeply this impacts women, saying that people sometimes forget “mothers are still human beings.” 

“They still need space to let loose and they still need moments where they can just be themselves and not mother,” Cynthia said, before acknowledging the difficulty of relinquishing those responsibilities for even an hour. “When mothers sometimes give themselves a chance to do that, it can sometimes lead to guilt for not being there for something or for missing something.”