Mae Martin, Toni Collette, and Sarah Gadon Go Inside Netflix’s Wayward and the Complexities of Control
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Netflix’s new limited series Wayward defies easy categorization. Part psychological thriller, part emotional drama, it follows a group of teenagers sent to an elite reform academy and the adults they become years later, still haunted by what happened there. Created, written, and co-starring Mae Martin, with performances by Toni Collette and Sarah Gadon, the series explores how idealism collides with compromise, and how the pursuit of “healing” can blur into manipulation.
For Martin, the story began with a familiar, universal feeling, the fierce sense of moral clarity that often defines adolescence.
“I remember being a teenager and having this visceral sense of injustice,” Martin says. “You see hypocrisy everywhere, and as adults we tend to gaslight young people out of that idealism. I wanted to capture both that purity and what happens when we start making compromises.”
The show’s dual timeline juxtaposing teens at the academy with their adult selves in the wider community allows Martin to examine how youthful conviction transforms under societal pressure. Research into the “troubled teen” industry, including its roots in 1970s self-help movements and cult like programs, provided the foundation for Wayward’s unsettling authenticity.
“These institutions didn’t start as villainous,” Martin explains. “They came out of real anxiety and good intentions about self-expression, community, chosen family. But human nature always creeps in, and power gets abused. I wanted to live in that gray area.”
At the center of the story is Evelyn, the academy’s founder — a woman who believes she’s creating a better world, even as her methods cross every ethical line. Played by Toni Collette, Evelyn is both visionary and tyrant, healer and manipulator.
“She’s so narcissistic she can justify anything,” Collette says. “Every relationship she has is transactional. The only way she knows to connect is by saving people, by feeling needed. It’s tragic, but that’s what makes her fascinating.”
Collette worked closely with Martin to capture Evelyn’s psychological tactics, from her commanding speech patterns to her physical presence. “Sometimes she overwhelms everyone; other times she leaves silences for people to fill,” Collette explains. “It’s all about control. But as the story unfolds, you realize she’s built this world out of her own trauma.”
While Evelyn embodies the system’s power, Sarah Gadon’s Laura represents its victims and the complicated ways they internalize that power. Returning to her hometown years later, Laura begins to unearth repressed memories from her time at the academy.
“When we shot the series, I was six months postpartum,” Gadon recalls. “I was rediscovering who I was putting myself back together and I related deeply to Laura’s journey of reconstruction.”
Laura becomes fixated on breaking the cycle of control she once endured. “She’s about to become a mother, and she doesn’t want to do it the way she was parented,” Gadon says. “But her trauma keeps distorting her choices. That tension is what drives her.”
A recurring motif in Wayward is the duality of human traits, the idea that what we perceive as flaws can also be our greatest strengths. Martin sees that as central to the show’s emotional resonance.
“The behaviors adults label as problematic in these kids are often the same things that make them resilient,” Martin says. “The more open I’ve been about my own flaws, the more people connect. That vulnerability is what makes us human.”
This perspective extends to every relationship in Wayward, from Evelyn’s desperate need to nurture to Laura’s obsessive search for truth. Each character’s most damaging tendencies also fuel their growth or their downfall.
Ultimately, Wayward resists the simplicity of villains and heroes. It’s a study of power, healing, and the human instinct to control what we fear. Through performances that balance raw vulnerability and quiet menace, Collette and Gadon embody the show’s central paradox: that even our best intentions can become destructive when left unchecked.
“It’s about the cycles we repeat,” Collette says. “Everyone in Wayward is trying to help someone, they just can’t see the damage they’re doing.”
