Discord can be a good thing, it’s all about how you go about it.
Alison Luff spoke with* WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard to promote the second season of HEELS. Luff’s Staci Spade left home because of some turmoil with her husband, Jack Spade (Stephen Amell). The third episode of the new season sees a bit of a resolution between the Spades, and Luff explains where Staci’s head is at as she returns to Duffy.
“I think discord is good in any relationship. I think it’s all about how you have discord and how you have confrontation and the red flag for Staci, or the thing that was sticking out for Staci, is [her and Jack] used to have really healthy discord. They used to have healthy confrontation,” Luff noted, “It was all through healthy communication. And that communication started to get really blurry. Jack started to lie and fib, and that’s something that Stacy just wasn’t going to tolerate.
“I’ve always called her the queen of accountability, whether she needs to learn grace, and I think she does for her partner. That’s something that she does. She holds her partner accountable. That’s how I justified it,” she said. “I don’t think she ever had intentions of like, ‘we’re getting a divorce,‘ or ‘this is an ultimatum.’ I think it was a way she needed him to wake up and [make him] understand that she was serious. Because they’d have these conversations and then she just wasn’t feeling heard throughout the end of season one.”
Family First
Luff said Staci not being heard was a slippery slope, but she didn’t let it become a habit. Staci knows that the wrestling and family dynamic is a complicated one. She’s there to help, but she also wants a say in what’s going on with the business side of things.
“I think it takes time, but what I think she’s learning is to also have grace for him and to understand, ‘Okay, this is something that is important to you. The DWL is important to you.’ It wasn’t necessarily important to her because she didn’t have the same attachment to it. But something she learns is this is important to you and your happiness is important. And your happiness is important to our family because our family is number one,” Alison Luff explained. “That doesn’t mean sacrificing her happiness for his happiness, but I think she has a greater appreciation of, ‘Okay, this means something to you.’
“If this means this much to you, I want some say in it because it’s going to impact our family. And if our family’s going to be impacted, then I want in. I want a piece of it, I want to have some control over it. I don’t trust you now to call all the shots when it involves our family so heavily. But I think she finds her place in the DWL. I think that they do find their stride. They figure out how their weaknesses maybe as a couple, so to speak, end up really being their strength in a working environment as well.”
Getting The Job Done
As the season plays out, Staci gets more involved in the business side of things. Staci is dealing with her issues with Jack, who operates the DWL with a similar mindset to Willie (Mary McCormack). Asked if she believes those respective relationships could influence each other, Luff said it might seem like she’s in over her head but she’s a strong-minded woman that can get things done.
“I think the fact that Jack and Willie operate the same way just goes to show you that it’s not the most efficient way because the DWL is not succeeding. And Staci does say, like, ‘I want to know, I want to know, I want to know,’ but she’s not the kind of woman that once she hears it, she’s like, ‘Okay, never mind. I don’t want to know.’ She wants to know because she has an instinct that something is wrong. She’s going to follow that because she’s not someone that backs away from a situation. She’s someone that handles the situation straight on, head on, and is not going to sweep it under the rug. She knows that that’s going to come back to bite her in the ass. It’s not healthy for her family in the long run,” she explained.
“So yeah, she bites off a little bit more than she can maybe chew. But she’s a strong woman that will always get the job done, no matter what. Maybe she won’t end up doing it the way that she thought. I think she sees that not everything is quite as black and white, things have to get messy sometimes. But again, her priority is family. I think she’ll get as messy as she needs to in order to protect her family.”
Getting Her Hands Dirty
Staci showed early signs of getting her hands dirty (literally) in season one by killing squirrels in her house. That carries over to season two in a figurative sense, showing she is a problem solver and an asset to the DWL and her family.
“She’s not afraid to get her hands dirty,” Alison Luff said. “She’s not like this woman that, ‘Oh, I’ve got a problem, fix this, fix this, and then doesn’t fix it.’ She’s like, ‘All right, if you’re not going to fix it, then I’m going to go shoot these squirrels and take care of it.’ Season two, episode one, somebody confronts her. We see her have that turn of her manners turn off, and she’s like, ‘Hey, this is my personal life. Mind your own business.’”
Season two of HEELS is now airing on STARZ. Watch our full interview with Alison Luff below:
*This interview was recorded prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
