The Unexpected Inspiration Behind Raised By Wolves' Mother
"Raised By Wolves" might be one of the strangest sci-fi shows on television right now, so it makes sense that Ridley Scott is involved. The show, which follows two androids who go only by the names "Mother" and "Father" (which isn't unsettling at all) who are raising a brood of human children on a not quite desolate planet, asks all sorts of big questions about what it means to be human and nature versus nurture, and is grim, strange, and studded with mysteries. And while it's true that you can get inspiration from anywhere, Scott's inspo for the incredibly determined Mother comes from a pretty surprising place.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Scott explained that his main inspiration for Mother, who is a reprogrammed military android that can kill people with her screams (like I said, grim and weird), is the "Atlas" statue in New York:
"The best piece of sculpture in New York is "Atlas" holding the world on his shoulders right outside Rockefeller Plaza. I always stand there going, 'F*** me. That's amazing.' And I thought, 'I'm going to do a female version of that.' That's what happens [in this scene]. Trust your intuition. She will be bronze, she can fly, and I won't explain how. She can kill, and I won't explain how. She will have this disturbing predatorial shriek. Those are my intuitions. Everybody just looked at me and went, 'This is dodgy.' But when you have strong intuition, you have to learn to trust that."
Mother, tell your children not to walk my way...
It's certainly not what I would have guessed, but it's still fun. And, despite how out of left field it sounds, I can see what Scott is talking about here. The androids, especially Mother, do have this sort of statuesque, otherworldly quality. They seem larger than life and, somehow, subdued at the same time if that makes any sort of sense. The costuming definitely helps here, since Mother and Father wear skintight suits in a sort of neutral metallic color. Gunmetal? Is that what you would call it.
Anyway, Scott was definitely aiming for scary and awe-inspiring here, as he explained in another interview with Den of Geek:
"I used to stare at that thinking, 'That's Mother.' Except, she'll be supremely female. And so I kind of modeled Mother on that. But she's pretty impressive, isn't she? Scary as hell."
Yes, Ridley. We all love our scary, murder-y, kind of sexy Mother.