“But on the latest episode of season four, her character becomes entangled in a scandal and embarks on an airplane solo.”, — write: www.dailymail.co.uk
Lee has been playing Stella Bak, the president of UBA’s news division, since 2021.
But on the latest episode of season four, her character becomes entangled in a scandal and embarks on an airplane solo.
Now Lee, 42, has officially revealed this is the last viewers will be seeing of her character on The Morning Show.
‘This is the first time I’m saying it out loud but yeah, this is the end. This is goodbye,’ she told The Hollywood Reporter.
The season still has four more episodes up it’s sleeve, and Lee re-iterated ‘this is the end of the road’ for her character.
‘I know, I know. It’s shocking. But, this is it. This is the end of the road for her, and I feel all kinds of things. We’re with these characters for so long, it’s surreal. I haven’t been able to say anything because I didn’t want to spoil it, but I’ve known for some time now that this is the end of the road for her and this is her goodbye.’
Bak’s storyline ended after her affair with her boss’s husband (Miles, played by Aaron Pieree) was revealed during presentation that went wrong, prompting her to take off on an airplane by herself.
The final scene she filmed was immediately after the presentation, and Bak acknowledged having some tears as they called ‘cut.’
‘Yes, right after the presentation. I feel emotional now. There were definitely some tears. The crew — we’ve been family for years and years, and have been through so much.
‘We came together in COVID and were one of the first productions up and running again, trying to navigate this whole new frontier. We’ve been through the strike together, the L.A. fires.
‘I always felt with Stella like we were doing something new. That was something I could never take for granted every day I was at work. Given everything that happened and knowing we were moving toward this goodbye, it was painful. I’m not one to carry things home with me, because I have two young kids who have zero tolerance or patience for that; but it was hard.
Bak said she got extremely sick as they shot the presentation scene,
‘That scene — we filmed the big AI presentation at the Academy Museum — I got so sick. I got some sort of bug. I rarely get sick, and we had to stop and shut down production with all these extras. Millicent Shelton, our incredible director, had to hold my hair back! I was shaking and it was horrible. I remember [producer] Michael Ellenberg at the time was like, “Wow, is this method?” I was like, “No!” I’d never been that sick before and it’s on the day, of course, that I have to go up and give this presentation to 100-plus background actors. I really felt for myself, but I felt for Stella in that moment.’
Similarly, Bak confirmed her departure in an interview with People.
‘I’m just going to say straight up, I think this is the end,’ she told the publication. ‘I think this is goodbye. And I know that’s hard, but I think that there’s certain… Again, I keep thinking about wanting to do her justice, and do right by her.
‘And there’s a certain point sometimes with certain characters where the story ends. And the story, in my mind, needs to end because of everything that she’s been through, and the person she was when she started on this journey, she was so full of this bright-eyed optimism, and the world that existed a few years ago is gone.’
Season 4 picks up in the spring of 2024, nearly two years after the chaos of Season 3 — from the explosive merger to Bradley’s reckoning over deleting footage of her brother Hal (Joe Tippett) at the January 6 Capitol insurrection.
This time, the drama dives headfirst into UBN’s shifting leadership under Alex, Stella (Greta Lee), and Marion Cotillard’s Celine Dumont, as well as the rise of artificial intelligence, the threat of deepfakes, and the ever-fractured line between truth and trust in journalism.
Bak saw herself as an ‘innovator’ who had the ability to ‘change the vision of this company’ when she first was introduced to viewers, Lee told People.
Her character was ‘so passionate about equity and diversity, and the power of representation, but really meant it,’ Lee added.
But eventually she blows ‘it up for herself.’
‘Slowly, over time, and I can relate to this, feeling slowly like, ‘Wait a second, what happened…’ It feels too painful to bear,’ she added. ‘And when the reality of like, ‘Oh no, we have to change our tactics, and the same methodology, it’s not working. And what does that mean, starting from zero again? What does that mean for someone like her?’ I think it’s all in there.
‘And it’s sort of why she has to say goodbye and why things blow up and she’s blowing it up for herself because, really, it’s like, for the first time, she’s free.’
The Morning Show, which also stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, streams on Apple TV+.