SHARING THE MENTAL LOAD

Sarah Snook and Dakota Fanning talk about mom guilt in their new series 'All Her Fault' and the real-life pressures women face

- BY ESTHER ZUCKERMAN

VICTORIA WILL For The Times

CO-STARS Sarah Snook, left, and Dakota Fanning play working mothers dealing with a nightmare scenario in the twisty Peacock thriller series "All Her Fault."

For Sarah Snook, having to leave her then-2-year-old daughter to go to work every day on the Peacock drama "All Her Fault" was, in a way, helpful for her acting process.

In the show, streaming Thursday, Snook plays Marissa Irvine, a Chicago businesswoman who goes to pick up her young son Milo from a playdate and discovers not only is she at the wrong house, but Milo was never there in the first place. The fellow mom (Dakota Fanning) she thought was picking him up from school has no idea what she's talking about, neither does the homeowner, and Milo has gone missing.

"It was useful to kind of use my daughter," she says in a video call. "What would it be like to have the situation happen to me? I understand that more in depth now being a parent."

But Snook could only go so far. She couldn't picture her daughter in place of Milo. If she had she would have just decided not to work. "It's too hard, it's too much," she says.

"All Her Fault" is a twisty eight-episode thriller with some gasp-worthy moments that takes its depiction of motherhood — and the blame women place on themselves when something goes awry — very seriously. The title is not exactly accurate as it applies to Snook's character or Jenny, played by Fanning, the other parent unwittingly drawn into this nightmare scenario.

"It cannot be just her fault, that's just not possible," Snook says. "We explore what the mental load is oftentimes for women to take on in a parenting role."