‘The Listeners’: Rebecca Hall and Janicza Bravo Break Down Show’s Ending and Why That Finale Death Was So ‘Heartbreaking’

[Editor’s note: The following interview contains spoilers for the finale of “The Listeners.”]

Ever get that annoying buzzing sound in your ear that only you can hear? Imagine if that sound never went away. That’s the premise of “The Listeners,” the recent Starz limited series starring Rebecca Hall and Ollie West.

While “The Listeners” may have been a slow horror tour for its main character, Claire (Rebecca Hall), and for the audience who watched her suffer in silence, behind the scenes, the show was a love story for Hall and director Janicza Bravo.

Claire’s life begins to come apart and things only get worse when she discovers that Kyle (Ollie West) can also hear the sound. Just one problem, he’s her student.

IndieWire sat down with Hall and Bravo to find out exactly what the series’ finale ending meant, the shocking death of a beloved character, and what that sound could have been. Bravo also explains why she made two of the actors get the exact same haircut, and what taboo relationship she describes “the dark side of perimenopause.” (Watch below for an exclusive clip from the finale.)

‘The Listeners’BBC/Element Pictures/Will Robson-Scott

For Hall, there were two reasons why she felt compelled to take on the role.

The first was simply that she found the piece to be an “interesting metaphor to talk about.” She said her team called her and described it as, “There’s a show about a woman who starts hearing a noise, and she doesn’t know where it’s coming from, and her whole life unravels because of it.”

She was hooked. “I found it to be an intensely, silently, political piece of work,” she said. “It’s about so many different things, and it unlocked this need we all have to connect.”

When Hall signed on, there were no scripts, so instead she read the novel the series is based on, “The Listeners” by Jordan Tannahill.

“The other big piece of this puzzle was that Janicza Bravo was directing all of the episodes,” Hall said. “And I met Janicza through Tessa Thompson years ago, because they’re good friends, and Janicza came and did a Q&A for my movie ‘Passing.’ She asked such insightful, brilliant questions. I was already a huge fan of ‘Zola.’ I think she is an extraordinary director. I think she has true vision, and I would really sort of follow her to the ends of the earth and do anything she’d asked me to do. I genuinely would ride or die.”

Behind the scenes of ‘The Listeners’BBC/Element Pictures/ Will Robson-Scott

The feeling is mutual, to say the least.

“I’m just so in love with her,” Bravo said, “Releasing the show and finding a home in the U.S. was not an easy feat. We made the show inside of the strike, and then we didn’t sell our show because there was a strike. Regardless of how it’s received, I feel incredibly proud of the work. I am so grateful for the relationship that came out of it, which is my relationship to her. I feel forever tethered to her. I actually legitimately sort of feel like she is my family.”

The heart of the show is another friendship: the one between Kyle and Claire.

Hall said working with West was “really special.” She added, “He’s clearly a star. He’s got this sort of strange quality. He’s a musician. The camera just obviously loves him. It kind of worked from the moment we met. I remembered auditioning with him on Zoom, and Janicza was like, ‘Your profiles, you kind of look exactly the same. You have the same bone structure.'”

And yes, we can confirm Hall and West are definitely twinning throughout.

‘The Listeners’BBC/Element Pictures/Will Robson-Scott

Bravo said that “twinship” showed in the very first chemistry read.

And not just their physical resemblance. Bravo said she immediately thought, “Oh, they come from the same egg.” Was their twinning intentional? According to Hall, “Absolutely! And she [Bravo] leaned into it! She made us get the same haircuts!”

The relationship between Kyle and Claire is also a love story, but not in a romantic sort of way. Unfortunately, since she is his also teacher, no one else in their lives really understands their bond, and their lives are virtually destroyed because of it.

Bravo explained that their friendship is misunderstood by everyone, except them. When Claire and Kyle first realize they hear the same sound (and he gets into her car after school), it’s easy to see why Claire’s husband and daughter initially think their relationship might be deeply inappropriate. No good story starts with an 18-year-old getting in their teacher’s car alone.

Bravo joked, “It feels a bit midlife crisis, right? You know what, it’s the dark side of perimenopause!”

‘The Listeners’BBC/Element Pictures/Des Willie

As for the ambiguous finale, Hall and Bravo have similar, but slightly different views on it.

Bravo said bluntly, “I think that the ending is most likely not satisfying, at least it certainly wasn’t for me.” She added, “I don’t mean satisfying in terms of the end of a show, I mean her end, where does it end for that character, where does it end for all of those characters. They were really trying to get somewhere. I don’t know that any of the characters in this world walked away feeling totally satisfied.”

Hall sees the finale in two ways: “I think it’s one of those that’s actually ambiguous. There is a real-world answer to this [sound], but that doesn’t stop all the other things being true as well, whether you want to take it metaphorically or not, or whether you want to take it symbolically, or whatever, but think that there is still room for both things to be real.”

So, what exactly was that sound?

Bravo’s explanation? “I don’t think the sound is necessarily industrial,” she said. “I know in the show itself it gets wrapped up as like potentially having been caused by something industrial. Over the last few years, there are these sounds that have appeared in certain towns that have driven people mad, that’s actually happening. There were a couple stories in the UK, in the U.S., there was one in Canada, there’s maybe one in Ottawa, which is what I believe inspired Jordan to write the book.”

[Editor’s note: The following video clip and final paragraphs contains major spoilers for the finale of “The Listeners.”]

The real gutting twist of the finale is the loss of Kyle. It’s a shocking turn of events, for the audience and for Claire.

Hall said, “It’s heartbreaking. His whole trajectory is very heartbreaking.” Bravo added, “She lost her only friend in the world, and it wasn’t supposed to go like that.”

So, any hope for the two best platonic friends to reunite in the afterlife, or perhaps a follow-up season? One thing is for sure, “The Listeners” won’t be the last of Hall, Oliver, and Bravo’s work together. If nothing else, they can remake the movie “Twins.” Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger have nothing on Hall and West. And with Bravo directing, they can’t lose.

“The Listeners” finale episode airs on Starz on Friday, July 10.