ANAHEIM, Calif. — In the new limited series “The Girlfriend,” actor Laurie Davidson plays Daniel, a young doctor whose life takes a turn after he introduces his real-estate agent girlfriend Cherry to his extremely wealthy parents, Laura and Howard.

Though he’s in his late 20s, Daniel is still a bit of a mama’s boy. His mother Laura, played by Robin Wright, takes an instant dislike to Cherry, portrayed by Olivia Cooke, who quickly returns the favor.

The psychological thriller that arrived on Prime Video on Wednesday, Sept. 10, toys with viewers’ feelings, with episodes presenting the same events from the perspectives of both Laura and Cherry.

Is Laura a paranoid, overly protective mother? Is Cherry a scheming social climber? And who is it that ends up dead by the end of the story?

“The first thing that jumped out at me was the idea of shooting, or playing, the same scene, the same moment, the same conversation twice through different perspectives,” says Davidson on a recent video call. “You know, history’s told by the victor, and it’s essentially the same concept.

“Who do we believe and what ultimately will be known as the truth?” says the actor best known for playing a young William Shakespeare in the TNT series “Will” and Mr. Mistoffelees in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats.”“Whoever wins out, we’ll believe them.”

Davidson says he enjoyed playing the dual perspectives of the narrative because it offered the chance to make different acting choices, depending on whether it was Laura’s or Cherry’s storyline presented.

“For example, Laura’s perspective, you might not exaggerate, but you lean into certain aspects because it’s in the retelling of it,” Davidson says. “So through Laura’s eyes, Daniel and Cherry, or Cherry, is acting a certain way with Daniel, and so we lean slightly further.

“And vice versa, the other way whilst always trying to keep the integrity of the character,” he says. “It has to fall within the realms of those characters.

“I’d never done anything like that before,” Davidson adds. “And I thought it was a really unique idea and it works great in the show.”

In an interview edited for length and clarity, Davidson talked about why Daniel seems not to notice the two women battling for his affections, what Wright, who also directed the show, and Cooke were like when the cameras stopped rolling, and how the audience might feel conflicted as they watch the story unfold.

Q: Daniel is in the middle of this battle, but seems perfectly happy to have this lovely girlfriend and this mother who will do anything for him.

A: Yeah, exactly. I think Daniel, for a lot of it, is oblivious. But then when things start to go wrong, I think he does what a lot of men do and chooses to ignore it. He’s looking for the path of least resistance because ultimately, what he wants is to have his cake and eat it.

He wants his mom, who he adores and thinks the world of, and his girlfriend, who he’s fallen totally head over heels with. He wants those things to coexist in harmony, and unfortunately, it’s not happening because they occupy too much of the same space.

And that has happened because ultimately what he values in a partner are some of the things that he sees in his mother. So there’s a kind of Oedipal, Freudian element of it, but it’s also a very natural thing. We do that as humans. I think an audience will totally get that and still be disturbed by it in the same breath.

Q: Tell me about what it was like working with Robin and Olivia, especially because your TV mom also directed you in some hot and heavy scenes with your TV girlfriend?

A: Yeah. [He laughs] That’s so true. I haven’t been asked that, but it is really weird because you develop a relationship. She’s mom for like five days of the week, and then we get to the sixth day of the week, and we’re shooting an intimacy scene, and it’s like, Mom, what are you doing here? Don’t look at me! I’m with my girlfriend trying to be cool.”

Then, on top of that, those kinds of scenes play out for real in our show There’s plenty of embarrassing moments. So actually, that dynamic just helped and fed into the kind of richness of the soup that was going on.

Q: And working with Robin as director in less steamy scenes? Or scenes in which you and she are acting together?

A: Definitely in scenes when Robin was in it, it was totally seamless. She could actually be, let’s say it’s a closeup on me or a single on me, and she’s behind the camera. Robin was able to adjust her performance to get something she needed out of me, if she wanted something different.

And that’s a really unique thing that most directors don’t have at their disposal. They wait patiently for the scene to end, probably writing notes down or head in their hand, and then they have to come and give the notes. If Robin didn’t like something in the scene, she had the ability being behind the camera to adjust it and steer it.

Q: Olivia’s character is very loving and sweet, but also very intense. What was it like to prepare with her for your scenes together?

A: Liv’s amazing. This phrase gets tossed around a lot, but she really is very down to earth. What you see is what you get with Liv, which is like very little facade, which is why it makes her such a great actor, because she’s so readable.

I think the character of Cherry could so easily be just the other woman, the femme fatale. But Liv brought such a vulnerability to Cherry that I hadn’t anticipated immediately, reading the script. She brought a lot of that and made her a very complex character that I think audiences feel conflicted about.

Because on the one hand, she’s lying, she’s making out that she’s someone that she isn’t, she’s committing these obscene acts of, well, violence, vandalism, whatever you want to call it. And yet she’s incredibly likable.

And that’s a testament to Olivia. Not a lot of people can pull that off. I think the skill in both Robin and Olivia is that so many of their actions make them very unlikable, but they are such likable people, and have that warmth, you root for them in spite of that.

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