Breaking up is hard to do, especially when there’s a 28-year marriage, millions of dollars, and a Pilates instructor involved. That’s the situation in which Claire Lewis — played to frosty Upper East Side perfection by Marcia Gay Harden — finds herself in Uncoupled, the new comedy from creators Darren Star (Sex and the City, Emily in Paris) and Jeffrey Richman (Modern Family, Frasier). Claire, a wealthy client of realtor Michael Lawson (the recently jilted main character, played by Neil Patrick Harris) is in the process of discovering how to be single in middle age after her husband divorces her for a much younger woman. And yes, that much younger woman is a Pilates instructor, because of course she is.

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“Claire would be like, this is a fucking stereotype,” Harden tells Tudum. “She’d be like, ‘This is bullshit. How could this happen to me?’ She would be furious about it. But it’s a stereotype because it’s real. She’s a scorned woman, but I tried to make her as individual as possible… to try to find the individualism in [the stereotype], and the specific markings of her anger and humor.”

Harden’s approach to Claire falls in line with the overall message of the show: Breaking up is a universal experience, but processing heartbreak, for better or worse, is a unique venture. Harden’s Claire fights her vulnerability, grief and fear of being alone with scathing remarks and piercing stares; she’s a textbook stone-faced and low-voiced WASP, whose true emotions are hidden beneath several layers of wrapped cashmere. According to the actor, Claire’s countenance and wardrobe were all intentional.

“Once you have the cashmere sweater, the cashmere pants, designer glasses, perfectly coiffed hair, the beautiful purse and nails, it’s a suit of armor,” Harden says. “You feel somewhat impenetrable.”

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Of course, like many ultra-wealthy, demanding Manhattanites, Claire isn’t exactly likable all the time, and Harden says that the character’s personality is perhaps more authentic than many would care to admit. “When I used to cater in New York City, as did every other actor in the world I met a lot of people like Claire,” Harden says. “I’d be catering for them, and they’d want spaghetti ‘served French style.’ It was an introduction to money and power that most of us don’t come into contact with.”

In some ways, her Uncoupled character is so brutally honest and entitled, it’s hard not to cringe when she enters the room. Harden explains that she sees Claire’s nastiest moments as a mask for her vulnerability, and that there’s still a reason to root for her. 

“She has such a pertinent and resonant anger,” Harden says. “I love flawed characters, and the writers were smart enough [to show] her getting side-eyed — the other characters become the audience’s perspective and voice, and they’re basically telling you, ‘Claire was a bitch in that moment.’ ” She’s referring to a scene at the beginning of the series in which Claire “literally dismisses Suzanne,” played by Tisha Campbell. Although Suzanne is a colleague of Michael’s, Claire doesn’t recognize that — presumably because Suzanne is a woman of color in a position of success and power — and so she is incredibly rude before realizing her error.

“Claire is so steeped in judgment, because she’s steeped in the world she knew,” Harden says. “That world is limited and limiting, and I think it’s good to show that because you’re going to show her breaking away from it and learning something new.”

And speaking of that limiting world: Harden immersed herself in another facet of it to prepare for her role.

“I looked up all these high-profile divorces in New York to get an idea of that world — it’s very small, and kind of Peyton Place-y,” Harden says. “I do have a few high society friends who told me some very juicy stories of things happening right under somebody’s nose. Complicated, messy people you knew, intertwined and seemingly very comfortable being on the front page of papers. I would just be like, ‘Oh, OK, this is the elite. This is Versailles or something, but in New York.’ ”

Though audiences don’t get to see much of Claire’s divorce unfold in this season of the show, Harden says that steeping herself in some IRL divorce drama helped her understand her character’s motivations — in other words, why someone recently and unwillingly uncoupled might behave in a way that’s not reflective of who they actually are as a person — or who they want to be.

“Anger and revenge are just ways of staying engaged with your previous partner,” Harden says. “If you want to make it simple and get things done, move on. That’s what that is: moving on. They’re very different things.”

Suzanne & Claire Have Some Fun Together | 'Uncoupled' S1E4Claire puts the "chill" in chilly.