Sumith Prasad
ABC’s crime drama series ‘High Potential’ revolves around Morgan Gillory, a single mom with three children and a High Intellectual Potential (HIP), a condition of having an exceptional IQ. While working as a janitor at a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) station, she stumbles across details of a murder investigation. Her intelligence helps her unravel the mystery behind the case, which convinces the department to hire her as a consultant. Morgan joins Detective Karadec to investigate various cases and find details that are invisible to people without her condition. Even though the character has roots in reality, we won’t find her in Los Angeles!
Morgan Gillory is Based on the Fictional French Character, Morgane Alvaro
Morgan Gillory is a fictional character created by Drew Goddard for ‘High Potential.’ She is based on another fictitious character named Morgane Alvaro, the protagonist of the French crime-comedy series ‘HPI.’ Morgane was conceived by Nicolas Jean, who created the European show with Stéphane Carrié and Alice Chegaray-Breugnot. The screenwriter was inspired by his own son, who has High Intellectual Potential (HIP), to conceive the protagonist. However, Nicolas’ child did not become a consultant to the police department in Lille, France, and investigate crimes as Morgane does in the series.
With his son as the inspiration, Nicolas wanted to conceive a character who resembles him and “lives in a world that is not adapted to him,” as per Le Point. His focus at the time of conceiving Morgane was the chaos that ensues when a person with HIP becomes involved in the everyday reality that does not accommodate the traits and skills associated with the condition. To explore this, he chose the detective genre since he believed that it was the “king genre on French television.” Thus, Morgan’s presence in the LAPD is entirely fictional. Considering that police investigations demand superior intelligence, the premise is a perfect fit.
Alice Chegaray-Breugnot Was Inspired by Her Father’s Characteristics to Develop Morgane
In Nicolas Jean’s vision, Morgane initially resembled Lisbeth Salander, the protagonist of Stieg Larsson’s famed ‘Millennium’ novel series, which includes ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.’ Rooney Mara plays the character in David Fincher’s 2011 film ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.’ When the project reached Stéphane Carrié, she wanted to eliminate this resemblance since she was interested in giving life to a protagonist who “had never been seen on TV.” Alice Chegaray-Breugnot joined the series as a co-creator and polished Morgane, as we now see in ‘HPI.’ The screenwriter, like Nicolas, also brought several of her real-life experiences to the protagonist.
When Alice was brought on board, Morgane had traits of Asperger’s syndrome, which is a developmental disorder part of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The character was an introvert who had difficulty interacting with others. However, the screenwriter wanted Morgane to be a “colorful” and “strong” character. She made the protagonist an extrovert who is “messy” and willing to take responsibility. Alice eliminated the character’s obsession with numbers and mathematics, which is common among individuals with Asperger’s syndrome. Since the same had already been explored in shows like BBC’s ‘Sherlock’ and CBS’ ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ the screenwriter wanted a protagonist who didn’t hesitate to present herself externally.
Alice’s father also had HPI, and he was not at all withdrawn. Thus, she was inspired by his way of life to create Morgane’s outward behavior. We can see the same traits in Kaitlin Olson’s Morgan. In ‘High Potential,’ the protagonist cannot stop herself from talking with others and sharing her thoughts or observations even if she is not invited to a conversation.
Julia Roberts’ Titular Character in Erin Brockovich Also Inspired Morgane
Nicolas Jean initially developed the protagonist of ‘HPI’ as a teenager named Maud. When he brought the project to the French network TF1, which aired the crime-comedy series in the European country, the channel executives asked for a main character who is relatable or “identifiable” like a mother rather than an extremely gifted teenager. That was how Maud became Morgane, a single mom with three children. In ‘High Potential,’ Morgan also has three children. To develop the protagonist as a single mother, Alice Chegaray-Breugnot relied on Julia Roberts’ titular character in Steven Soderbergh’s legal drama ‘Erin Brockovich.’ The character, who is based on the activist of the same name, is a single mom of three in the film.
Alice describes Morgane as Erin Brockovich’s cousin. According to Voici, Alice’s love for “slightly exalted characters, with a working-class background [and] an irreverent and uninhibited side” led her to model Morgane as a woman like Brockovich. Furthermore, the screenwriter believed that by making the protagonist a single mother dealing with three children at once, the viewers would empathize with her and wouldn’t see her as a sociopath. Ultimately, Morgan in ‘High Potential’ and Morgane in ‘HPI’ are combinations of the traits of Nicolas’ son and Alice’s father, Erin Brockovich, and the countless detective characters who graced French television over the years.
Read More: Where is ABC’s High Potential Filmed?
