Why 56 Days Star Dove Cameron Says We’re Still Not Ready For Morally Grey Women

When we talk about "morally grey" characters in TV and film, there's usually an unspoken asterisk next to any female name attached to it. Yes, we love the complicated woman on screen, we'll binge-watch her, make fan art of her, thirst-tweet about her. But somewhere in that love is a caveat: as long as she pays for it. It's a double standard that's been baked into storytelling for decades, and it's something the stars of 56 Days — Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia — are thinking deeply about as they navigate a show built entirely on moral ambiguity.

The series follows Oliver and Kiara, two strangers who meet and fall into an intense, fast-burning connection. But this isn't a love story where one person is the hero, and one is the cautionary tale. "Both of them are exhibiting red flags," Cameron explains. "I think when the playing field gets more levelled, it'll be like, oh, so these two are just fucked up. They're perfect for each other." But getting here, to a place where we can watch two flawed people collide without immediately assigning moral hierarchy, took a cultural shift that's still very much in progress. For years, male characters got a free pass on complexity. "We've allowed it for so long in male characters where it's like, 'Oh, but he's a good man, he's got good intentions,'" Cameron notes.

Women on screen were either the moral compass or the prize. Think the manic pixie dream girl, there to guide the man toward his better self, then fade into the background once her job is done. "She's like, 'You're welcome, bye bye,'" Cameron laughs, describing the archetype. There was no room for contradiction, no space for the woman to want something for herself that might conflict with being "good." Then came the strong female lead era. Progress, right? Not exactly. "There was this period where women could be strong and independent and lead the charge, but still not complicated," she explains. "We were not allowing humanity in these characters."

It was a different cage, but a cage nonetheless.

Now, finally, there's a third wave which smart audiences are asking for, and creators are delivering; women who don't fit neatly into any category. Women who lie and manipulate and want things badly and change their minds and hurt people and deserve love anyway. Women, in other words, like actual human beings.

"I think audiences do want morally grey women now," Cameron says. But there's a catch, and it's a big one: "There's still a lot of people who feel that way where it's almost like this twisted version of holding women to a higher standard. It's like, 'We wanna see that from you, but then you gotta pay.'"

That punishment impulse is real. It lives in comment sections and think pieces and the collective unconscious of how we've been taught to judge women. But it's also dying, just slowly.

What's emerging instead is a genuine split in the audience. On one side, there are the traditional moralists who want their complicated women to face consequences. On the other side, there's the "I love an unhinged female lead" contingent, the ones scrolling TikTok, rooting for the character who gets to be complex without needing to atone for it. "Because, like, with just no follow-up," Cameron says of this newer audience stance. "She just gets to be complex. We don't get to see the whole thing. She gets to be morally ambiguous."

What drew Cameron to 56 Days was precisely this refusal to choose. "She is not the protagonist, but she's also not the villain. Like, she's just a morally grey young woman, and so is he," she explains. "And I'm also a morally grey young woman. I've always said that." It's the kind of thing that some audiences will celebrate, and others will resist. And that's okay.

"Because we came from such a stark contrast, we still have a ways to go before it's like, without punishment," Cameron reflects. "You're gonna see like a death rattle of like, 'Well, you can have that, but not fully.' And then she's gonna get on her knees and beg for forgiveness. And it's like, that's gonna die off too, but we gotta go here first."

It's not quite liberation yet, but it's the beginning of it.