She doesn’t realize that McMurphy is extraordinary and that he fears letting the other patients live in a perpetual state of submission to her. So, it's actually kind of unclear how "evil" the woman who inspired the character was. Fletcher won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Ratched in the film. All rights reserved. She understands that McMurphy poses a threat to her monopoly on power, requiring a new strategy to maintain control through actions, not words. Warning: major spoilers for Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ahead. Alice Englert and Charlie Carver play staff members, and Stone stars as an heiress. Credit: Netflix. Murphy told Vanity Fair he felt a desire to look deeper into Ratched's origins, to show how she became the uncaring nurse seen in Cuckoo's Nest. [5] Isabelle JoLynn Murphy portrays a young Ratched.[6][7]. Her tyrannical rule and her hurtful personality stems from her time as an army nurse during World War II. Though we learn that this is not quite what it seems, prior to working at Lucia State Hospital Ratched tended to wounded soldiers in World War Two. She was portrayed by Ingrid Torrance and works for the Evil Queen as a nurse in the Storybrooke Sanitarium. They were subjected to abuse in almost every home, and this abuse turned sexual with the final couple – forcing the pair to make an escape. While the 1975 film and original 1962 novel are fictional, there are some truths that inspired the character. She knows she has arrived at a make-or-break moment: She must seize control and assert her authority or risk losing her power forever. Here's what to know about One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest before watching Ratched in order to get the most out of your viewing experience. For the TV series, see, Main antagonist of Ken Kesey's 1962 novel, "Ken Kesey, Checking in on His Famous Nest", "Ryan Murphy's Nurse Ratched 'Cuckoo's Nest' Origin Series Starring Sarah Paulson Scores Netflix Order; Michael Douglas EPs", "Who is Nurse Ratched? Ratched will debut on Friday, Sept. 18, Netflix said. "What was interesting was trying to create an emotional character from a reputation that’s very cold…trying to figure out every little detail about her childhood, her relationships, her sexuality. Nurse Ratched blames McMurphy for his death, and in a fit of rage, McMurphy breaks into the Nurse Station and attacks her, sexually assaulting her by ripping her shirt open to expose her breasts and nearly strangling her to death before he is pried off. At least she had a sense of humor about it, and we simply must stan that, too. In a 2001 interview with The New York Times, the author said he ran into his former boss at an aquarium, and she walked right up to him asking, “Do you remember me? She decides to shame Billy and terrorize him by threatening to tell his mother. Even in his absence, McMurphy undermines Nurse Ratched’s authority, showing that he won the power war between them. While the film depicts a character wedded to the rules, in Ratched we see a character who behaves in the very opposite way, constantly bending them to get her own way. Billy begs her not to tell, and blames McMurphy and the other patients for orchestrating the event. The posters also highlight the 1940s aesthetic for the show, which is set a decade before the events in both the novel and Milos Foreman's Oscar-winning 1975 film adaptation of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Photo: ‘ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’/United Artists ‘ One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ is a moving drama about the troubled patients in an asylum controlled by the domineering Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher).