How Harlow Jane’s complicated relationship with her very famous mom inspired new role

Peacock’s new drama The Five Star Weekend shattered streaming records following its premiere and cemented Harlow Jane as one of the standout talents.

Harlow – 23, and the daughter of Oscar-winning actress Patricia Arquette and The Punisher star Thomas Jane –  had spent a childhood wanting nothing to do with acting, until she moved to the UK to finish her studies at the height of COVID and unexpectedly fell in love with the craft.

In 2025, she was cast as Caroline in The Five Star Weekend,  the college-aged daughter of Jennifer Garner‘s Hollis, and it’s their relationship that centers the Erin Hilderbrand adaptation, as they reconcile and learn how to lean on each other again after the devastating loss of Caroline’s father and Hollis’ husband.

Harlow’s relatable dynamic with her famous mom

Harlow tells HELLO! that she used her own dynamic with her mother – one she says most teenage girls will understand – to tap into Caroline, laughing: “Relationships with mothers and daughters! You start so close, and then as you get into your teen years… 

“It certainly happened to me, and I’m sure it’s happened to a million girls around the world,” she continues. “You and your mom are at odds; she’s public enemy number one to you, and Caroline and Hollis are in that phase. And while I’m thankfully so far out of it in my real life, I still remember what it was like.”

Harlow continues: “And the real truth of it is, it’s not rational at all. There’s no rationality for me to have been that angry or to have held all that resentment, but it was there anyway, so I know what those feelings are like. I can understand why [Caroline] would be so frustrated with her mom.

“She just wants someone to be holding her hand through this, and Hollis’ way of holding people is not something that translates very well for Caroline.”

In the series, Hollis discovers during a weekend getaway with four friends that Caroline is flunking out of college as she battles with the grief of losing her father. Hollis herself has been distant, and Caroline feels lost.

“Jennifer was so easy to get along with that we just bonded immediately,” Harlow tells HELLO!, “and she was so caring of me that it was easy for me to think of her as my show mom.”

Carving out her own place

Early on in her career, Harlow was offered two roles based on her family connection, to which she immediately said yes, admitting she “wanted the experience and wanted to be on a set.”

Her aunts include Friends actress Courteney Cox, who was previously married to Patricia’s brother David, star of the Scream franchise, and Desperately Seeking Susan star Rosanna Arquette.

“But what I really realized from that, of not auditioning for the job and getting it thrown in my face because of a family connection, was that I couldn’t walk onto that set with the confidence of knowing that I really deserved to be there and that I really had worked for it,” Harlow confesses.

“That was quite detrimental to my confidence in my work and my confidence as a young person, and I didn’t feel like I was occupying a space that was mine to occupy.”

Harlow decided to only audition moving forward, and it’s been the auditions that  led to her landing roles in the 2022 movie She Came To Me with Anne Hathaway, and The Five Star Weekend, which she landed in 2025.

For Harlow, The Five Star Weekend was a rare script that showcased a young woman “actually experiencing her feelings and expressing them in a way that felt like it really mattered”.

She asked if she could do a Zoom audition, rather than a self-tape, and was offered a callback before being left waiting for months to hear if she booked the role.

She did – and received the news while driving with two of her best friends, a serendipitous moment for a show about the power of female friendships.

Navigating young Hollywood

Harlow built a strong friendship with West Duchovny – the daughter of Téa Leoni and David Duchovny, and who plays Chloe Sevigny’s daughter Aubrey in the series – during filming in Los Angeles and on location in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the story is set.

But Harlow admits she still feels like an “outlier” among young Hollywood.

“Working with West was wonderful, we had a really great time and built such a sweet friendship on set,” says Harlow. “But I would say for the industry as a whole… I think maybe I’m a bit of an outlier in this way, where I find it difficult to make friends because of my own greenness.

“I’m still so wet behind the ears that when I walk onto set, I’m so much more preoccupied with wanting to do a good job and trying  to prove myself that I haven’t stopped to make friends.”

The Five Star Weekend is available to stream on Peacock now.