This week marks the long-awaited arrival of the new Mr. & Mrs. Smith series on Prime Video.
Source: Courtesy / Prime Video
Mr. & Mrs. Smith star Maya Erskine and co-creator/showrunner Francesca Sloane spoke with Global Grind ahead of their Feb 2nd premiere to discuss making an unexpected update to the original concept, Erskine being hazed into Donald Glover’s camp and playing a really good liar. The duo also discussed the different episodes and locations for the show.
“Donald and I are sort of notorious troublemakers, and in a way that I hope people understand, I think part of the reason we wanted to take on this title was to be able to do something unexpected with it and to really play with it, to really lean into the humanity of it,” Sloane told Global Grind. “That felt really cool to us and that’s sort of why we wanted to do it, is to to make people wonder why and then to find out.”
Source: Courtesy / Prime Video
We anticipate that audiences, particularly those who loved Glover’s FX series Atlanta will also be enamored with his and Sloane’s fresh take on the spy couple concept. Mr. & Mrs. Smith maintains a similar quirky wild card quality, which makes perfect sense considering that Atlanta alums Stephen Glover and Hiro Murai also joined Sloane and Glover on this outing. While some might be intimidated about being the newcomer amongst the Atlanta alums, Erskine says she was excited at the invitation to join them.
“We made sure she cried,” Sloane said, after joking that Erskine was hazed.
“No it was amazing,” Erskine told Global Grind. “I’ve been saying this, but they are my heroes and I love them and so to work with people you admire can be really intimidating, but they made me feel at home, like immediately. I felt like I was with my friends and it felt really intimate and easy and I got to collaborate with them and also watched them collaborate and so I learned a lot and I was thrilled.”
Source: Courtesy / Prime Video
One of the hallmarks of espionage is subterfuge and we come into Mr. & Mrs. Smith with two characters lying to each other as well as the rest of the world. When we asked Maya about Jane’s deception skills and she told us she revelled in the opportunity to lie on camera.
“I loved it because I’m such a bad liar,” Erskine told Global Grind. “I actually talk about it all the time. The people that I’m closest to know I have such tells, like my lip will curl up when I’m trying to prank someone or lie, so to jump into a character that’s so good at it and such an incredible manipulator was really freeing in that sense. It was nice when the the guards started to come down and the truth started to come out with such a cathartic release by that point.”
Mr. & Mrs. Smith arrives on Prime Video Friday, February 2
