Despite initially hesitating to play Margo Banks on The Hunting Wives, Malin Akerman credits the show’s binge-worthy scripts, a powerful female cast and crew, and the notorious “pegging scene” of season 1 as reasons that compelled her to sign on for the series — which became an immediate global hit and has already scored a season 3 renewal ahead of its second season.
“I was definitely hesitant…I just wasn’t sure,” Akerman told Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy. “For me, it’s so much about the tone. I wasn’t sure if it was kind of campy, [like] Desperate Housewives? I wasn’t sure what we were making here. If it was making fun of itself, or if you’re in on the joke, all of that. I went, ‘This is, like, it’s walking a really fine line.’”
Yet Akerman kept reading the scripts. “I couldn’t put it down. The binge-worthy television that it became, it was the same thing reading the scripts.” Still, she wasn’t sure “if this is good or bad, because it’s like a good bad, but a bad good?”
Things changed for good as Akerman met with The Hunting Wives showrunner Rebecca Cutter and executive producer Erwin Stoff. “They kind of laid it out. They were like, ‘We need this to be as grounded as possible. The situations are so wild that, if we bring in these characters as real characters but let the situations be the crazy bit, then I think we can make a really great show.’”
That’s what Akerman wanted to hear. “I was like, ‘I’m in. I’m in. I’m in.’”
Akerman also credited the first season’s “pegging scene,” between Callie Baskin (Jaime Ray Newman) and Sheriff Jonny Baskin (Branton Box), as another reason that “made me want to do this show even more.”
“I mean, I’m not the one doing that scene, which also made it better,” the actress teased. “But I was like, ‘Wait a second. I personally have never seen this on television before.’ It’s probably out there. But I was like, ‘This is so brave. I love it so much.’ I think this is so true to so many relationships as well, and nobody’s talking about it. I was like, this is a brave woman putting this out there.”
Akerman mused, “And how exciting to have this sort of sexual freedom, and change the narrative a little bit, of what’s on television right now?”
Cooper praised The Hunting Wives as a show that felt “portrayed through the female gaze” while “pushing the boundaries” of what TV is willing to explore in recent years.
Akerman agreed, “That was also a big conversation we had. It was all female directors, which was really cool.”
🎥 Insights from The Hunting Wives season 1:
Episodes 1 and 2 directed by Julie Anne Robinson.
Episodes 3 and 4 directed by Melanie Mayron.
Episodes 5 and 6 directed by Cheryl Dunye.
Episodes 7 and 8 directed by Jennifer Getzinger.
“This has been really great — to have a female showrunner and creator, female directors, and women that I get to work with who I adore, who are phenomenal actresses,” Akerman said. “So to be able to have these conversations with our lady directors, ‘What do we find sexy? What do we think would look beautiful? How can we depict this so that it’s something that is sexy, and wild, and women will watch and go, Yeah, OK!’”
Akerman remarked, “I feel like we succeeded in that. I feel like it was really beautiful, and sexy, and soft, and wild, and all the things that I like to watch…It’s wonderful.”
Malin Akerman’s full Call Her Daddy interview is on YouTube. The Hunting Wives season 2 premieres November 26 on Netflix.
