‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ star Maya Erskine reveals how Jane was inspired by Sigourney Weaver in ‘Alien’
On Monday, October 28th, Prime Video hosted a screening and panel conversation of episode 108 of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” at The West Hollywood EDITION Screening Room in Los Angeles. Following the screening, the audience filled with Screen Actors Guild members was treated to a panel conversation moderated by Variety senior entertainment writer, Angelique Jackson, featuring Emmy-nominated actress Maya Erskine (“Jane Smith”).
While discussing her connection to Jane, Erskine stated, “I just identified with someone who feels like such an outsider in life — and never quite fitting in, and looking for her place in society, looking for her identity to be solidified in this world… that is something we can all relate to, that longing for connection, that longing to feel seen by somebody so all of that was interesting for me.”
“I think the biggest challenge for her was being able to have all the emotions that you’re having but then cover it,” Erskine explained. “So, at any time, you don’t want to just have this blank feeling, an expression of ‘I feel nothing.’ She’s feeling a lot but she’s having to cover it in a lot of moments. Those scenes were a challenge for me. And I always reference Sigourney Weaver in ‘Alien.’ She does that throughout the whole movie and it’s such a great performance and version of that so that was my inspiration whenever I had to hide what I was feeling – having those two feelings at once, or two expressions.”
While the Prime Video series was heavy on stunt doubles, Erskine still wanted to be in peak physical condition to tackle the role of Jane. “I trained for several months to feel like I could be strong enough to play this person realistically and to do some of the stunts. Luckily, we had amazing stunt coordinators and stunt doubles, but we did get to do running.”
Erksine was drawn to the series because of its unique take on marriage. “It’s Donald Glover, Hiro Murai, I was already a fan of them, so it was just the auspices that were like, ‘Wow, they’re making their own version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, that has to be really interesting,'” she stated. “And the way they described it that was appealing to me, was it was really about kind of this arranged marriage. It was this take on marriage, and it was in this spy backdrop so you’re getting these grand Bond-like moments but then it’s all these nuanced parts of a relationship and I think that was really what was exciting to me to see that pairing because I’d never seen that before.”
When asked how she broke down a scene, Erskine responded, “”Lines first. No emotion to the line, no anything, just get the line so it’s a part of your body, you’re not even thinking about it and then when you’re there, it can take on so many different life forms. I think if you just have the lines there and you’re not thinking about it, you can be present with the person, you can try different things.”
“Hiro, Francesca [Sloane] and Donald, they made such an incredible show that I feel so lucky to be a part of, and I felt proud that we really worked on telling these sorts of nuanced freaky moments between these two people in a spy drama. That is a hard feat and I think they did it.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Smith” was nominated for 16 Primetime Emmys, including Best Drama Series. It won two: Best Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Michaela Coel and Best Stunt Coordination for Drama Programming.
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