Many will remember Maya Erskine from the first season of the hit FXX show Man Seeking Woman where she played the role of Maggie who breaks up with Josh Baruchel’s Josh. She also tickled audiences with Pen15, a quirky comedy series where she played a 13-year-old fictional version of herself.
She is now starring in the new Amazon spy comedy series Mr. & Mrs. Smith alongside Donald Glover. The series is inspired by the 2005 film of the same name directed by Doug Liman starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The actress recently talked about the series and how it is a better spy narrative than a James Bond film.
Maya Erskine Claims Her New Show is Better Than a James Bond Film
Maya Erskine currently stars as Jane Smith in Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The show which also has Donald Glover as the co-lead, chronicles the lives of a married couple who secretly work for a mysterious spy organization. Erskine recently sat down with actress Zoe Kravitz for Interview Magazine, where they talked about various aspects of the show.
Erskine revealed that the show is as big and bombastic as a James Bond film. However, it has a nuanced and intimate narrative between the characters that most Bond films lack. She points out that the series goes deep into the lives of these two people and also presents a female character who can stand on her own. She said,
“What’s exciting about this show is that it feels as big as a Bond movie, and yet it’s also so incredibly intimate. It’s a nuanced relationship story. In the Bond movies, you don’t really spend time on the in-between moments of a relationship. It’s about the big explosion, the big mission, and the task at hand, and that’s just the backdrop for this.
So for people who do love that genre, I hope they’ll still enjoy it, but also get something more out of it. That is what’s going to break the barrier and maybe open it up for that genre. You can spend more time seeing not just the female being saved by Bond, but it’s like, “Yeah, she’s going to also save his ass and it’s going to affect their relationship.”
Bond films have been typically criticized for their portrayal of female characters as femme fatales, only to be saved by Bond in dangerous situations. Erskine’s comments signal a great change in the direction of spy stories and bring new and more character-driven narratives into the genre.
Maya Erskine Found It Hard to Play Jane Smith In Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Maya Erskine’s character Jane Smith in Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a very different character from what the actress is in real life. Unlike Erskine, who is a very open-hearted and extroverted person in real life, Jane is a very reserved character who constantly puts her guard up and hardly trusts anyone. Erskine told The New York Times that she found it very hard playing the character.
She claimed that she was constantly trying to hide her emotions while playing the character. She relished the emotionally charged-up scenes in the series where she finally got to release those suppressed feelings. She said,
“It’s hard, because I’m such an oversharer. That’s my tendency. Playing someone with so many guards up, you just want to release all the feelings that you’re bottling. There were some scenes where I got to and I just relished those, because for so long it felt like I was hiding stuff.”
The show has received positive reviews from critics and audiences who mainly praised the fun and engaging plot along with the chemistry between Erskine and Donald Glover. Fans can watch the new show on Amazon Prime.
