Donald Glover is all set to return to the small screen with his upcoming spy-romance Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Based on the 2005 film starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the Prime Video series strays away from the original by introducing the characters as spies who need to act as a married couple and go on missions. He stars along with Maya Erskine.
While the series has a lot of action, Glover and Erskine mentioned that the show leans more into the relationship between the characters and how they become a married couple. Pitt and Jolie’s version was known for the incredible chemistry the pair had in the film and is known for their amazing team up, Glover and Erskine seemed to have figured out a way to beat that in their show.
Donald Glover And Maya Erskine’s Show Differs From The Movie
While the Brad Pitt and Angelina starrer Mr. and Mrs. Smith pitted a married couple against each other as spies of rival agencies, Doland Glover and Maya Erskine’s show reportedly introduces them as spies working for the same agency required to cover as a married couple. Glover created the series along with Francesca Sloane, who he worked with on Atlanta.
Donald Glover mentioned recently that the show focused more on the relationship and intimacy shared between the couple than the film. While he assured fans that there would be scenes that were classic to the spy genre, the show would build on the lead pair’s ‘forced intimacy’ in the series as they got together for missions.
Donald Glover said to Entertainment Weekly about the balance the creators hoped to strike between the relationship angle and the spy elements. He said,
“This show is sort of you get your cake and you get to eat it too because you get the explosions, you get the chases, you have the fight scenes and the sex, but you also get to see the nuances of a relationship…This is someone you’ve never met before, and you’re going to have to perform high-risk missions every week with someone you just met. It’s forced intimacy very fast.”
Maya Erksine also mentioned how much of the show focused on the relationship between the characters and how getting closer in real life helped the duo get their performances right.
Donald Glover And Maya Erskine Reportedly Grew Close Off-Screen
One of the highlights of the 2005 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith was the raw and unmatched chemistry that lead pair Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had. The couple have mentioned before how they met and fell in love on the sets of the film. While it was deemed to be impossible to match their chemistry, Donald Glover and Maya Erskine reportedly found a way to do so.
Glover and Erskine mentioned that as the filming process went along they became as much of a married couple as their characters. Donald Glover mentioned that he loved to make Erskine laugh and wanted to hear about her day while Erskine would find Glover annoying. Glover said,
“We made each other laugh a lot and I just love seeing her, I love hearing her takes, I love talking about what she’s going to have for lunch. We became like a married couple on set where it was like we knew what we were going to argue about, we knew what we were going to crack up about.”
Maya Erskine also mentioned how she was glad Donald Gover was there as an acting partner in her scenes and that it helped them get along off-screen as the show focused a lot more on the relationship between the two than the action sequences. She said,
“Much like the characters in the show, we were having to depend on each other right away in all of these scenes…What people will be surprised about is that this show is really about marriage — it’s an analogy for a relationship and what it takes to make that relationship, a real partnership, work.”
Donald Glover also mentioned that they had taken a lot of care to craft the action sequences and that he was inspired by the first Mission Impossible, as there was a balance between talking and action. He mentioned that he ‘stole’ a lot of the shots from the film for the episode he directed.
