Matthew Macfadyen and Elizabeth Banks are Les and Lindy, a pair making an attempt to maintain their marriage collectively in upcoming Peacock drama The Miniature Spouse. The wrinkle is that he has by chance shrunk her to a six inches excessive, including a high-concept twist to the connection drama.
“That’s a part of the attraction and since it’s so heightened you possibly can play it actually life and dying,” Macfadyen tells Deadline in regards to the present, which had a preview screening at MIPCOM right here in Cannes final night time (Monday). Though taking part in reverse Banks, the actual fact she was in miniature meant they have been hardly ever really going through off on set. “Elizabeth and I weren’t collectively for a lot of the present, as a result of she’s in entrance of a inexperienced display, trying up at dots on the ceiling and excessive up on the wall, and I’m on a set, marks on a carpet as a result of she’s six inches tall. It’s a technical train, and you employ your creativeness.”
Les is a biotech whizz in search of funding for his revolutionary tech – the identical tech that by chance reduces the scale of his partner. “Once we discover him, he’s very extremely strung; he’s a really shiny man and he’s grow to be form of panicked about not getting the popularity, he actually desires prize,” the star says.
O.T. Fagbenle additionally stars and was on stage in Cannes after the screening. His character is in love with Lindy, however it’s largely not reciprocated. It’s a bigger than life efficiency from The Handmaid’s Story actor. “This can be a man who loves on epic, Shakespearean, ranges, he’s a fan of the classics and completely obsessive about Lindy. She doesn’t really feel the identical approach, however that’s not going to cease him from loving as arduous as he can.”
Fagbenle additionally had some green-screen to barter. “As a result of we have been filming asynchronously, if I used to be doing scene with Matthew, I’d get to observe the scene and watch what he did, so I may react appropriately to his efficiency. Each week I’d go and watch takes of Matthew being sensible and doing genius work, after which be feeling ‘Oh, Jesus, I’ve to stay as much as the opposite aspect of this equation.”
Fleabag star Sian Clifford was additionally in Cannes for the screening. She performs Terri, Lindy’s pal and high-flying publishing exec. “There’s loads of passive aggression and frustration and misplaced love, really, inside our relationship,” she says. “The entire collection is, when it comes to her and Lindy, is an exploration of that relationship and when it’s gone bitter, and the position that Les has performed inside it. My character is just not a fan of Les in any form or type, and so Matthew and I had loads of enjoyable messing round with that.”
Media Res is producing and Jennifer Ames (Boardwalk Empire) and Steve Turner (Goliath), are showrunners and exec producers. Sony Footage Tv has worldwide gross sales the present is on its MIPCOM slate because it returns to the Cannes market in pressure for the primary time in a number of years.
