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Malin Akerman is opening up about her bond with her Hunting Wives costar Dermot Mulroney.
In the binge-worthy Netflix drama, the actress, 47, plays socialite Margo Banks, the wife of Mulroney’s wealthy oil tycoon Jed Banks.
“I love Dermot so much,” Akerman tells PEOPLE. “He’s one of the loveliest humans. I mean, it’s one of those things you go into it, and it’s Dermot Mulroney, the heartthrob from My Best Friend’s Wedding. He is just an incredible human being.”
While preparing to film, Akerman says she and Mulroney had “a lot of talks about what” Margo and Jed’s complicated dynamic should look like onscreen.
Throughout the series, viewers learn that Margo and Jed have an agreement where they can both sleep with other women, but Margo can’t sleep with other men.
“Margo and Jed are really interesting because at first you just think she’s this trophy wife, and she’s living the life,” Akerman says. “But then, there are some scenes that get pretty complex where we see who is boss. She needs to make sure that she doesn’t step on his toes because if she’s out, then she’s got nothing. It’s life or death for her, this relationship with Jed.”
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Akerman says a turning point for Margo in the series is when she tries to give Jed advice as he prepares to run for Texas governor, and he tells her he “doesn’t want to listen to her feminist ideals.”
“You see her kind of shift and go, ‘All right, I’ve overstepped my boundaries,'” Akerman says. “So, she does have boundaries, which is interesting. As long as she’s playful and sexy, though, she can stay. So, she’s become a master manipulator, and that was really fun to play with Dermot. He’s just such a great acting partner. We had a really good time.”
Along with Mulroney, Akerman also built a deep friendship with her costar Brittany Snow, who plays the new girl in town, Sophie.
“We ended up just loving each other so much,” she says. “I was so thankful to have her as my partner in crime. We just felt really comfortable with each other.”
That sense of comfort helped put Akerman and Snow, 39, at ease whenever they had to film their characters’ intimate scenes with each other.
“They’d call cut, and we’d giggle and we’d be silly together after because you’re just like, ‘Oh my God, this is crazy,'” Akerman says. “It was just two girlfriends just doing the craziest things and having a blast together.”
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Akerman says she “fell in love” with Margo “at first glance.”
When she first found out about the project, Akerman — who is married to actor Jack Donnelly and has a 12-year-old son, Sebastian, from a previous relationship — says she got to read “all eight episodes at once.”
“I got to see her whole arc and see where she begins and where she came from and where she ends up, and it’s just such a meaty role,” she says. “She’s a master manipulator, she’s vibrant, she’s sexy…she’s all these things that are fun to play. There was just so much to work with there. There was no way I could say no to it.”
The Hunting Wives is streaming now on Netflix.
