Steven Prusakowski
After watching just one episode of Mr. and Mr. Smith, it is hard to believe that just a few years ago the same Maya Erskine was playing a fictionalized awkward thirteen year old version of herself navigating her way through middle school. Now instead of facing off against seventh graders she is dodging bullets, taking and throwing bullets while trying to stay alive and complete her mission in the Prime Video series.
To say Erskine’s role of Jane is a departure from her previous role is a massive understatement. Mr. and Mrs. Smith tells the story of two agents, John and Jane Smith, who masquerade as a married couple while working for a secret organization. As the stakes rise, so do the heat of their relationship.
Erskine joined me on TV Topics Podcast to discuss the role and the challenges that came with it. From her first time using firearms, the physical training to transform from new mother to superspy badass, working in the comedy with Donald Glover and more. The role demands action, drama, comedy, romance and Erskine delivers.
In addition she answers some TV Topics questions that look into her TV viewing over the years. (What makes her laugh most? The first prime time show she remembers loving? If PEN15’s Anna and Maya would make good spies? …and more.) Some of her answers include The Simpsons, Sex in the City, The Office, The Sopranos and no.
Listen to our conversation in its entirety and hear her TV Topics questions (below) which includes the following excerpts.
I came to the series thinking Mr. and Mrs. Smith it would mainly be an action series. Then I got involved in this kind of layered love story and this complex look at relationships – plus the comedy – then you throw in lots of guns and bombs and killing and I was all in. It has so much to enjoy. What about the series made you feel that you had to be part of it?
After PEN15, I was looking for whatever the next project was that it would be something.It was the auspices. It was Donald Glover. It’s Francesca Sloane. It’s Hiro Murai.
It’s these people that I admire so much. I didn’t actually know my involvement would be, initially. I really thought I would be like just a background. I had no idea what my if they were asking me to be Jane or something else. So I was kind of game already from just them as artists.
Then when they pitched me the way into this show and their take on it, I was like, ‘Yeah, that just sounds like a great show. That sounds like something I want to dig my feet in.’ I think I was looking for a role I could just sink my teeth into, and it could be a woman that was different from myself as a 13 year old.
I also just wanted to act like I didn’t want to focus on three different elements. But what was great is that they’re so collaborative that they’re like, ‘You don’t have to write, but we’ll treat you like a writer. If you have opinions, if you have thoughts.’ So it was very collaborative and yet no pressure on me to have to go off and write. So I loved it.
What did you want to bring to Jane versus what was already on the page? Anything from your own personality or your history?
I loved how she was written already, but they did ask for me to send some pages of just any anecdotes of relationships or insecurities or things that you discover about yourself in relationships, what comes up. So I sent lots of embarrassing stories and pages upon pages of anecdotes.
I can’t remember exactly what made its way in, but I feel like with Jane, I just was attaching to the idea of her being a reject. I really am drawn to the idea that I didn’t want them to be perfect spies and I don’t think they wanted them to be perfect spies or perfect humans. They’re far from it.
That was more my way in, how can we push this further, why is she not a good spy and at first and how does she get better and why is she not good at relationships and, and really just filling that out as much as possible, which they did such a good job already on their own. I loved the idea of her not really having a family and not having a good history of relationships and not able to express her vulnerability. What I guess we discovered as we were filming and as they were writing were like the different ways in which she would have masks and then when she would unveil them and when she would reveal things and when she wouldn’t. That was just so fun to play because it felt like this cat and mouse game for like the first couple of months when we were shooting.
How did humor factor into their dynamic and what was the goal between you and Donald?
I feel like we developed as we filmed, because I think the more comfortable Donald and I got with each other as friends, then the more the humor came out and they picked up on that and liked that and wanted to use that as part of our way of dealing with each other. Like Donald would make fun of me. Then that would make its way as John making fun of Jane. And that was very much of us, I would say.
That kind of made its way through at the end of episode three, we filmed hours of him just ripping me a new one of like, how my fart smelled and how he was dying from it. It would just make me laugh and it made everyone laugh. So that was a really fun part of our relationship to like put into the series because it added a real flavor to John and Jane.
It’s a very physical role. There’s gunplay, there’s stunts and fighting. I was wondering how much fun it was being a badass and how much work was it being a badass?
I loved it, actually. I was very afraid of guns at first. I really didn’t want to even hold one. I didn’t want to go near it. By the end, in Italy, they have different kinds of guns where it’s airsoft. So there’s no blank, there’s nothing, there’s no quarter loads.
So you can kind of shoot it, and I just started shooting the ground constantly because I was loving the feeling of shooting the gun. So by the end, I unfortunately got very enamored with just the empowerment of having this weapon that I would use as this character to kill bad guys and things like that. The stunt training, getting physically fit was such a big part of getting ready and preparing for this role because I just had a baby.
So my body was totally wrecked. And I had to get strong again. And I had to get healthy. I had to get to a place where I could physically, believably be this person. And that was really a
huge challenge for me. But once I got there and started training with them and started learning how to hold a gun properly it changes how you feel inside.
You start to believe that you can be this person who’s able to be a badass or whatever it’s that for me. I’m so the opposite of that. I’m constantly apologizing. To be empowered in this role as Jane, it was very freeing and hard to get to.
But then once I was there, I loved it. And you really pull it off, too. It’s graceful.
Watch the full season of Mr. and Mrs. Smith now streaming exclusively on Prime Video.
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