Maya Erskine interview: ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’

This piece contains spoilers about “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

Just to get this out of the way up front, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” star Maya Erskine can’t divulge any information about Season 2 of the Amazon Prime Video series, which ended its first season with the fate of its title spies (played by Erskine and Emmy winner Donald Glover) left unknown.

“We don’t want to you know. The whole point of having a cliffhanger is so you have the fun of it when you watch the next season,” Erskine, a three-time Emmy nominee for “Pen15,” tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview. “But now that it’s officially renewed, I can say that the plans for the second season are going to be, I think, even better than the first season. I can’t say whether that includes us or not. But I do think, if they commit and go that way, it could be really exciting.”

Based on the 2005 film starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and created for television by Glover and his frequent collaborator Francesca Sloane, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” is an eight-episode drama series about two spies, code-named John and Jane, whose marriage is an elaborate ruse engineered by a mysterious organization. The show charts the Smiths’ relationship as it evolves throughout their missions – from an awkward first date to the couple’s first vacation, first fight, and beyond.

“What’s so fun about a TV show more than maybe a movie is there is room to see so many different sides of a character because you have more hours to explore,” Erskine says. “So it’s not these big moments in a relationship. It’s also the small every day in-between moments so you get to see a fuller picture of a human that way.”

Directed by several top filmmakers, including Hiro Murai, Amy Seimetz, and Glover himself, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” sends its characters to various locations around the world, including Italy, a narrative choice that Erskine says helped every episode feel individual.

“Each episode feels almost like its own tone as they evolve their relationship and as they become better spies depending where they are,” Erskine says, citing the episode where John and Jane go to Lake Como and encounter a target (played by Ron Perlman) who becomes a sort of adopted child to the couple. “That episode feels like ‘Talented Mr. Ripley’ a little bit. It’s romantic and that brings out that side of Jane and John, like they’re able to sort of lean into that because they’re in this world. And it lends itself well, I think, to the evolution of their relationship.”

“Mr. & Mrs. Smith” concludes with an episode that puts the Smiths on opposite sides – tasked with eliminating each other by an unseen handler. But amid their attempts to kill each other, the Smiths experience true honesty and an emotional catharsis for the first time – aided by a truth serum that was introduced in an earlier episode. Unfortunately, the connection is short-lived as another set of Smiths (played by guest stars Parker Posey and Wagner Moura) come to “finalize” (or kill) John and Jane. With one bullet remaining between them and John suffering from a gunshot wound to the stomach, Jane attempts to shoot her way out of their predicament to save herself and John and escape the organization. The episode ends with their fate unknown.

Erskine says she loved the finale and particularly how Jane has changed following her first real conversation with John.

“It’s almost like all of her barriers have been completely shattered and she’s just fully open and ready to actually be vulnerable with this person and be with this person,” she says of the ending. “In that moment, she’s really ready to save him. I think throughout the series there have been these moments of her saving him in situations where he messed up or whatever. And it came more out of ego or out of pride. She was feeling, ‘I’m doing better in this job. I’m doing better in this relationship. I always have to pick you up.’ It came from this negative place. But in the end, it feels like, ‘Wow, now I really am invested in this and I want to have a life with you. And that may include kids too. I want to do this.’ It just reminds me of the ending of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.’ It’s just a beautiful ending and we don’t know which way it goes. I can’t say what happens. But I felt like it was a catharsis for me just to be able to release all of those feelings because I was holding in so much for so many months.”