Actors Donald Glover & Maya Erskine, along with 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' showrunner Francesca Sloane break down the first season finale. They discuss the relationship between assassins Jane & John and when the truth serum actually wore off.
Variety Making a Scene presented by HBO
Variety Making a Scene presented by HBO
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00:00You have such a robot laugh.
00:02You're like, ha ha ha ha.
00:08Really, to me, it's the laughing at the end when they're just
00:11like, oh, you talk like this.
00:12And you did like, I was like, that's what
00:14I love about a relationship.
00:16It's like, we know each other so well.
00:18It's like, it's fine.
00:19You can be that here.
00:20No one's judging that.
00:21I actually accept you.
00:23I love when she's like, your nose is like weird.
00:25I'm like, yeah, like, we feel accepted.
00:29And I'm like, that's what a real relationship kind of is.
00:32Hi, I'm Maya Erskine.
00:45I play Jane on Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
00:47Hi, I'm Donald Glover, and I play John.
00:50I'm Francesca Sloan.
00:52I am the showrunner of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
00:54And this is Variety's Making a Scene.
00:56No, no, no, no, don't, don't, don't, don't.
00:59Do it.
01:03That's not how you use those things.
01:07Those shots.
01:07I just found that out later.
01:08I was like, oh, this looks cooler.
01:10That definitely looks cooler.
01:11Yeah, the stab.
01:14We talked about how it was like nice to go, like, like it just felt like very functional.
01:19That literally was like one of the first things we came up with
01:22was wanting it to end the way that it ended.
01:25We found that it was really hard to find spy things that didn't feel like,
01:31there's a better word than kitschy, but like just things that didn't feel like played.
01:34What was that Melissa McCarthy movie, Spy?
01:38I feel like they did a good job of like all the spy tropes and being slapstick with them.
01:43Truth serum was like one of these tropes.
01:45But you do kind of wish you had truth serum in a relationship.
01:49Really all that stuff is like, it just takes time.
01:51Like you just got to get to know the person and all this stuff.
01:54And like by year seven, it's like you don't need truth serum anymore.
01:58But that's a long time and a lot of hard work.
02:00What is this doing to me?
02:02It's making you honest.
02:05You've never been honest ever.
02:08Full disclosure, I had like experienced couples therapy with my spouse.
02:14And the couples therapist was like, maybe you two need to like sit at sunset,
02:18do MDMA and remind each other of how you love each other again.
02:23You know, it's sort of like that idea just in spy terms.
02:27Everyone around you thinks that you're a sweet idiot.
02:31I directed that episode.
02:33I love directing and being in stuff, but like, I don't suggest it.
02:38It's like, it's not.
02:39I don't love it.
02:40Yeah, like especially with like fight scenes and stuff.
02:43It's a very, very, it's very tough and it's exhausting.
02:48You don't completely get to be the audience.
02:50But anyway, I just remember that scene.
02:52I remember like Maya was playing it really well and she's like definitely frightened,
02:56which was what I wanted.
02:57But I remember being in the scene being like, is this too much?
03:00This seems a little like fucked up.
03:04Oh my God.
03:06It's like when you see the original Mr.
03:07and Mrs.
03:08Smith, when they're fighting, it's like, it's pretty intense.
03:12But they have this like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
03:15Like there's like music that makes it okay.
03:22We were like, well, we're not going to do that.
03:24We're not going to play, you know, CeeLo's like, fuck you or anything like behind it.
03:30So how are we going to get away with this?
03:33And we were like, well, it just has to feel more like a conversation.
03:37Like they're speaking in a way that they know how to speak to each other at this point.
03:43I was also terrified.
03:45Like that was actually, and that, I think that's why I was excited to do it.
03:49Because it was like a scene that made me very nervous.
03:53Like I was, because it is one of those, it was how many pages?
03:56Like 14, 15, like, you know, a lot was cut out, but like it felt like this sprawling,
04:04like experiment, honestly.
04:06And I think that's why the scene was so great to do because it scared the shit out of me.
04:12Like I was terrified of it because you do have to kind of take big swings and you don't know,
04:17you don't want to play everything the same.
04:19And, and yeah, I felt like I could have made an asshole out of myself, but it was, you know,
04:24that's, that's why it was really, it, I don't know.
04:28Felt, it felt, yeah, like cathartic to do and also terrifying.
04:33Did you really love me?
04:35Did you even love me?
04:38I did.
04:39He can be incompetent because he actually does care about people, you know?
04:44And I feel like she does too, but why would she give you that information?
04:50Like, it's like, that's kind of her card.
04:52I mean, I don't know if she is stronger that way, but she definitely feels stronger that way.
04:56And I feel like that's the heart of it.
04:58I think a little bit is, you know, I don't think we have to ask John a little bit.
05:02It's like, did you actually like her?
05:03It's like, yeah, like it was very, I felt, I felt like it was clear already that like
05:08he was vulnerable in that way.
05:10The characters, John and Jane, are so withholding the entire time.
05:14And we wanted an opportunity to sort of just let them fully throw everything at the wall,
05:19like be sweaty and horny and sad all at once, and finally let the audience get some answers
05:26in this way.
05:27But we wanted to sort of play with that in terms of relationships.
05:30And to Donald's point, it's like that moment when you start to really know someone and
05:34you're sort of bearing all in terms of an actual couple, but how do you do that in spy terms?
05:39So it just felt like the right way to do it.
05:41I hate you!
05:45I hate you too.
05:46She helped me a lot, actually, because of directing.
05:49Like, I was like, I don't know if this is good.
05:52Like, I was like, I'm like, I had like really hard point of view.
05:55But like, she really, because she was so dialed in, I was like, oh, I'll just follow Maya's
06:00lead.
06:01Like, it was like, I was like, okay, like, this is, this is, we need this now, like a
06:05little bit, which was so helpful.
06:07So like, yeah, Maya killed that scene.
06:09To me, it felt like the least violent part of the whole fight in a way.
06:13It was more just like, no, we're going to do this as a couple.
06:16We're doing this.
06:17And she was just like, and we're, and you catch us at such an exhausted point, which
06:23I loved that like Donald when directing was really stressing, like, we need to be exhausted
06:29by the end of this.
06:29Like, because in fights, you always see in movies, they're like able to fight the whole
06:33time and like look gorgeous.
06:34But at the end of a fight, like you have no energy.
06:37And so she can barely fight him off, but it's so, it almost feels like the ultimate
06:42form of betrayal to her in that moment to Jane, because he is making her tell the truth.
06:47And that's the last thing that she wants, but it's what is necessary for them to get
06:51to the next stage of their relationship.
06:55But it's also really sexy because it's sort of like he then doses himself, right?
07:00It takes the horror and it turns to this thing that is actually really romantic in a way,
07:05like he's trying throughout the episode.
07:07What did you think when we first met?
07:09And she's still saying, like, I thought that basically you were a mark and that you'd be
07:12easy to manipulate.
07:13And he's like, she's still lying.
07:15She's still not telling the truth.
07:17Just because you don't understand me doesn't make me a liar.
07:20That's bullshit.
07:21We did it in order that I was made sure we did it in order because I was like, that that's
07:26very important.
07:26And when you don't have that much time, because like, I would have loved to do it for two
07:30days, which would have been also exhausting in a different way.
07:33But it was it was one of those things was like, OK, we'll just we'll do a wide and then
07:39the wide will kind of show us like, oh, that was good.
07:42This is where we want to get this other part.
07:44You did that brilliant thing.
07:45We had a painting above the mantle and a lot of the art switched out.
07:49But this painting kind of remained the whole time, which was the swans painting by Helma
07:54F. Clint.
07:55And it's like these two entangled swans, which really represents sort of the spy versus spy
08:00and the yin and the yang and the woman and the man.
08:03And so they have that moment on the carpet where they're sort of becoming like those
08:08swans to finally embrace again.
08:11Can I smell your neck?
08:12No.
08:13Do you want me to do it anyway?
08:15Yeah.
08:15OK.
08:16Yeah.
08:18We shot in pretty much chronological order until right.
08:22Like, I mean, for the most part, except for a couple episodes, it it really lended itself
08:28well to the chemistry, because when we did the first episode, we were really just getting
08:33to know each other.
08:34We were just becoming friends.
08:36And so there were those really awkward.
08:39OK, and I was it was super awkward.
08:43Well, you were you had like you had sinus issues going on.
08:46And so that was like it's a slow build.
08:49And so that really mimicked what was going on screen.
08:53And I think we got to play with that, which was really helpful.
08:57That teasing that Donald's talking about like that was a discovery as we were filming of
09:03like, oh, this is a good aspect to their relationship.
09:06And especially Jane, because she's so closed off that I loved that there were pockets of
09:12it before.
09:12It's even in this big finale, this big scene.
09:15We're always talking about, like, what makes this sexy?
09:17What kind of sexy is it?
09:18It's like it's not going to be the 90s like Bran, Brad and Angelina like sexy.
09:22So like what's sexy at this?
09:24And we were kept being like intimacy.
09:25But I'm glad you didn't tell me beforehand like this needs to feel sexy in this.
09:30Like, I'm glad there were never any like dictations of this is how it should feel or
09:35but like it it just felt like it took on its own shape.
09:39And the sexiness came because it was so intimate and messy and very John and Jane.
09:47I hate how your voice goes so low when you want to be charming.
09:51We talked a lot about spy versus spy.
09:53Donald and I, when we started, we literally sat together.
09:55I got like a big book of every spy versus spy comic.
09:59And we just like laughed at them together.
10:01I just remember when we were choosing the costumes frame was like, I was thinking like
10:05we do the spy versus spy thing.
10:07And I definitely really wanted to wear what I was wearing.
10:09I was like, I definitely want to wear that.
10:10I just thought that was super cool.
10:12I had a shot at you at the stairs.
10:16I had three clear shots of you in the kitchen.
10:19It's very easy, I think, even subconsciously for you to watch that last episode in general
10:25and just be like, they complement each other.
10:27Like, you know, they're stronger together.
10:29That was the heart to me of a lot of it was just it's hard to do it alone.
10:35For a man, especially John's character, who wanted to be a spy his whole life,
10:39who has this big decorated soldier father who he's looked up to,
10:44who's always been like the man of the house.
10:46And he always expected to be the bond of the film.
10:50And in that moment, he realizes what will make him stronger is actually to let Jane
10:54take that take that role.
11:05For that type of man and the way that he was raised
11:08and the way that he thought this would go for him to say,
11:11that is like a really big, generous and also smart move on his part.
11:15So it shows his growth in the same way we just saw Jane's growth
11:18in the truth serum of her saying all of these things and finally expressing her love.
11:23And he needed that too.
11:35I played it as she means it.
11:38I do think in that moment, whether it's out of desperation to keep them alive,
11:42whatever the like, though, I think she does mean it.
11:46And I've always played her as she actually does.
11:49She would have kids.
11:52I don't know if that's right.
11:53But that's how I always saw it.
11:55Well, there's that beautiful moment with you two on the carpet.
11:59You're your swan moment, right?
12:01When you guys were he says he would want to have children with her,
12:04even if she is a sociopath, if she's exactly the Jane that he knows.
12:07Anyway, and I think that kind of is like,
12:09that's all she needed to really hear to feel like
12:13she could maybe do it with this particular person.
12:15One of the things that I'm proudest of as a writer,
12:17and I don't talk about myself this often in that way ever,
12:20actually, but was when we came up with this moment where
12:25she nods, Maya, the way that you perform it,
12:28it's like so subtle and so vulnerable and sweet,
12:32but about him being okay when he's like bleeding out
12:35and his organs are almost like hanging out of his stomach.
12:42Is it bad?
12:48Liar.
12:49And she lies.
12:50So we're aware then because of that lie,
12:53that the truth serum has worn off.
12:55We want the audience to be able to ask the question that you're asking
12:58is Jane telling the truth or not in this moment?
13:01And does it really matter?
13:02And we talk a lot about lying in relationships too.
13:05And how it is a tool.
13:10You tell the truth when you're supposed to
13:11and you lie when you're supposed to.
13:15When you need it, when someone needs that for something,
13:20but not to hurt or deceive someone.
13:24To me anyway, I felt like she's like,
13:27I'm lying to keep you going,
13:31but I feel like my character is like,
13:33you're lying to keep you going a little bit.
13:35And you don't have to do that.
13:36Like you don't have to do that with me.
13:38The whole thing can be seen in a bunch of ways.
13:41It wasn't Donald's hands.
13:42When we were doing,
13:43when we were cutting the final episode,
13:45we're like, we don't have enough to show the dramatic quality that he's lying.
13:49So that's a double.
13:59Personally, for me on Atlanta,
14:00like I always was like, no one cares about these guys.
14:03It's really about just Atlanta.
14:05People just like the feeling.
14:06I was like, no, people like people.
14:08And with this episode, we were like,
14:10we wanted people to care.
14:11So it definitely makes me feel good
14:13that like people give a fuck about them.
14:18And that relationship, that's also, it's great to me.
14:21It's like, people are like, man, we like them together.
14:24To Donald's point, it's like,
14:27everything is so fast now, right?
14:30Like everything is so fast.
14:31It's so hard to sit and digest something.
14:34And we created a cliffhanger for a reason.
14:37And it's like, if we were to answer that,
14:40you know, as much as like,
14:42I love and respect that people want to talk to us
14:44in these interviews and stuff like that,
14:45especially somebody like me where I'm like,
14:47why do you want to hear what I have to say?
14:49But it's sort of like, why would we give all that up
14:53when we haven't even given you season two yet?
14:56You know, like be patient.
14:58The present will be so much more fulfilling
15:00when you wait to open it on actual Christmas
15:03instead of trying to like peek at it early
15:05before it's time, you know?
15:07So you'll be satisfied with what we give you.
15:09We'll give you that.