‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’: Tatiana Maslany & Brandon Flynn Explain Those Real Zoom Calls (VIDEO)
Apple TV is on a roll with new original stories debuting back to back. Widow’s Bay, which premiered in April, is a horror-comedy delight from the mind of Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold. May’s Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, created by David J. Rosen, is an unpredictable, smart, sexy thriller that has much more human answers to its mysteries than you’d expect. It’s hard to find completely original ideas in TV and movies these days. These two are an antidote to those woes. Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed stars Tatiana Maslany and Brandon Flynn break down the two-episode premiere in the video interview above. Warning: Spoilers for Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed Episodes 1 and 2 ahead!
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed follows newly divorced mom Paula (Maslany) as she falls down a dangerous rabbit hole of blackmail, murder, and youth soccer. Convinced she witnessed a crime — while simultaneously struggling through a custody battle and an identity crisis — Paula begins her own investigation, one that could unravel a greater conspiracy while also holding the keys to rebuilding her family and sense of self.
Paula has been through a terrible divorce from her ex-husband, Karl (Jake Johnson). He’s married to his new wife, Mallory (Jessy Hodges), and the three are in a tense but manageable (for now) co-parenting dynamic. Paula, a lead fact-checker at a newspaper, feels like she’s drowning trying to manage her life and keep custody of her daughter, Hazel (Nola Wallace). Paula schedules intimacy into her hectic schedule by hiring a camboy named Trevor (Flynn).
Viewers see one of Paula and Trevor’s sessions in Episode 1, which came out on May 20. Maslany and Flynn tell TV Insider that those were live Zoom calls. Each of them was on a different set while they talked on real video calls from laptops. Paula sat on the floor of her living room and kitchen at points during the calls, which added a layer of “privacy” and intimacy and naturalism, according to Maslany.
“There was a lot of intimacy in that, and a lot of connection,” she says. “We had an intimacy coordinator even for those scenes, which is interesting because we’re not touching.” She adds that talking live on Zoom made Paula and Trevor feel “very real. It felt like we were in the same room.”
“We did scene work on it together, which says a lot,” Flynn adds. “A Zoom call, you think it has this one nature to it, but we really found the depth of what we both wanted from each other in it…How exposed can you be corporally but emotionally as well? It was really fun.”
The fun times ended when Trevor was attacked during one of their calls after a home invasion. Paula filmed the whole thing, and then she takes matters into her own hands when authorities are convinced that Trevor was just scamming Paula for money. You’ll never guess where the plot goes from here.
Tune in to the full video interview above for a breakdown of Episodes 1 and 2.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, Wednesdays, Apple TV
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