‘Maid’ Premiere Date & First Look: Margaret Qualley Portrays a Mother’s Love & Resilience (VIDEO)

Meredith Jacobs August 23, 2021, 1:04 pm

Margaret Qualley as Alex in Maid — Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix

According to aspiring writer Alex (Margaret Qualley), she’s working on “a story about a woman. She lives in a big, beautiful house, the kind of house that’s on the cover of magazines. She’s a personal trainer and a financial adviser. She’s been to the Louvre more than once. She spends entire Saturdays getting hot stone massages and reading her first-edition books. No long lines to stand in, no time cards to punch. She has the luxury of time. She wakes up every morning to a view of the ocean, like it exists just for her. She has time to bake seven pies from scratch if she wants to.”

But then she’s asked for the conflict in the trailer for the new Netflix series Maid, premiering Friday, October 1. “There isn’t one,” she says. But her life is very different from the picture she paints with her words.

Inspired by Stephanie Land’s New York Times bestselling memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, the 10-episode series follows Alex, a single mom who cleans houses to barely make ends meet as she escapes an emotionally abusive relationship and overcomes homelessness. Her primary goal: to give her daughter, Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet), a better life. “Seen through the emotional yet humorous lens of a desperate but determined woman, this series is a raw and inspiring exploration of a mother’s resilience,” reads the Netflix description.

Watch the trailer below, then scroll down for the first photos.

The cast also includes Nick Robinson (Sean), Anika Noni Rose (Regina), Tracy Vilar (Yolanda), Billy Burke (Hank), and Andie MacDowell (Paula). Raymond Ablack (Nate), BJ Harrison (Denise), Xavier de Guzman (Ethan), Aimee Carrero (Danielle), and Toby Levins (Basil) also star.

Molly Smith Metzler serves as showrunner. Joining Metzler and Land as executive producers are John Wells, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, Erin Jontow, and Brett Hedblom.