Malin Akerman Talks ‘The Comeback,’ ‘Hunting Wives’ and Her Recent "Mother" Anointment
“I've been called Mother, which is like the highest respect. I'm like, thank you. Thank you very much.”
Before there was Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl or headlines like “Why everyone online is calling these Hollywood men 'babygirl,’” there was the OG babygirl, Juna Milken, the lead on Room & Bored, the sitcom within the cult classic series The Comeback. The character, who was both a friend and existential threat to Lisa Kudrow’s Valerie Cherish, was played by actress Malin Akerman in her first leading role in Hollywood. And though the show was short-lived (lasting only 21 episodes across two seasons), its imprint has felt indelible, so much so that the show is coming back for a third (and final, so they say) season over a decade after the last season.
One would think that getting the opportunity to chat with Akerman about her new hit series Hunting Wives would be the priority during our sit-down. And it’s not that it wasn't! But it’s not everyday that one gets to sit down with one of the original stars of bar none one of the best television shows of all time. In fact, earlier this year, Variety published a list titled “The 100 Greatest TV Performances of the 21st Century,” and ranked Akerman’s co-star, Lisa Kudrow, as the number four performance.
So, yes, we talk Hunting Wives and the rabid lesbian following she’s invoked, Margo’s much-discussed shake-and-go wig and where things stand on a second season of the show. Come for that, for sure. But stay for the discussion about her time working on the beloved Michael Patrick King-helmed series and if there’s any chance of Juna reentering the mix on the upcoming Season 3.
Hunting Wives is not only a hit show in the sense that a lot of people are watching it — I feel like it meets the mark of something kind of greater than that these days, which is that it's a conversation point. And this is further evidenced in the ravenous lesbian fandom that this show has garnered. Did you ever imagine that you would become a lesbian icon?
No, I did not, and I love it. I'm loving every moment of it. Keep bringing it. It's been wonderful. This show, this character, it's not presented as The L Word; there's a fluidity to it, a very wide fluidity in very many different ways. So I just love the free bird that Margo is. This show was supposed to be on Starz. And I think when you click on Starz, you expect something a little bit more salacious and a little bit more out there, but there was this crazy perfect storm with the timing of it all coming to Netflix, where there was this shock value to airing this show on Netflix. And the cult lesbian following — now that has been so wonderful. I've gotten a nickname: Mother. It’s the highest respect. I'm like, thank you. Thank you very much. But it's wild and beautiful, and I'm very excited for it all. I'm happy that there are these beautiful scenes between myself and Brittany Snow that are through a woman's gaze. It was really cool to be on set and have women at the helm who were just going, “What do we think is sexy?” And that was really great, and I think it resonated.
You've been in this industry for quite some time. I was going through your IMDB and I was like, oh, my God, this woman's never not working! You've also done quite a few sex scenes. How atypical is it for that to have a woman at the helm?
In the beginning, it was pretty atypical. It was unusual, but it's become more and more the case. The net has widened and, even for myself, being a 47-year-old woman, to be doing these types of roles, it used to be cordoned off to younger women when I started. I remember comments from directors themselves saying, “Oh yeah, we didn't go with that woman because she just had a kid and nobody wants to see her naked anymore.” And I'm going, “Wow, this is a rough industry, man.” But everything has shifted, and so it's really fun to be working with a ton of women versus just a few. And not that I don't love working with men too; I've worked with some of the best, but it's really lovely to just have those conversations when we're talking about intimate scenes with other women versus straight men.
It's interesting because this show is so much driven by word of mouth. As you mentioned, that transition from Starz over to Netflix meant that there was no proper premiere, there was no proper press tour. And yet, in some strange way, I almost feel like the show benefited from that. I pick up on this as someone who's constantly trying to get the temperature of social media where I'll start to see something I've never heard of, but I'll see it once, and then twice, and it starts to proliferate to the point where I need to check this thing out if I want to feel like I've got some semblance of what's happening in the culture. And that's how I felt about Hunting Wives, where it was truly word of mouth, and I think that actually gave it an intrigue that it might not have had if it went the more conventional route.
Totally. I do feel that way sometimes walking into a film that you know nothing about and it just blows you away. I feel like that sort of is what Hunting Wives became, because nobody, even with the trailer that was out, was prepared for what was about to happen. And I remember that feeling when I first read the scripts. I mean, the scene with the sheriff and Callie in bed — I just went, “I have to do this show!” I've never seen this on TV. How brave, how awesome, how vulnerable.
For people that haven't gotten there: Minor spoiler, but in that scene we have Callie pegging her husband.
And I have talked to many of my guy friends — straight, gay, whatever — who enjoy that situation.
A prostate is a prostate.
I was like, “Guys, why hasn't this ever been in a show?” This is amazing.
It's funny though, because I feel like that's such an outrageous moment on the show, and it's one of like 20. It's truly edgy television. And [series creator] Rebecca [Cutter] has spoken about the fact that she calls this show anti-prestige. And I love that terminology, because I do feel like with the boom of prestige television, particularly in the early 2000s, I think it became really aspirational for so many writers and creators to want to make prestige television, which made it seem like all other forms of television, just by virtue, were lesser. And I think this show is gratuitous in a non-derogatory sense. And I think it leans into that. It has fun with it. It takes itself seriously at times, and in other times, less so.
I think we're in a conservative situation here in deep East Texas with this show, all church-going people. So I think that juxtaposition just makes it even wilder. Because maybe you expect it more in Game of Thrones, but with Hunting Wives it's just unexpected, and that's why it's more in your face. And all of the things that Rebecca says and all of the comments are true, and I think that it's the reason why Real Housewives of X, Y and Z exist and all these reality shows, because people love to watch a train wreck. It’s just fun, titillating TV. And the books that sell the most — all the ladies sitting on the beach every summer reading 50 Shades of Gray or thereafter. This is that show.
I think it's easy to look at women like that and judge them. And I think this show asks of its viewers to look at all the fun that they're having, look at the authentic friendship that they have. I had an immediate judgment of these women, to be honest. By Episode 2 or 3, I started to look at myself and say, “Well, what's that about? Why are you judging them?” And I think the show does that in a really interesting way, especially because you can’t help but fall in love with these women. And then there's also a part of you that's like, “I think maybe I want to go hunting with them.”
We all want to go hunting with them! It’s a fun time. You just gotta be careful — not even with the guns. You gotta be careful around Margo. But yeah, I think we all had judgment going into it. I was like, “Wait, a show about a red state, guns? I'm not sure. Can we talk about this?” But the way Rebecca wrote it is so tongue in cheek. There are moments where it's real, and there are moments where it's making fun of itself, and you have to know what you're making. And I think that's why we see it through Sophie's eyes. And she's like, “I'm not this person.” And then you go, “Or am I? This is kind of fun, and why wouldn't I? I'm gonna buy into this.” And they don't really take everything seriously. I mean, if you told Margo you have to go and sacrifice goats on Fridays to get into this group instead of going to church, that's what she'd be doing. She doesn't really believe in all that stuff, so that's why we go, “Oh, she's fun. She's somebody that I want to hang out with for a day.” I think that Rebecca did a great job of creating these characters, and I think that's why I loved it, too.
There's something so established about this town and its rules, and what the church looks like, and what the homes look like, and what the school looks like, and who the principal is, and how he communicates with the parents. And I just have such a clear sense of the place. Even in Episode 1, when Sophia first arrives, just looking at all the extras and the grandness of that NRA fundraiser, I was like, “This feels like what that party would be like.” It doesn't feel like just a bunch of extras that were brought in. There was something so lived-in about the world of this show.
I think that probably comes a lot from having May Cobb's novel as well, and the conversations that May and Rebecca had because they spent a lot of time together. And May was like, “I had to tone down some of this stuff compared to what it really is like at these fundraisers and parties and stuff like that,” which is crazy. But I think that's really lovely to know that you felt that it was a lived-in world, because that is hard to create.
So we were talking about the lesbian fan base for the show. And on that note, there's a viral post going around right now. I don't know if you know about this. And it reads:
“Oh, you know Malin Akerman from Hunting Wives. I know her from 2014 when she kissed Carla Gugino during the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.”
And it includes a video of you both aggressively making out before having ice thrown on you. Can you give me the oral history of that video? Were you aware it was recirculating?
[Laughs] No, I was not aware it was recirculating. That's hilarious. Carla Gugino is one of my best girlfriends ever. Her husband is a filmmaker, Sebastian Gutierrez, who we both worked with several times, and we just always have a blast together. And we just thought, “All right, what can we do different that will just get a lot a lot of eyes on this video and raise a lot of money,” and we're like, “Oh, let's just kiss and then get Sebastian to pour the ice on us.” I don't know why we came up with that idea, but we did it, and as soon as the ice was poured, we just couldn't keep a straight face. We said we were gonna try to just continue through the whole thing. But the gig was up once the ice hit us. But, yeah, there wasn't much to it. It was more just to get lots of eyes on the cause, and raise lots of money.
You have so many memorable roles, but Juna Milken from The Comeback is so important to so many. In fact, when Babygirl came out last year, all I could think that whole time was: This is co-opting from Juna Milken. There's also a moment on Hunting Wives when Margo says, “Baby girl.”
That is so ingrained in me. Like you said, it's important for you, for many people, but for me, it was my first real job in Hollywood. So it was the beginning of everything for me. So baby girl and Juna Milken are part of my soul. So it was really funny when I called her baby girl. I was like, “Wait, I passed the torch. Now I'm not baby girl anymore! I'm a femme fatale who's just taking advantage of this sweet baby girl.” [Laughs] So it just shifted the whole dynamic.
I was gonna say: It’s like you are Valerie Cherish in that moment, but comparing Margo to Valerie, do you ever wonder what it would be like if Valerie and Margo were to meet?
I don't know that they'd be friends for very long. It'd be a very forced lunch, and they would say goodbye and never call each other again.
I think they'd have a hard time understanding each other for sure. But what about with Juna and Margo?
Well, Juna is grown up now, isn't she? A little different. I don't know. I would be curious to see that lunch. [Laughs]
You mentioned The Comeback was one of your first gigs. I read that you came over from Sweden to Canada, and then Canada to LA. At that point, you were pursuing acting, but you weren't all the way in.
Yes. Well, I wasn't all the way in because I couldn't get it. That's usually the case. So my other foot was in music. I met a band and they needed a front singer, and I had not sang before, but they were willing to teach me and they needed someone to be a lyricist because it was a band from Italy, and so I jumped into that. So I was doing music and trying to be an actor.
Which is interesting, because the character of Juna is an actor who's moonlighting as a singer.
Well, the thing is that I was handing out flyers for my show at the Viper Room literally on set. Me, not Juna, to MPK and everybody. And this is in the beginning of the season, and they're like, “Wait, you have a band. Wouldn't that be funny if we incorporate it!” So that's my band in the show that they incorporated at the Viper Room. So it sparked ideas for this character, which was really cool. My band was stoked. They're like, “Wait, we get to be on HBO. This is amazing!”
Were there other aspects of your life that were incorporated into Juna or was it just that?
During the auditions, they said, “It's this young girl who's doing her first show and and she gets to work with an icon.” And I'm like, so basically, I don't have to act. I just be me, because it's Lisa Kudrow, and I've watched her growing up. So it was parallel to my own life, really.
What was it like to work with Lisa?
She was my mother.
Before you were Mother.
[Laughs] She was a very different kind of mother, but truly it was a special bond. And I love Lisa. Lisa and Michael Patrick King gave me life, literally, in this business. Being on that set with her and watching her work and create this incredible character was life changing. Truly. I don't even know where to begin or what to say, but I loved that relationship that we got to have. It became this friendship, this mentorship. I love all her quotes. I just adore Lisa as a person. And again, it's hard because reality and The Comeback kind of get mixed together. It really was such a huge moment in my life, and a huge moment in Juna’s life. It's something that I'll never get ever with any other show.
Your characters have this genuine bond that grounds the show so much. When you came back, what was that like for you to bring her back to life and once again see Lisa embodying Valerie?
It felt a little bittersweet, just because I felt more grown up and she didn't feel like a mother in the same way, although I'll never stop idolizing her as an actress and a human being. But I think that it was just the shift that they made in the storyline also felt like the shift in my life. It's really a crazy feeling to have a show that kind of parallels life at all. It's like putting markers and milestones in your own life, and here we are coming back and reunited with the people who got me started and reflecting on that and putting that in the story too. Lisa [as Valerie] meets up with me at a Hollywood party. I had done some of those by then, but I hadn't before we shot the first season.
You got to share quite a few scenes with the late Robert Dean Morris, who played Mickey on the show. He is the heart and soul of The Comeback. What was it like getting to work with him?
Robert was one of the best. I adore him. I remember the first season, he would call me into his trailer. He was the sweetest and told me stories. And he had been a school teacher or a pastor, and he was just so good with people, and he was so loving, and he was just so generous, and hadn't done much in the acting world. So this was kind of the beginning for both of us, and a whole new experience. So we really bonded on and off screen. And he was a gem. He put a mark on everybody's heart.
Do you have a favorite Juna and Mickey moment from the show?
I think there's a moment where I say to him that there's a really cute guy that I have for him, but he hasn't really outed himself on camera and his face in that moment kills me every time.
They did announce a Season 3 of the show. Were you contacted at all? Do you know anything about what's to come?
I don't know much. Everyone keeps everything close to the chest. I'm not at liberty to speak much about it. I really don't know much either. I'm very curious.
On the subject of continued seasons of shows, everyone is clamoring for a Hunting Wives Season 2. What are we waiting for?
I can tell you that I don't know yet. There's nothing confirmed. But we're all sitting here pretty sure there's gonna be a Season 2. I can't imagine there isn't. But the holdup is that it was supposed to be on Starz and Netflix acquired it just for a year, and so there's renegotiations. I don't think any of us realized what this was going to become. So now I think the powers that be are having conversations of what the future looks like for this. Are we going to maybe do a contract for three seasons? Me and the gals from the show are on a little message thread, and I said, “If Netflix doesn't pick it up, couldn't we take it anywhere? And maybe someone else would pick it up.” Because who would want to just drop this? It’s been such a success.
Not only has it been such a success, but where we left off in that finale, there are questions that need answered. We can't just leave it like this. In an interview, when asked if Dermot Mulroney's character Jed Banks will be back, Rebecca confirmed he would be.
Listen, this truly is from no source at all. This is just my guesstimate, and I might be proven completely wrong, but I'm thinking, if Jed Banks is running for governor in Texas… politicians cover everything up until they can't anymore, even if they have to bury files or 5 million pounds of dirt. I think Jed will have to come back together with Margo in order to present a certain credibility to their marriage and bury all the skeletons, because Jill has been ousted as the killer.
We do have another dead body on our hands now, one that Margo doesn't yet know about.
No, she doesn't know about it, but I think she kind of does. I don't think she thinks that he's dead, but I think she thinks that something's up. Because that's very strange, that there was breathing on the other side of that phone. If I were to guess, I would say that we will see Jed and Margo get back together just for his political career. I think she'll be on thin ice, but I think they maybe make a deal. And I also think now we have two killers, Sophia and Margo. I mean, now they can be together; they're both murderers. So maybe we continue that love story.
When you were first reading the script, did you find this to be a love story? And if so, was theirs? Was it a romantic love story, or was it a friendship that went to a different place by convenience?
So if I answer from Margo’s point of view, I think that she always has an agenda, and I think it's also just a power play. I think she likes being in power. So I don't know how much I think certain things about Sophie caught her off guard. And I do think that she has feelings for Sophie. I think this is the first person where she feels matched as far as intelligence and EQ, because she hangs out with all these hunting wives who are fun, but they don't titillate her. Margo is a survivor. And survivors are real smart people, because you have to be a chameleon in order to survive. And I think she sees the same thing in Sophie, and she sees this smart woman, and I think Sophie really titillates her mentally, which I don't think she's had for a while. So I think there are aspects of this that are a love story, and elements of surprise, even for Margo and obviously for Sophie, of this connection. I dont think that it's new for Margo to have shiny new toys, but I think this one's a unique toy and I think that this has thrown her off guard.
What is it like in this moment to be a part of something that is a hit?
It's amazing. The thing that's making me most excited is that I really love everyone that I worked with, and I think Rebecca and May are so worthy of this. I just think they did an incredible job. And so for us to be chosen and to be given this role that is, for me, just a role of a lifetime, it's so nuanced and so much to work with. There have been a few roles along the way that I definitely wish could have had the success rate that this show is having, but to finally have a role that I love, people that I love working with, a show that I think is super fun, to then have the audience match that and go, “Yeah, we agree. This is great. It's worthy of all the success that it's having,” is so much fun, and is really the first time ever. And I mean, I'm 47-years-old, so it's pretty, pretty great. I didn't know if this moment would ever happen, and that's okay, too. I've had a great career, but how fun to have this experience.
When did the idea land for you that acting was going to be a viable career? As we mentioned earlier, when you came out to Hollywood, you were pursuing both singing and acting.
At that time, there was something called pilot season, which was usually two or three times a year and it was three months where everyone who had written a pilot for a TV show was casting. You'd go to four or five auditions a day. It was just madness, and then they'd shoot maybe 30 of them, and then maybe three of those would actually get picked up. So it was just this mad dash. And there were lulls in between, and I wasn't really anybody, so it was hard to get me in rooms. My manager at the time said, “Can I just send you out for pilot season?” I was like, “Yeah, I think this would be the last one, because I'm not really hitting anything here. It's been fun. I've gotten a few callbacks, but maybe it's not for me.” And that was the pilot season where The Comeback was casting, and that's when I got that. And still now, there are lulls, and you're like, maybe this isn't for me. Maybe it wasn't meant to be. And I say that with a grin as well, where I'm like, I know I could do some films, but I'd love to be able to choose instead of just having to take films because I need to put food on the table. It really is that in this business; for writers strikes or Covid. There was also this weird lull where people within streamers and networks were trying to figure out how they were going to reconfigure, and then all of a sudden, for six months, me and my actor friends were going, “Are you working? Nope, all right, should we just go for walks and have lunch? Because we're not doing anything. Soon I'm gonna dip into all my savings and retirement plan.” But I think there was a moment where rom coms were really a big deal back in the early 2000s and I was lucky enough to be in a stream of them. And that's when I went, “Oh, okay, I think I can do this now. I think I can say that I'm an actor and I can make a living off of it.” And that's The Heartbreak Kid, 27 Dresses and The Proposal. All that stuff was one after the other, and that's when I realized.
Have there ever been times that you've considered a different career path?
I started my life wanting to be a child psychologist, studying psychology at university, and then during Covid, certified myself as a youth and child development coach. So I have done courses and worked with boys in juvenile hall, doing leadership consulting and value alignment. And that was under a friend of mine who’s a leadership coach and was teaching me. So she created a program for these boys, and I was her co-leader, and it was awesome and life-changing. And I want to do that forever and ever. That's where I feel the most alive: when I get to share with people real life stories and things. And so I could definitely see myself going into that and continuing that, but later on in life. I feel like this story isn't done yet.
What kind of things were you speaking with the kids about?
A little bit of everything. It was every Saturday for 12 weeks. We went in and we had a group of boys who are all under the age of 18 in juvenile hall. It was three to four hours, and we would break down barriers and they would share about their lives — or wouldn't. They didn't have to share anything. And then we would break off into groups, and we'd go, “What are things that are important to you, and how can we align you with those values?” Simple steps aligning them with what they want to achieve was one of the things, but the sharing was my favorite because we would sit around and we would share what we want to get out of this, or what the obstacles are in our life, or just share about ourselves. And it's the most present I've ever felt with human beings, because these boys are survivors, and so their EQ levels are higher than anyone that I've ever met. They're very street smart, and they read bullshit real quick, which is the opposite of Hollywood, and that was really cool. So we really had to be mindful of how we approached these conversations because there was no bullshit allowed.
The casting director for Hunting Wives, Jeanne McCarthy, describes you as fearless. Is fearlessness something that you've always possessed?
I think that I am mostly fearless, definitely. I attribute that to a few things. I think it's growing up in a Swedish family. Culturally, it's just a little different. It's a little bit more open. It was funny because my friend Michaela Watkins, a fabulous actress, just texted me when she came back from her first trip to Sweden, and she goes, “Oh my god, I love this place. Why are you not living here? I understand how you are who you are now.” There's just a different culture and different vibe, a different underbelly that is a little bit more free. I've been in saunas with family members, and we're nude, and we go skinny dipping. Nudity is natural. And because it's so natural, it's not crazy to see boobs on TV. It's just part of life. Growing up in a family that was very free made me see that as part of humanity and who we are; a sexual freedom, natural freedom, and so that was my baseline. It’s helped me with Margo, because she feels like if this feels good to me, I'm going to do whatever I feel like doing, and people are always going to judge no matter what. So I just got to go with what my gut says. And I've kind of done that my whole life. Also, I moved out at 16 and just kind of figured out who I was. It took a long time, by the way. I feel more grounded now in my 40s than I ever have. It took time to figure out who I was and what I wanted to be, but I've always enjoyed just feeling free. And so whatever makes me feel free is what I have to offer.
What do you think about this fear of aging that so many people have?
I think it's instilled in us. It’s cultural. I feel better and more myself now than I ever have. I feel sexier. And that doesn't have to do with physicality. Mentally, I just feel like I got me. I'm all woman now. I'm feeling myself. I'm feeling great, and to then be picked apart physically by outside forces in society based on what a woman “should” look like — it drives you a bit nuts. It’s a constant struggle for me, trying to not care, but then caring and listening and going, “Oh, my god, does my chin look — wait, what am I doing? Okay, stop, stop.” But yeah, I do think it's societal, 100%. Wouldn't it be nice if there was just celebration, where you go, “Oh, my God, look at your wrinkles. They're so beautiful. I can't wait to get mine!” Like, these are medals that you get for aging. I wish it was like that, but it's not.
I think sometimes there's a little bit of the tone of being overly celebratory of people, particularly women, who are aging “gracefully.” I actually think it serves to work against what it's trying to do in being so celebratory, like, isn't it brave that this woman is aging naturally?
Yeah, it's so the wrong word to use. You're “brave.” It doesn't have anything to do with it.
What we really need to do is just normalize these things, as opposed to celebrate them.
Absolutely, the whole like, “You look great for your age!” Oh, please.
Before I let you go, I do have to ask about the wigs — not just in Hunting Wives, but in your career overall.
Yes, there are a lot of wigs. When you’re working a lot, your hair disappears. We call it “working hair” because every day, you're getting hair dryers and curling irons, and it's ruining your hair, and you're dying it different colors for different roles, and so sometimes you just gotta give it a break, man, because it's not going to last. It's going to get fried off. I've gone through that where, when I started Hunting Wives, my hair was real short and it was just fried. There wasn't much to work with there. So a lot of times, I do clip-ins and extensions, but the extensions themselves ruin your hair as well. And so it’s this vicious downward spiral. I think a lot of people enjoy wearing wigs when they're made properly.
Is it odd for your Hunting Wives wig — something that I imagine wasn't given much thought at the time — to become such an obsession?
It became its own character in the show! [Laughs] Definitely no one could have guessed that. There's some filter on Tiktok where you can put Margo's wig on your own head. I think it's awesome. I've been talking to Rebecca, and I'm like, “Well, if we do a Season 2, do we go with the wig, or do we go natural?” She had mentioned maybe we would just use my natural hair and put clips in. But now I'm questioning that. I mean, that's getting rid of a whole other character! We're gonna have to go out there and take an audience poll and see what people want.