‘The Hunting Wives’ Star Malin Åkerman on Playing a Secretly Queer Republican and Revealing Hypocrisy Around Abortion: ‘This Is F—ed Up!’ (EXCLUSIVE)

“The Hunting Wives” explores “the social status of wanting to be in power, wanting to be at the top of the social ladder, and what people will do” to get and stay there, says Åkerman. “It feels very cliquey. And the things that people put importance on, the backstabbing that goes on, and the hypocrisy — you have all these churchgoers who really are not leading by example when it comes to what the church stands for. So, we will see what people think, but I definitely loved that we had all points of view coming at us, and leaving it open for conversation and consideration of what people feel is right or wrong.”

Over the course of eight episodes, as she begins to get her claws into Sophie, Margo’s carefully constructed house of cards begins to collapse. In the finale, Sophie discovers that, shortly before her own arrival in Texas, Margo started having an affair with her friend Jill’s (Katie Lowes) barely-legal, basketball-playing son Brad (George Ferrier) and, once she became pregnant, decided to get an abortion. When Brad’s jealous girlfriend, Abby (Madison Wolfe), found out about the relationship, Margo went into crisis management mode: She used Sophie’s newly purchased gun to kill Abby in the woods; asked her brother Kyle (Michael Aaron Milligan) to handle the clean-up; and got an alibi from the town’s local doctor, who happens to be her biological father.

Sophie threatens to blow Margo’s life up, but she has much bigger fish to fry by the end of the season. When Kyle tracks her down on the road and then threatens to shoot her, Sophie, who was already convicted of killing a pedestrian while driving under the influence in Massachusetts — though she and her husband hired a fancy lawyer to escape any real consequences —  impulsively decides to run him over with her car. The finale ends with Sophie pushing Kyle’s body off a cliff into a river, but not before she accidentally answers a call from Margo on Kyle’s phone.

In her first in-depth interview about one of the wildest shows of the year, Åkerman opens up to Variety about her portrayal of a sexually liberated Texas housewife in the current political climate, her take on the show’s twisty, steamy Sapphic romance (and why she thinks that finale is not the end of their story) — and whether she will appear in the third season of HBO’s “The Comeback.”

In an early conversation with Sophie, Margo reveals that she and her husband Jed are aware of each other’s extramarital affairs. Margo says, “We have an arrangement. Open marriages are for liberals. We just keep it simple — I don’t sleep with other men, and Jed and I see a girl we like, we go for it.” What was your perspective on these MAGA and conservative queer women in Texas? How does a character like Margo personally justify going against the beliefs that she and her inner circle all publicly espouse?

Margo does not care. She wouldn’t go to church if Jed didn’t make her. She just does things to appear [as] the best version of whatever she needs to be. Looking at where she came from coming into this inner circle, if she had to slaughter a pig every Friday, she would do that. I mean, she basically does, because they go hunting wild boar. But she would do anything that it takes to be in the circle that she has chosen to be in. So the faith portion of it, she doesn’t believe in it at all; she has no problem being a hypocrite. It’s a veneer, and I think a lot of people in this world don’t walk the walk. A lot of people like to talk and say things that they don’t actually believe in, just because they know that it’s the right thing to do within the confines of whoever they’re with or whatever political party [they support].

I have seen too many stories, and I’m sure we all have, of people of faith or people of a certain denomination — and it doesn’t have to be a religion — who then come out and are the complete opposite of what they’ve talked about their whole lives. So I just think that Margo is a master manipulator, and she is this sexually free woman, and that is who she really is at the core. She uses her sexuality as her power, and no faith is going to get in the way of that, for sure.

Do you think Margo completely agrees with the kind of political rhetoric that she is spreading as the wife of a conservative Texas gubernatorial candidate?

Well, no. But it depends on what we’re talking about. She obviously doesn’t want Jed to become governor. I think that’s a little bit too much of a magnifying glass into their lives. There’s a lot of things that she says. Everything is an agenda for Margo, so I would take everything she says with a grain of salt, which is what makes it hard to know what her intentions were with Sophie from the beginning and what they are now. There’s always that play on, “Is it authentic? Does she really feel something for her, or is it all just an agenda to get something or somewhere?” But yeah, I don’t think she believes half the things she says. I think she just says it to get her way.

In one episode, Sophie is invited to join a group supporting anti-abortion activists, and Margo jokes that it’s not like they’re going to bomb abortion clinics. Jill then follows Margo’s joke with a wry comment about how there aren’t even any clinics left in Texas anymore.

It’s terrible.

Rebecca had been wanting to adapt “The Hunting Wives” for years, and you filmed this show last year, at a time when reproductive rights were already being stripped back at the state level after the fall of Roe v. Wade. What is it like for you to now have to talk about a show that is debuting in a very different political environment than it was conceived in?

I think it was difficult and hot-button back then too, as much as it is now. But it doesn’t turn out well for these women, so it’s not like we’re highlighting and going, “You should be like these women! Look at how great their lives are, and how smart they are, and how forward-thinking they are.” Because it’s the complete opposite. You look at these women, and you go, “I wouldn’t want to be in any of their shoes.” And their comments are horrible, but we are stating truths that are out there — that are absolutely horrifying — that this is happening in the world.

I feel like our country’s divided 50-50, so the people who watch this from a liberal point of view will go, “Wow, yeah, that is nuts over there.” And people who are not might look at it very differently, but I think that we’re not perpetuating or saying, “This is a good thing.” We’re not going, “What a great place. I really want to live there.”

And look at the hypocrisy of Margo, who ended up getting an abortion herself. I also have met people who are pro-lifers, and sadly one of them fell pregnant and realized that their child was going to have severe brain damage, and they then decided as a pro-lifer to get an abortion, which to me was crazy. I think it was the right decision. I’m pro-choice, fully. A woman’s body — it’s between you and your doctor, and you decide what you gotta do. But I think it sheds a light on Margo saying this stuff where you’re going, “But you also did the thing that you’re saying you shouldn’t be doing.” So it’s not highlighting it in a beautiful way. I think we’re bringing attention to it, but going, “This is fucked up!”

Sophie meets Margo for the first time in the bathroom at an NRA party, and Margo, free of any kind of inhibitions, does not hesitate to strip in front of her before asking her to zip her back into the dress. That scene alone really sets the tone for the rest of the show. You have appeared nude on screen before, but did you have any kind of trepidation about the amount of nudity in this show?

I mean, that is always a discussion when there is any kind of nudity — as long as it’s plot-driven. I think that initial meeting in the bathroom is such a power move on Margo’s part. She could have done anything else, but that was her decision. I think she uses her sexuality as control and power, and I think women have that capability. I really thought that was such a powerful way to be introduced to a character, and we spoke at length about all of the scenes that we have that are more intimate just to make sure that we are conveying what we need to be conveying, that it’s not gratuitous.

Rebecca is lovely when it comes to all of that. She wrote it with intentions, and I don’t have a problem when it’s plot-driven, really. And we had an intimacy coordinator, Lizzie Talbot, who was incredible. So every time we had a scene like that, we had a discussion beforehand of, “What are you comfortable with? What are you not comfortable with? When do we say stop? What’s the safe word?” So you go in knowing what you’re about to go into, and there are no surprises.

What do you think Margo sees in Sophie that makes Margo act the way that she does over the course of the season?

Both Sophie and Margo are survivors at heart. They’ve had some stuff in their past that they’re trying to hide, that they’re trying to overcome, and I think a survivor recognizes a survivor on a subconscious level. There was this book that I read a long time ago that John Cleese actually wrote with his therapist, and there’s this theory of screen doors. When we meet somebody, we have all these veneers and stories that we’ve made up for ourselves that we present to the world, but behind our screen doors are all of our traumas, our pasts — all that stuff is actually what we’re connecting with the other person. And part of us is hoping that that’s going to get fixed by this person that we recognize something in. I feel like Margo and Sophie have a lot behind their screen doors that are similar, and they can sense that in each other.

[Sophie’s] EQ is higher than most of the women that Margo is hanging out with, and I think EQ comes from having to survive and having to read people really well and reading a room. Both of these women have that, and that’s where they connect. Margo just opens Sophie up from the closed box that she’s in and frees her a little bit, and Sophie gets addicted to that feeling. What Margo needs from Sophie is yet to be decided, but obviously, it ends up being a pawn in her chess game and she uses it.

Let’s talk about some of the biggest jaw-dropping final twists. At the end of Episode 7, Margo and her friend-slash-other-lover Callie (Jamie Ray Newman) practically force their way into Jill’s house and find Starr (Chrissy Metz), another housewife looking to avenge her daughter’s death, dead on Jill’s kitchen floor. Jill then holds Margo at gunpoint, but Callie ends up shooting Jill to death, and Jill’s final words are, “You cunts.” Did you ladies ever laugh while shooting that utterly ridiculous death scene?

I’m sorry. Did we ever laugh? All we did was laugh! It’s one of the most fun scenes we’ve ever shot. Katie Lowes is also one of the funniest humans, and we laughed so much. I loved the days when all of the wives were together because we had such a blast together. So yeah, every take where she said, “You cunts!,” as soon as they called “cut,” we all just burst out laughing because it is ridiculous. We were curious if it was going to stay in or not, because it was just so outrageous. But that’s what I love about this show. It is so soapy, fun and silly that it toes the line, but I think it works.

Margo, as you put it, is truly a master manipulator — but there is a clear sense of desperation in her confrontation scene with Sophie in Episode 8, when Sophie threatens to go to the police with the mountain of evidence that she has collected about Margo’s crimes. What is going through Margo’s mind as she — and the life she has worked so hard to create for herself — begins to spiral out of control?

For Margo, it is life or death. She has to get Sophie on her side; she has to make sure that Sophie doesn’t tell anybody. But she doesn’t win, and that’s the first time in a long time that this has happened to Margo. I think that is when we see her in complete desperation, which is why she makes the decision to tell her husband. She knows that Sophie now has the upper hand and it’s about to come out, and she knows that it’s going to be worse if she doesn’t tell her husband. She is hopeful that he will help her fix things.

But I remember that scene vividly, and I remember it being such a pivotal moment and a really tough one for me, just because I was trying to dig into the depths of what a life-or-death situation would feel like. Both Brittany and I had a lot to lose in those moments, as far as our characters are concerned. I hope that it turned out the way we wanted it to. But I also love that the arcs shift that much and that Sophie ends up with the upper hand — this sweet little Boston girl, who was showing up in her Birkenstocks and barely able to converse with the hunting wives, is turning out to be queen bee and was a little bit smarter than Margo ever imagined. So it’s a fun twist.

Margo has truly hit rock bottom by the end of Episode 8 — Sophie has threatened to go to the police; Jed finds out about Margo’s abortion, slaps her across the face and kicks her out; and Margo goes back to living in Kyle’s mobile home. She then tries to hook up with Callie again, in a desperate attempt to get anyone on her side again. How did you come to understand Margo’s motivations by the end of the season?

She’s a mess, but we see her survival skills kicking in. She’s not a quitter. So no matter how dire the situation is, she has her moment [after] everything falls apart. She’s lost everything, and she comes to Kyle in tears and says, “It’s over.” And then we see her going back to Callie and putting together another plan, because that’s what she does. She’s going to get right back up and figure her shit out. And as we see at the end of the finale, I think it’s going to go her way because of what happens to Sophie. Sophie’s in a shitstorm, and she’s going to need Margo, so I think she’s going to be OK. I think Margo and Sophie are going to have to band together, for better or worse, and they’re going to have to figure this shit out. Now Sophie can’t hang that over Margo’s head anymore.

What exactly is going through Margo’s head in that final scene? Do you think she knows that Sophie is the one who picked up Kyle’s phone?

Let me ask you this, because you’ve seen it and I haven’t yet. I’m curious about the cut. We did a few different versions. Does she say, “Sophie, is that you?”

No, she doesn’t. She says, “You better not be with Sophie.” But she does not address Sophie directly.

We did toy with a few different ideas of what was going through her head. Obviously, there’s something wrong. Because as we have gotten to know her brother, there would be no way that he wouldn’t get on that phone and start talking. The silence is really disconcerting, and she hasn’t been able to get ahold of him. So I did play it one time as her figuring it out and going, “Oh shit, it’s got to be Sophie. Is it Sophie?” And then there’s the angry version of, “What the fuck are you up to? Why haven’t you called me? What the fuck? I’m freaking out here. Are you with Sophie? You better not be with her. Your alliance better still be with me.”

That seems to be the version in the final cut.

She hates to admit it, but this is the one person who she can always go back to, because she’s still his family and he will do all her dirty work for her. So again, there’s that desperation, there’s the fear. There’s a lot of emotions going through her at that moment, because this one person is all she’s got left.

Kyle was Margo’s last lifeline, and now he’s presumably dead after Sophie pushed his body into the water. Knowing where the season ends up, what would you be most looking forward to exploring in a potential second season? Do you think Margo can survive without her brother in this town?

I do think that she’ll be able to survive without her brother. She’s going to keep surviving until she gets caught! She’s going to continue to make things happen and create alliances where she needs them until she finds one good egg who she’s not able to manipulate or pay off or blackmail or whatever version of tricks she wants to use.

But in a second season, I think it’ll have to be Margo and Sophie banding together to cover up the murder, and Margo reconciling with Jed. Especially if he goes on this political trail, he’s going to want the image to be right. So I think she has something to gain there where she can come back to him and say, “Listen, I’ll stand by your side, and I’ll be the good little wife and do everything that you ask me to do. Just let me back in!” Because I don’t think she wants to lose that lifestyle or that position of power.

You rose to fame 20 years ago as Juna Millken opposite Lisa Kudrow’s Valerie Cherish in the first season of “The Comeback.” And after the show was revived a decade later, Juna appeared in a couple episodes of the second season, giving Valerie a much-needed reality check. What did that role mean to you at that stage of your career?

That was my career. That was the beginning of my career. They were the ones who gave me my first job out in Hollywood — and what a job! I mean, I was ready. I had been out in Hollywood for about a year and a half, and nothing was happening. I started a band and did the whole music thing because nothing was happening in the acting world, and I was about to throw in the towel. I was three months away from going back to Canada, and my manager said, “Why don’t you go out for pilot season this year?”

And within three weeks, I ended up doing the auditions for “The Comeback” and finally got the role. For me, it was art imitating life because they were saying, “Pretend like Valerie Cherish is someone you’ve grown up watching.” And I’m going, “Well, it is! It’s Lisa Kudrow, Phoebe from ‘Friends.’” So it was really easy to play that person, in that sense. It was a very industry inside kind of show, and maybe didn’t get as much of a public view. We only got one season that first year. But for me, it opened up doors and I got asked into auditions that I probably wouldn’t have gotten asked to go to before “The Comeback.” So it was pivotal for me.

Have you spoken with Lisa about your possible involvement in the third and final season?

I have reached out to Lisa and asked her, “Is Juna coming back?” And she just said, “Michael Patrick King and I are deep in the writing process right now. We’re not sure where the stories will go, but of course we want Juna to come back, if it makes sense.” So, fingers crossed that the stories go in my direction! I would love to come back. And if not onscreen, I will definitely be going by set to visit everybody.

This interview has been edited and condensed.