Matthew Macfadyen and Elizabeth Banks are Les and Lindy, a couple trying to keep their marriage together in upcoming Peacock drama The Miniature Wife. The wrinkle is that he has accidentally shrunk her to a six inches high, adding a high-concept twist to the relationship drama.
“That’s part of the attraction and because it’s so heightened you can play it really life and death,” Macfadyen tells Deadline about the show, which had a preview screening at MIPCOM here in Cannes last night (Monday). Although playing opposite Banks, the fact she was in miniature meant they were rarely actually facing off on set. “Elizabeth and I weren’t together for most of the show, because she’s in front of a green screen, looking up at dots on the ceiling and high up on the wall, and I’m on a set, looking at marks on a carpet because she’s six inches tall. It’s a technical exercise, and you use your imagination.”
Les is a biotech whizz seeking funding for his revolutionary tech – the same tech that accidentally reduces the size of his spouse. “When we find him, he’s very highly strung; he’s a very bright man and he’s become sort of panicked about not getting the recognition, he really wants prize,” the star says.
O.T. Fagbenle also stars and was on stage in Cannes after the screening. His character is in love with Lindy, but it’s mostly not reciprocated. It’s a larger than life performance from The Handmaid’s Tale actor. “This is a guy who loves on epic, Shakespearean, levels, he’s a fan of the classics and totally obsessed with Lindy. She doesn’t feel the same way, but that’s not going to stop him from loving as hard as he can.”
Fagbenle also had some green-screen to negotiate. “Because we were filming asynchronously, if I was doing scene with Matthew, I’d get to series the scene and series what he did, so I could react appropriately to his performance. Every week I’d go and series takes of Matthew being brilliant and doing genius work, and then be feeling ‘Oh, Jesus, I have to live up to the other side of this equation.”
Fleabag star Sian Clifford was also in Cannes for the screening. She plays Terry, Lindy’s friend and high-flying publishing exec. “There’s a lot of passive aggression and frustration and lost love, actually, within our relationship,” she says. “The whole series is, in terms of her and Lindy, is an exploration of that relationship and when it’s gone sour, and the role that Les has played within it. My character is not a fan of Les in any shape or form, and so Matthew and I had a lot of fun messing around with that.”
Media Res is producing and Jennifer Ames (Boardwalk Empire) and Steve Turner (Goliath), are showrunners and exec producers. Sony Pictures Television has international sales the show is on its MIPCOM slate as it returns to the Cannes market in force for the first time in several years.
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