That’s fascinating.
Munn: My life was happy, even though I didn’t know about [that kind of wealth] at all. I think it’s just a really interesting world and a character to play of somebody who now has had a taste of this. And her whole life is being threatened because she’s in the middle of a divorce, and it could all go away in a heartbeat. If she hadn’t known about this life, in this world, it wouldn’t matter. But now that she does, it seems unfathomable for her to be happy anywhere else.
I still walk around L.A. wondering what people do to live in some of these houses, which aren’t even mansions, but cost over $2 or $3 million. I’m working my butt off and feel like I’m barely affording rent on my one-bedroom apartment.
Munn: Sometimes I walk down the shopping areas in around Beverly Hills or on Little Santa Monica and see a big store with a name. It has one candle in it. And I’m like, “How do you guys afford the rent on this business? What are you selling in there?” But there’s always somebody who will come around and buy a $50,000 candle.
It’s so true. And it’s wild. Meanwhile, Amanda, your character, Mel, comes from a different world. How did you relate to the story, and what should we think of Mel’s estranged relationship with Coop (Jon Hamm)?
Amanda Peet: Jonathan Tropper wrote about these exes who still have unfinished business, and I think that’s really fun. Even though they’re happily shtupping other people, they still can’t unstick. I also like books and movies and TV shows that get into that idea of, Do I really know you? You’re my spouse. I sleep next to you, or you’re my best friend and I know everything about you and I see you every day, but do I really know who you are? I think that’s always really suspenseful. And I think it’s really fun that Mel and Coop still want to fuck each other and they have this ongoing romantic saga from college. And yet there’s a lot of rage.
Munn: What I love about the two of you is that you as Mel broke his heart into pieces. You shattered his heart and he wants no one else in the world but you. And that’s a really sad thing to watch, especially if you’re this girl.
There’s some very heavy themes in this show, but it’s also a bit of a soapy drama.
Munn: These are people who have incredible wealth and are crumbling in front of your eyes. They are destroying their own lives. It is incredible to watch people with so much just systematically lose it all.
Peet: Olivia just articulated it really well. Like I said, it’s really suspenseful to watch someone who has a double life. I think that that’s such a delicious conceit. And Jon Hamm’s character isn’t really the only one. Even Olivia’s character [is trying to] keep up with the Joneses. All these rich people who are teetering on and on the brink of losing it all…like a Jane Austen novel, with these status-obsessed society people.
Your Friends & Neighbors streams on Apple TV+ beginning April 11.