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Malin Ackerman says her role in Netflix's The Hunting Wives is inspired by Melania Trump
Malin Ackerman says her role in Netflix's The Hunting Wives was inspired by Melania Trump.
Malin Ackerman said in an interview last week that her new Netflix series, The Hunting Wives, used first lady Melania Trump as a main reference for her role as a manipulative politician’s wife who has affairs.
Speaking to Vulture, Ackerman said the creative team told her to think of the first lady when playing Margo, a Texas housewife married to a wealthy aspiring politician with a past involving murder, adultery and abortion.
“During filming, she says, the series’ creative team described Margo as a bit like Melania Trump, someone who “came into a marriage to this rich man as one woman,” then finds the expectations for her have shifted once he becomes politically ambitious,” per the outlet.
“That was the only reference, really,” Ackerman added. Her character’s past includes growing up poor, doing sex work, and having multiple affairs.
“But once her husband, Jed (Dermot Mulroney), decides to run for governor on a pro-gun, anti-abortion, happy-marriage platform, Margo realises the increased public scrutiny could threaten everything she has built for herself, exposing elements of her life Jed’s voters won’t like,” Vulture stated.
Among the secrets are “the abortion she just had after her boyfriend, a high school student, got her pregnant; the murder she committed to cover up that fling; and the affair she’s currently having with new-to-town Sophie (Brittany Snow).”
Ackerman said she also drew inspiration from her impression of “high society” types, who she sees as lacking authenticity.
Also Read: Is Netflix’s ‘The Hunting Wives’ based on a real story? Everything we know about the thriller
“Other than that, it’s just high society. I’ve mingled with aristocrats and high-society people and seen the games that go into it. For lack of a better word, I wouldn’t say ‘authenticity’ is how those people lead,” she said.
She described Margo as a “survivor” who acts out of necessity to get ahead.
Melania Trump’s lawyer forces Carville to pull Epstein remarks
Melania Trump has often been a focus of media attention since her husband’s 2016 presidential campaign. Last week, her lawyer forced Democratic strategist James Carville and his Politics War Room podcast team to remove comments suggesting she met Donald Trump through a modelling agency linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
At the start of the episode, Carville said, “After the episode, we received a letter from Melania Trump's lawyer. He took issue with our title of one of those YouTube videos from that episode and a couple of comments I made about the first lady. We took a look at what they complained about, and we took down the video and edited out those comments from the episode. I also take back these statements and apologise.”
