Maya Erskine had never done strength training before she was offered the role of a lethal international spy in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” But for an actress whose gifts include supreme body awareness (such as playing an awkward 13-year-old (when you’re 30) in the acclaimed comedy “PEN15”), her preparation starts with the body.
“I approach things physically, externally,” Erskine said recently over Zoom from her home in Los Angeles. “When I try to address the internal first, I get stuck and it’s not in my body. Physicalization helps me figure out who someone is.”
But the path that led her from Maya Erskine to Jane Smith was not so straightforward. Maya, the actress, who is married to Michael Angarano, had just had a baby – “My body was a mess and I was shocked at how much everything had changed” – while her ultimate destination was a young woman who had not only never given birth but had to be fit enough to run, jump, punch, kill and so on. “I wasn’t a gym person, so I had to become that and I fought that a lot,” she admits. “The trainers and the nutritionist were like, ‘Maya, when we tell other people to eat a carrot, they say, ‘OK. ’ But with you, it’s like, ‘Well, can I just sauté it in brown butter? ’ You make it so difficult.”
But we know the end of this uphill battle: challenge overcome, character accomplished, accolades earned, Emmy nomination secured for lead actress in a drama series. For Erskine, getting into shape — “I loved doing stunts, the adrenaline that comes with hitting the target,” she says — easily gave way to the inner Jane, a reserved figure who had to act as a wife while struggling with real feelings for her fellow spy, John (Donald Glover). “Other physical aspects that helped me were how closed off she was in a lot of ways, and how much she let John in and how much she didn’t. My style for her at first was someone who holds her chest up, not letting it show.”
“It was great at the end, when it felt like the action was really fueling the relationship and the action could be infused with a lot of emotion,” Maya Erskine says of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.”
(David Lee / Prime Video)
She says everyone involved knew the show was a tonal risk, combining high-stakes thrills and a love story built on small moments, but by the explosive season finale, the onscreen relationship — and the creative blending of styles — was coming into its own. “It was great in the finale, when it felt like the action was really fueling the relationship and the action could be infused with a lot of emotion,” says Erskine, who believes that even with its over-the-top life-or-death elements, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” is believable and optimistic about the partnerships. “They’re spies and they hide things until the very end, but the ultimate message is that life is really hard, there are bad days, but at the end of the day, it’s really nice to have someone to come home to, who you trust and love, who is willing to be there for you.”
One part of her resume that made Erskine a valuable co-worker to her onscreen husband, Glover, is that she, like her co-star, had acted in a show (“PEN15”) that she had co-created. Though she was not on the “Smith” writing staff, Erskine felt respected as a writer and actress. “They wanted my input,” she says. “I said from the beginning that I couldn’t do two big things at once anymore, so I wouldn’t have to come home after a 14-hour shoot and rewrite. But that said, I could never just play a role and not have a voice. It’s just nicer when we all collaborate.”
She’s also realising that a happy environment, where people understand her emotions as a new mother, is something she deserves in the future. Erskine says: “Having a child changed my perspective on everything. I hated being away from him” (her first child, Leon, was born in May 2021), “but they were all incredibly nice people and it reaffirmed that I only want to say yes to things I get to do artistically and where people are great.”
Even her “Smith” persona — tough, self-assured — is having some influence on how Erskine, who grew up with Gena Rowlands as an acting idol, pushes herself in the future. Sure, she’s continued strength training while pregnant with the couple’s second child. (“Taking care of my body has helped me a lot.”) But she points to another muscle she’s using.[The role] “It gave me a confidence that I was probably lacking,” she says. “I was playing a woman who was unapologetic about herself. And that’s hard for me. So it gave me a new superpower. It opened up a part of my brain that’s useful in life right now. And that came from Jane.”
