Susanne Bier, ‘The Perfect Couple’

0:13Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. For today's show, I speak with Danish award-winning director Suzanne Bier to discuss her latest series, The Perfect Couple, on Netflix. A new must-watch murder mystery with an incredible cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Liv Schreiber, and Isabelle Adjani. Suzanne tells me all about it.

0:40Hello? Am I under arrest or can I go get something to eat? They're rich. Kill someone and get away with it, Rich. We are the perfect family.

0:56Susan Beer, what a pleasure. Likewise. Love the perfect couple. And can I tell you something? My first impression is I was expecting, because I haven't read the book, something a little bit serious and kind of dark. It's fun. It's light. I mean, tell me a bit more. Were you also surprised? Because there is murder, but there is this aspect of the lightness, the comedy. It's really prevalent in the series. You know, that's what I wanted to do. I think what drew me to it was, in a way, for me as a director, it was the potential of doing something fun and light in English, because most of the English language stuff I've done has been a little bit...

1:40And my sort of biggest home run is a comedy, is a Danish comedy. And so I was like, OK, I want to do that in English. And I thought the combination of who did it and something fun and light was just irresistible. How much did you know about that world in Nantucket, which I felt like I was transported to that place. I kind of want to go, you know, in a way. But how much did you know about that? I did not know a lot about it. And at first I was also slightly hesitant. I actually said no first time route because I didn't know a lot about it. But then I got very kind of, then I spoke with people who really knows the world very well.

2:26And I kind of felt, okay, I understand this. I understand what kind of wealth that is and how does that work and what kind of privilege that comes with that world, because they are not all the same. And one of the things I dislike when portraying wealthy people is when it becomes generic. It always needs to be very specific. And I think we did that. And even, let's talk about Nicole Kidman's character. Again, another one of my surprises. I thought she was going to be very icy, very, but no, she's very connected to her sons. Do you know what I mean? She's quite an interesting character. Well, her iciness in this part is a quiet iciness which she carries on the surface.

3:15It's an iciness which is there because, first of all, maybe it's been necessary, but also it's a kind of convenient shield. But underneath her iciness, she's everything but icy. I mean, she looks the part I mean she looks like this magnificent creature of elegance and restraint but we quite quickly get to understand that that is actually not who she really is and then we spend a long time not knowing who she is Absolutely, how was it to work with Nicole again after the amazing success of The Undoing which was another incredible series as I said in the beginning very different tone to that one it was really fun and we were both very excited about doing something together with a different tone she was really enjoying the comedic aspects of her part because you know I think in a way all everything emotional everything kind of forceful comes to her it's like it just comes to her like that you know comedy is is a different it's it's like a different science in a way and it takes that sort of position and that sort of thing but we really had fun with it even the best of players get very tired or it's too overwhelming and they snap and it's not just Nicole I mean the supporting cast is incredible and and I have to say I love that Isabelle Edgiani is in there I didn't know and I was like oh wow she's one of my kind of acting heroes.

4:52How was it to cast her? I mean, that was like a real honor. That was like a real honor. And I think it was really interesting because when she came to set, all the actors were like, whoa. And all the guys were like, you know, I had a poster of her for 15 years in my living room or in my bedroom. And so it's this sort of icon that comes and she uses that element very much in her part. But I want to say I won't even call the cast a supporting cast because I actually think it kind of is almost like more of an ensemble piece where all characters have real important moments. And Eva Hewson is, I mean, between her and Nicole, it's quite hard to tell who's the main character.

5:39And they're very different and equally enticing. You're very right. I mean, it does look more of an ensemble. And I was going to ask, how much do you bring from your Danish heritage to some of your work outside Denmark? We mentioned about comedy. Do you bring some elements of the sense of humor from Denmark to Hollywood? I would, I certainly hope I bring some Danish sensibilities somewhere. But I think in a way, the fact that Denmark is a very equalitarian society, particularly compared to America, gives me a kind of a sense of naturally belonging that I might not have had otherwise. You know, being a female director, coming from a country that has like childcare and a whole lot of other things has also enabled me to work in a way.

6:35I do think I bring some things, but essentially as a director, it's a number of things. It's also, you know, how you were brought up in your family and how that brings you to where you are. So I think it's a bit of all of it. Do you enjoy doing TV, by the way? I know recently, you know, of course, we have The Undoing, The Perfect Couple and many others. Or how would you differentiate when you do a feature film in a series like this? Because this could also be a film, but I'm actually very happy that it's a TV series because there's more to enjoy of it as well. So am I. I'm also very happy. Look, it's very exciting for me to do six parts.

7:13It's very exciting for me to do six hours. It's very exciting because it gives space, like we spoke about earlier, it gives space for other characters to actually really breathe and be very meaningful. Do I want to make a movie again? I do. But I'm much more concerned about the right story, the right character, the right setting, than I am concerned about whether it's two hours or six hours. I treat a TV series the same way I treat a feature film. And it's also shot the same way. It's not like we shoot episode one and then two. You know, on one morning you shoot a scene from episode five in the morning and a scene from episode two in the afternoon.

7:56And so it's cross-borded the same way you would with a feature film. Because there is something about The Perfect Couple that it is a delight to see it. I mean, it is cinematic. It does look wonderful. And you're mentioning about the ultra wealth. I mean, it's hard these days. You have to really know who are you dealing with. But from the clothes to the house, you know, to the objects in the house, I mean, how much did you do research to make sure that everything was kind of as realistic as it can be? A lot. A lot of research. But we also had a couple of very, very good consultants. We had a lady who was helping us a lot who is very intimately connected to the sort of Nantucket society.

8:43And we could go back to her and ask about things. But, you know, it's interesting because you kind of go, okay, a lot of men has pink trousers. That is not a look I necessarily enjoy at all times. So let's do a specific, you know. My point being is that it needed to go beyond the generic. The wealth needed to go beyond the generic. So it was specific to the place and specific to the sense of Nantucket, but also very specific to these characters. So Lief Schreiber does not look necessarily the way a lot of wealthy people in Nantucket does, but he's still very believable. so like whatever he's wearing of linen is all very expensive linen but he he just looks great and like right for example the bedroom Greer and Tag's bedroom had we had to redress it a few times because I came and I looked at it and I felt okay this is generic I don't like that you know it needs to be they need to have real taste they need to actually maybe know what kind of paintings are good or bad paintings, and let's get some of those in here so that you have all the sort of texture, the correct texture, but still it needs to be personally specific.

10:09And, you know, finally, just coming back to the topic of comedy and lightness, but also we all like a murder mystery. I mean, what's the appeal? I mean, it is something, first of all, you can do a murder mystery in so many ways, right? And I think The Perfect Couple did it in an excellent way, very much non-cliché, I would say. But what's the appeal? We all love it. I love it too. Yeah. I love it. I think if I look back at my work in general, there's always been one of the things that I've been obsessing about is the tension. I think all my work, whatever it's been, there's always a lot of tension there.

10:49And that works very well for Murder and Mystery because you want to keep the tension and you want to kind of tell audience just so much that maybe they think they know, but also not more than they anticipate that they don't know. And it's that fine dance which is so exhilarating for a director, you know, because you kind of go into editing. Like you edit after you've shot it and you go into editing and you realize that look on that one character in episode three tell us way too much in episode five. So we have to go back and re-edit episode three. And that sort of every single microscopic detail matters.

11:37And it's a lot of work, but it's also ultimately incredibly exciting and interesting. Somebody died. And somebody's guilty.

11:57Thank you very much. Suzanne Bier there. And The Perfect Couple is out now on Netflix. The show was edited by Lily Austin and I am Fernando Augusto Pacheco.