Niki Cruz
Your Friends & Neighbors is a sexy dramedy about the lives of folks living in an affluent community in Westmont Village. Everyone is in each other’s business, gossip runs rampant, ritzy cars are a-plenty, and at the center of it all is Coop, a hedge fund professional who lost his job, his ex-wife Mel, who cheated on him (Amanda Peet), and everything else in the last few years of his life.
We’re introduced to Coop (Jon Hamm) as a recently unemployed divorced dad who foots the bill for his kids’ lifestyles and the house they live in with their mother. With his back against the wall and bills mounting, he decides that his rich friends aren’t going to miss a few pricey items and hocks them for money. This would be a big enough secret for Coop to hide from his family, but that’s just the beginning, as he’s also having an on-again, off-again side relationship with Samantha (Olivia Munn), who just so happens to be friends with his ex-wife Mel.
Early on, there’s a sense that even after a lifetime together and a messy split, Mel and Coop still might have something deeper lingering. One of the most appealing things about Your Friends & Neighbors is watching Peet and Munn embody these complicated women of a certain age. Peet, who’s always terrific in supporting roles, gets to do something different here and has a lot to chew on as Mel. She has her own life outside of being an ex-wife, and viewers get to see her key cars and get a little wild.
Of the appeal of Your Friends & Neighbors, Peet said:
“I liked that you’re coming into this scenario of this divorced couple and it’s the woman who cheated on the man. She’s not sitting around on Saturday nights with Chardonnay on the couch, weeping. It was an interesting upending of what we usually see with women who are 50 who are learning to date again.”
Of Jonathan Tropper‘s writing multi-dimensional women:
“I feel like he has such a great sense of comedy and great dialog. So I just felt incredibly lucky, like it was a no-brainer. I think he wrote a really interesting middle-aged woman with her own struggles, separate from Coop.”
Awards Radar spoke to Amanda Peet about working with Hamm, her chemistry with Munn, and more.
Niki Cruz: The show has a great entry point for women who are 50. The women on this show are interesting. They’re complex women who have real issues. We don’t usually talk about women past the age of 30 going through life changes or existential crises, so it’s nice to see a show feature a new chapter for someone in their 50s.
Amanda Peet: Totally. Even though Jonathan created this story where these college sweethearts just ran their relationship into the ground, they still have this weird spark so many years later. That’s also really interesting and poignant, and it felt very real to me. So yeah, I liked that too.
NC: Yes. I love that Mel and Coop have this deep history with each other. Their relationship isn’t black or white. They’re exes, yet they share a whole life together, and there is still caring there.
AP: Me too. I wasn’t sure where it was going to go. When he offered me the part, he was saying, I don’t want her to be just an insipid wife role, and he lived up to his promise.
NC: Yeah, we’ve seen what that insipid wife role looks like before, too, and this is not that. How fun is it to play that dynamic out with Jon Hamm?
AP: I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s really freaking amazing. He is so fun, and he’s so funny, he’s a gentleman, and he’s top-notch. So I’m the luckiest girl in America.
NC: He really does have it all.
AP: He really does. It’s kind of insane. He’s truly a Renaissance man.
NC: I also enjoyed for as much as she had this life with Coop, Mel’s existence isn’t wrapped up in him. She has a life outside of him. She has a partner. She has a pretty interesting relationship with Samantha too.
AP: I like that he explored that. I thought the fight scene between Mel and Samantha was fun and there’s subtext to it but of course Mel doesn’t really know that, and I love that kind of stuff.
NC: And I read that you had a drunken night in real life that inspired one of those fight scenes. Can you unpack that?
AP: (laughs) It’s so funny. My husband’s (David Benioff) partner’s wife Andrea Troyer, and I are very close friends, and we were over served one night on the beach in Mexico. Her kids had been taking taekwondo for a while, and I don’t know why we were talking about it, and I just had never known her to be really an athlete at all. So I was like, I could kick your ass, or maybe she said she could kick my ass. And I was like, No dear, even though she’s like, foot taller than I am. And so we started fighting, and I was on my back in the sand within, like four seconds.
NC: You and Olivia (Munn) have excellent chemistry. How was it to form that bond on screen?
AP: We just sort of connected right away. I think she’s so smart and also incredibly funny, and she’s just been so game to be playful, especially with that fight scene. We had the best time.
NC: In addition to the dynamic between Mel and Coop and Mel and Samantha, this show has some serious glam, from the expensive cars to the mansions. How was it to film in the Hudson Valley?
AP: I love it. It’s so pretty. And, yeah, some of those houses are so crazy. There’s a house that had a pickleball court inside. It’s bananas, but you know, Hollywood is no better.
NC: The show was picked up for season 2. I know you can’t reveal too much, but what are you hoping happens between Mel and Coop?
AP: Of course, I want them to get back together, but I actually don’t know yet, because I’m really only on episode four, so I don’t know exactly what’s in store for Melanie and Coop.
You can currently watch Your Friends & Neighbors on Apple TV.
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