In ‘The Housemaid,’ Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried get trashy (and we love it) : Pop Culture Happy Hour

AISHA HARRIS: The twisty psychological thriller The Housemaid was a huge bestseller, so it was only a matter of time before it was turned into a film. And it’s quite the movie. Sydney Sweeney plays a newly hired live-in housekeeper to Amanda Seyfried’s wealthy housewife. But both women have dark secrets, and their employer-employee dynamic goes downhill real fast. It’s directed by Paul Feig, who’s made movies like Bridesmaids and A Simple Favor, so you know it’s gonna be a bizarre, very fun ride. I’m Aisha Harris, and today we’re talking about The Housemaid on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is Jordan Crucchiola. She’s a writer and producer and the host of the podcast Feeling Seen on Maximum Fun. Hey, Jordan.

JORDAN CRUCCHIOLA: Hello. Thrilled to be here on the Paul Feig beat today.

HARRIS: [CHUCKLES] Yes, welcome, welcome. Also with us is Vulture TV critic Roxana Hadadi. Hey, Roxana.

ROXANA HADADI: Hello, thank you for having me.

HARRIS: Yes, I am so excited to talk about this movie. [LAUGHS] It’s gonna be– especially with you two. This is gonna be very fun. So yeah. In The Housemaid, Sydney Sweeney plays Millie, a young woman with a checkered past and who’s struggling to make ends meet. She lands what seems like a pretty clutch gig as a live-in housekeeper for a wealthy couple, Nina and Andrew Winchester, played by Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar. Now, it doesn’t take too long before the dream job becomes a nightmare, though, because Nina is very unpredictable and prone to violent outbursts.

[AUDIO PLAYBACK]

NINA: I have to get up and do a speech in front of everybody, and now I have nothing!

[CLATTERING, BREAKING]

[END PLAYBACK]

HARRIS: Oh, and to complicate things even further, there’s definitely some heat between Millie and Andrew. As Nina’s behavior grows more and more erratic, though, things spin out of control. Secrets are revealed, and Millie has to fight for her life. Yes, this movie– I love it. It’s in theaters now. [LAUGHS] Roxana, I’m gonna start with you.

HADADI: Yeah.

HARRIS: Give me first impressions of The Housemaid.

HADADI: Started with me being like, what is this even? It is not working for me. And then there is a point like a third of the way through, where I was like, actually, this is genius filmmaking, and maybe we should make new Oscars for what is happening in The Housemaid.

[LAUGHTER]

HADADI: But like, I’m very susceptible to this sort of thing, right? Like, I really liked The Hunting Wives. I liked Sirens. We sort of had this resurgence of, like, high-camp, high-trash TV this year. The Girlfriend, All Her Fault– I’m gonna keep going. I feel very fond of this–

[LAUGHTER]

HADADI: –genre, I think. And I really enjoyed this. I feel like sort of, like, the women’s domestic thriller got very self-serious and somber for a while, which I understand, because the genre is often dealing with, like, domestic violence and domestic abuse and a lot of the difficulties of having it all. Like, I understand all of that. But I do think that there is, like, a certain amount of very dark humor in this movie that I found to be very fun. And once it had sort of, like, won me over, it had, like, fully won me over. [LAUGHS]

HARRIS: I love to hear it. Jordan, The Housemaid– thoughts?

CRUCCHIOLA: As someone who put together an entire, like, capsule podcast dedicated to A Simple Favor, this is Paul Feig operating in my favorite mode of his– even as good as The Heat and Bridesmaids and Spy are.

HARRIS: Yeah.

CRUCCHIOLA: This is my favorite Paul Feig, like paperback, airport novel Paul Feig with, like, ladies at the center doing harm to each other in inventive and at times homoerotic ways. Watching this movie in a theater was so much fun. Coming at the end of a year, right when we’re about to get The Testament of Ann Lee.

HADADI: Yeah.

HARRIS: (LAUGHING) I know.

CRUCCHIOLA: Amanda Seyfried could be in Oscar contention for both, honestly. Those eyes are telling two such incredibly different stories. You are seeing the dynamic nature of an Oscar-caliber actor right before our eyes. And after the year that Sydney Sweeney has had, to close it out with the perfect lane for Sydney Sweeney to exist in feels like getting the kick in at the end of the run at the track meet and closing it down to end up on the podium.

HARRIS: Yeah.

CRUCCHIOLA: Somehow, Brandon Sklenar is what I think I had always thought Scott Eastwood might be.

HADADI: Yes, they have the same face. It’s so unnerving.

CRUCCHIOLA: Yeah, the promise of that kind of– I wasn’t sure if what he was doing was working for me in the movie. And then a pivotal point happens, and I was like, it’s all falling into place for me. So, chemistry, magic, madness– I’m all in, five bagger.

HADADI: Cinema. Jordan said cinema.

CRUCCHIOLA: Cinema, yes!

HARRIS: Yes, this is a movie that absolutely benefits from being seen with a bunch of people.

HADADI: Yeah.

HARRIS: We always talk about the blockbusters. It’s like, oh, you wanna see on the big screen because it’s visually stunning. No, sometimes you just want to see a movie where other people are gonna make the same noises that you are when something weird happens.

HADADI: Yes.

HARRIS: Who are going to laugh at the same stuff that you do.

HADADI: Yeah. The press screening I went to was, like, a mixed press and public screening, heavily women. And I just, A, found this movie so much more are effective and entertaining and even moving, and the crowd was having such a good time, that it is the kind of thing where you’re like, we used to have these in the ’90s. Like, we used to have a lot of these in the ’90s.

HARRIS: We did.

HADADI: And this is my, embrace tradition. Return to your roots. (LAUGHING) Like–

[LAUGHTER]

CRUCCHIOLA: I’m a cinema traditionalist.

HADADI: 100%. Yes. If you just want to, like, a lot of friends you haven’t hung out with in a while, The Housemaid is the way to do it. [LAUGHS]

CRUCCHIOLA: Yes.

HARRIS: Oh, my goodness. Yes. This was exactly what I wanted and what I needed. I love these types of movies, and I think you both are so right that there’s this idea that this kind of movie needs to be a little bit more serious and more grave, as it is about what it really means. And I think sometimes we need that escapism and to go back to the era of your Fatal Attractions and those types of things. Like, I want that.

CRUCCHIOLA: Give me a bunny boiler. Give me a bunny boiler.

HARRIS: Yes, yes! We don’t get a bunny boiler, but we do get china. Like–

HADADI: Oh, my god.

HARRIS: Pieces of china.

[LAUGHTER]

HADADI: Yeah.

HARRIS: The family heirloom that is very crucial to plot points in this movie. But I do want to talk about the Sydney Sweeney of it all, because I had this sort of same thought going into it, Jordan, of, like, this being kind of perfect for her. And I mean, let’s just talk about the way her career has gone this year. You know, she appeared in a controversial ad campaign for American Eagle earlier this year, with the tagline, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” Jeans as in denim. Sure. But it caused an uproar, because the ads were using wordplay that evoked eugenics, just bluntly speaking. It also surfaced this year that she’s a registered Republican voter in Florida. And so you’ve got that. And then, her boxing biopic movie, Christy, which has been clearly her play– like, if Testament of Ann Lee is Amanda Seyfried’s play for Oscar, like, Christy is kind of Sydney Sweeney’s. And that did poorly at the box office– some say because she gave this sort of non-answer about her jeans ad in an interview with GQ, and then also her perceived political alignment. So this idea that we’re, like, assigning something to her personal life has maybe affected her box office chances. That’s what they’re saying. So now she’s, like, addressed the directly. I was gonna forget about this. I don’t know about you. I was kind of like, OK, whatever. I’d forgotten about it. But now, she has this movie that she’s trying to promote. And she did an interview with People magazine where she said, quote, “I don’t support the views some people chose to connect to the campaign. Many have assigned motives and labels to me that just aren’t true.” And she also added, “I’m against hate and divisiveness.” OK. So after seeing The Housemaid–

[LAUGHTER]

HARRIS: –which is something I find interesting, because people– some people are very focused on her personal life and her supposed political alignments. But then the movies she’s in tend to be these types of movies that are very much, like, if not flat-out feminist, they are about women sort of overcoming the patriarchy– I even think of, like, the nun movie that she did.

CRUCCHIOLA: Immaculate.

HARRIS: Immaculate, yes.

CRUCCHIOLA: If all the registered Republicans in Hollywood– of which there are many, y’all–

HADADI: Yeah, there are.

CRUCCHIOLA: –want to make independent movies about domestic abuse-surviving lesbians who are also boxers, like, then I would be happy for them to channel their tax-cut money into that kind of forum. But Sydney Sweeney, I think, in terms of a Hollywood element, of a screen presence, she is so good in this. She is so good in Immaculate. She is so good as Cassie in Euphoria. And she is really good in the movie The Voyeurs.

HADADI: Yeah, The Voyeurs is good.

HARRIS: Oh, I had totally forgot about that movie. Yeah.

CRUCCHIOLA: Sydney Sweeney is great in also a dime store, a paperback, airport movie exploitation thriller. I would love to see her commit to this lane. I think she’s absolutely got a go-for-it in her that is really suitable for, yes, and the physical packaging that comprises, like, the totality of Sydney Sweeney fits really well in this space as well. And she knows that, too, which is why she takes these roles and plays them to the hilt the way that she does. In pure terms of screen presence, I think there was role selection that was a bit out of step for what’s in her wheelhouse. So you know, a movie like Eden, I don’t know if that’s something where she’s, like, the best fit. But something like this– give me drama, give me screams, give me thrills, give me– give me what The Hunting Wives audience wants. Because that is who I am, and that is what I want.

HARRIS: Yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

HARRIS: I mean, Roxana, what say you?

HADADI: Yeah.

HARRIS: I mean, I do think there is something to be said that we’re talking about this movie, and this kind of movie, and we’re not really talking about Christy. And I don’t think Christy was the right movie for her. I never fully bought into her playing that role. But I can also understand being young and wanting to stretch– attempt to stretch your chops.

HADADI: Yeah. I mean, like her personal or political life or whatever is, like, a black hole upon which we project many things. My personal feeling about her as an actress is, I think that she has a limited range that, in this film, is perfect for what this film is asking her to do.

HARRIS: Exactly.

HADADI: She is playing a young woman who is unhoused, does not have any job opportunities, has a quick temper. And I think all of that comes through really well in the characterization of, like, this young woman who seems pretty aimless, clearly has sort of a moral core, but honestly is, like, pretty reactive and pretty passive. This is not meant to be an insult. I’m so sorry. But she’s very good at that sort of, like, dead-eyed affect and that sort of, like, very deadpan line delivery. And for this film, which is asking Amanda Seyfried to do huge, over-the-top, like, mood-swing acting, having Sydney Sweeney be the blank, quote unquote, “normal” character for a long time in this movie is super effective to get the contrast between the two of them– which, again, I do want to insist, like, in my eyes, is limited.

HARRIS: Yes.

HADADI: But in this kind of lane, it is perfect.

HARRIS: Yeah.

HADADI: And I think it’s the most self-aware performance from her that I’ve seen.

HARRIS: Yeah.

CRUCCHIOLA: There’s not a problem with being a specific talent.

HADADI: Yeah.

HARRIS: Oh, yeah.

CRUCCHIOLA: To compare her talent to that of, like, an Amanda Seyfried, and be like, these two actors should be the same thing is absolutely not the case. And you look at what Paul Feig did in A Simple Favor, bringing us the best performance of Blake Lively’s career and tapping into something that someone who, in the Simple Favor podcast that we had, Blake Lively said in her own words, being like, I’m not Meryl Streep. For me, it’s the costumes and all the finishings and the touches that really help me bring out a specific character. She’s aware of the lane that she occupies. In a similar case to, like, a Blake Lively, Sydney Sweeney is very aware that the physical presence that they have, like, the way they present– these stunning white women– I’m not crying for these rich, very well-off white women who are doing fine. They are aware of the perception of them. And you have the choice to either go along completely with the perception in a sort of complicit way. You have the choice to wink, wink, nudge, nudge, play within it, which is a really difficult line to walk, which I think is what Sydney accomplishes in something like this, and something like Voyeurs especially. Or you have the choice to buck against it and be like, that’s not me. I’m not that girl. Because you do want to defy the box that you are being put in, because Hollywood still loves a box. If that is not your journey, if that’s not your path to break out of that box that you’re being put in and really find that kind of thriving success in a more dynamic sort of career, then you’re gonna have some slings and arrows as you learn the hard way that that’s maybe not necessarily the most beneficial choice for your career decisions, your role choices. Listen, it would be cool to be super hot for a couple days, but I honestly wouldn’t want the life. Because that’s the sort of celebrity that, like, you don’t get to pick when you turn it on and turn it off.

HADADI: Sure, yeah.

CRUCCHIOLA: I would probably get really frustrated with the way that people were coming at me with the presumptions and access to who I am. And I’d be like, well, I’m gonna show you. And I would probably make some decisions that weren’t probably in line with what I was best at in this world, because I was gonna try to prove to other people that I wasn’t just this hot body shell. Because that probably sucks. That probably sucks. And so you’re like, I’m gonna be a lesbian boxer with a mullet. And like, I get that, I get that.

HARRIS: I mean, she’s still young, right? She’s not even 30 yet. So–

HADADI: Younger than Timothée, right? Younger than Chalamet. I think we always forget that Chalamet is a little older, like, within this realm of new Hollywood. Yeah.

HARRIS: Yes, and younger than Zendaya, too. So I agree with everything you’ve said about this. And I would also throw someone like Dakota Johnson in here, where I’m just like, you are very good at one specific thing. And when you’re cast against that, I’m like, mm, maybe not. But I’m not gonna fault them, per se, for, like, trying to do that, because why wouldn’t you try to do that? I do want to talk more about, sort of, Amanda Seyfried, because I do think that she does have the harder role here. Because this is a very big performance, and she’s so good at it. Like, she can–

CRUCCHIOLA: God, she’s so good in this movie.

HARRIS: She can really dance that line. And there are so many twists and turns in this movie. And you know, some of them– as someone who’s watched so many of these, even though I haven’t read the novel that this is based off of, I kind of saw them coming. But nevertheless, I was still very, very just enraptured with the way this performance plays out, and the way that Paul Feig really just kind of plays up how silly all of this is.

HADADI: Mm-hmm.

HARRIS: This is the type of movie I feel like, once you realize this is deliberately silly in many ways– like, there’s so many moments where there’s jump scares, where all of a sudden, Amanda Seyfried’s character is just, like, standing there, like, behind the mirror. And it’s like, oh! And it’s like, it’s very–

HADADI: Yes, she’s just looming ghostly energy.

CRUCCHIOLA: Yeah, looming, a looming Amanda Seyfried.

HARRIS: There’s the creepy groundskeeper, Enzo.

HADADI: Yes.

HARRIS: He’s played by Michele Morrone. Their dynamic is very great.

CRUCCHIOLA: Famously of the Megan Fox fembot movie that came out last year, in which he played, like, you know, just a helpless dad that fembot Megan Fox had to come in and help domestically. He’s been here before. He knows the housemaid situation.

HARRIS: Yes, he has a lane, too, and he’s sticking to it. I love it.

[LAUGHTER]

HARRIS: What do we think of this dynamic between Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney, and how that kind of plays with expectations, I think, without getting too much into spoilers? Because this does get very twisty. But I found it very enjoyable and very satisfying.

HADADI: The thing that is very smart about this movie– and it might be this way in the novel, too, which I have not read. But what the movie does so well is, it takes all these, like, very recognizable, like, tropey elements of this genre at this point and, like, winks at you the whole time. The groundskeeper that is just sort of, like, staring through windows and, like, maybe spying on these women– like, that’s very unclear. The gaggle of, like, awful neighborhood moms–

CRUCCHIOLA: Paul loves a gaggle of moms.

HARRIS: Pick a little, talk a little.

HADADI: Yeah. And they’re just, like, gossiping the whole time.

[AUDIO PLAYBACK]

SPEAKER 1: Oh, my god, I’m so sorry. I really thought she was pregnant.

SPEAKER 2: No, girl, we were all thinking it. I mean, have you seen her skin?

SPEAKER 3: Oh, and how about those roots? My god, you’d think she would take better care of herself for Andrew.

[END PLAYBACK]

HADADI: The fact that the daughter that Sydney Sweeney’s character is now expected to babysit doesn’t like her at all.

[AUDIO PLAYBACK]

CHILD: No shoes on the furniture.

[END PLAYBACK]

HARRIS: She’s so great! I wrote in my notes, “She makes great shady faces.” She’s played by Indiana Elle.

HADADI: Yeah, she makes wonderful shady faces. She makes Sydney Sweeney’s character make her a bologna sandwich, and then is like, I’m not hungry. Like, all of these things are– if you’ve even read, like, one of these books, you’re completely aware of, like, oh, these are all the puzzle pieces. And eventually, they will be rearranged into something really interesting. And I do think that, as we talked about, like, Sweeney being so passive and Amanda doing so much, it is this great, like, push-pull, conflict, contentious energy. So then when the movie flips, you then realize that their dynamic has to flip. And I think that’s, like, where the genius of the contrasting performances is. I do want to say there’s this moment where Amanda Seyfried’s character is in her SUV, and she’s doing a classic move that we all recognize, where she goes from sobbing maniacally to laughing maniacally. And it takes, like, a certain kind of actor to pull that off. But I remember watching that and being like, could this woman be Joker? Like, could we, like–

[LAUGHTER]

HADADI: Like, what kind of villainy could we put this woman in? And I thought that was really fun.

HARRIS: Let’s not forget she played Elizabeth Holmes. Like–

HADADI: Yeah, she should have won every award for that. So I also think that she is just sort of like– I mean, obviously, she is A-list. But I think she’s the kind of actress who can do so much. And it’s interesting that this sort of, like, B-movie genre film, paired with Testament of Ann Lee, finally feels like the moment where you’re like, oh, like, Mean Girls and Veronica Mars star Amanda Seyfried– [LAUGHS] has the range, and I just think that’s really fun.

HARRIS: Yeah.

CRUCCHIOLA: An actor she reminds me the most of that I think is very, very established as, like, sort of A-list in the mind, is Julianne Moore, who also– if there’s one person whose filmography is balanced between, like, prestige dazzle you and absolute junk dazzle you, it is Julianne Moore. Her curation is so broad in her career. They meet in the middle, in the movie Chloe.

HARRIS: Yes.

CRUCCHIOLA: In the bisexual sexploitation movie Chloe. There are, like, the two wolves that are within you. It’s like watching a movie like Chloe and watching a movie like, you know, say, even Jennifer’s Body, where Amanda Seyfried is the straight man character to the more vamped-up Megan Fox. Amanda Seyfried has been on the opposite side. She has been the Sydney Sweeney in this dynamic.

HARRIS: Yeah.

CRUCCHIOLA: In another, like, girl two hander sort of pulpy genre movie of this sort of sort. It makes me so happy to watch an actress getting older and having cooler opportunities that are higher profile, that showcase, like, the quiet choices she’s been making to smaller audiences for a long time. That’s an arc that just makes my heart soar.

HARRIS: Yeah, yeah. I feel like anytime I see Amanda Seyfried is going to be in a movie, I’m going to be in good hands. Like, it doesn’t really matter what kind of role she’s playing. She’s just always gonna be that good. I love this.

CRUCCHIOLA: If you bought Big Love stock, y’all, we’re cashing in. It is cashing in.

HARRIS: I think that is the perfect way to end this episode. Tell us what you think about The Housemaid. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/pchh and on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture. We’ll have a link to that in our episode description. And go see it in the theater. OK, and that brings us to the end of our show. Jordan Crucchiola, Roxana Hadadi, thanks so much for being here. This was, as always, a delight.

CRUCCHIOLA: What a thrill, a perfect thrill.

HADADI: Yes, thank you.

HARRIS: This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Kayla Lattimore, Mike Katzif, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello Come In provides our theme music. And thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I’m Aisha Harris, and we’ll see you all next time.

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