Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham make like Jane Bond and her best bud in the action extravaganza that is Prime Video’s 8-episode “Ride or Die,” premiering Wednesday.
Waddingham’s Judith Burton, a highly skilled British assassin, unhappily learns she is being marked for early retirement – because she’s just turned 50!
Spencer’s Debbie Claybourne, married to an English diplomat and settled in uppercrust London, is Judith’s best friend. She is, we soon find out, clueless. The domestic happy homemaker life she’s lived is a mighty mirage.
“What made this irresistible,” Spencer, 56, said in London in a joint virtual interview, “is that we get to demonstrate how women still get to live at 50 and have exciting lives.”
She smiled, “You know, not all of us get to be assassins or anything like that. But we’re still very much in the game, because life is complex and fun and riddled with problems.
“And,” she added, “the fact that you get to see the embodiment of that with the two of us playing these roles was exciting to me.”
“Like what Tavi was saying, when life knocks you about a bit,” Waddingham, 51, reflected, “it also throws up great joys that you never dreamt would happen to you.
“There are moments in this series,” she continued, “where it was very meta. Because we were doing a scene where they’re having a joyful moment, where they never would have found themselves in a million years — and there we were as two actors! Somewhere we never would have found ourselves in a million years!
“That’s why it’s so important for us to constantly talk about the fact that it’s two women in their 50s, two actors in their 50s.”
In fact, the age issue shows up immediately as “Ride” begins. Is it important to say, We’re 50 and we are fabulous?
“Oh my gosh,” Waddingham said, “I mean we shouldn’t have to say it. But that scene that Tessa (Coates, the series creator) has written, coming so early on, it is very, very important.
“Because, yes, it’s funny. But there’s also — I found this last night at the screening — there’s a palpable awkwardness. It’s like the elephant in the room: You don’t discuss that a woman is of a certain age.
“And you see how uncomfortable it is for Judith to be sitting there and having this young guy saying, ‘You’re playing like my mum would have.’
“So it’s great that through the medium of comedy we’re getting these things discussed. Because it’s happened for too long.
“And don’t,” she winked, “try to rush past us, because we’re not gonna let you!
“We are not,” Waddingham concluded, “shrinking violets.”
Prime streams all eight episodes of “Ride or Die” on Wednesday
Bill Nighy in “Ride or Die.” ( Courtesy of Dušan Martinček/Prime)
