The cast of "The Perfect Couple" came close to rebellion when director Susanne Bier pushed for a flashmob dance scene in the series' opening credits.
The thrilling Netflix whodunit, adapted from Elin Hildebrand's novel, dives into a police investigation surrounding the affluent Winbury clan following a shocking discovery at a family wedding, unearthing many deeply concealed truths.
The murder mystery series' opening starts with a contradictory scene where the entire cast, featuring Nicole Kidman, Dakota Fanning, and Liev Schriber, synchronize their movements on the shore to the upbeat tune of Meghan Trainor's "Criminals," all dressed formally.
In an interview with Virgin Radio UK during the recent UK premiere of "The Perfect Couple", the outlet asked Kidman about the dance routine and shared her initial challenges in embracing the steps.
The Hollywood superstar confessed, "I don't know any of these steps. I'm just gonna dance as [my character] Greer. I picked it up as we went along, kind of thing. Through the whole thing. I was like, 'Okay, this is the Greer dance.'"
Co-star Eve Hewson shared her experience of the director's unexpected approach to filming as a sudden ambush.
She explained to the outlet that when the unexpected request was made, it caught them off guard as it was never in their initial plan. This reportedly happened towards the end of their reshoots, just before Christmas. They reportedly got an email that informed them that they needed to learn a dance routine.
The news reportedly sent everyone into a frenzy of panic and confusion.
"We ended up doing it. That was our last day on set, and it was our last moment together. We spent basically a year shooting the show because of the strikes and everything. So it was a really good memory to have all of us together."
Meanwhile, Bier told Variety, "I think I felt that I want to do something where we are telling the audience 'This is going to be fun."
"I feel this time [period] is a little bit gloomy and I felt I wanted to do something which had a lot of life and a lot of fun. And I wanted to see all the characters having fun."
Despite the cast's doubts, they created a WhatsApp group chat to discuss their concerns about the dance routine.
Meghann Fahy, who plays social media influencer Merritt in the show, shared her thoughts, saying, "Everyone was on that group saying they didn't want to do this because we just didn't understand."
"I actually have a really, really huge issue with learning choreography so I was very nervous about it,"
Ishaan Khattar shared that despite his background in dance, he confessed, "I don't think any of us could make sense of doing this choreography in these characters. We're like, 'Wait where does this fit into the scheme of things? This was not part of the assignment!'"
