DAVID FOLKENFLIK, HOST:
A new series from Apple TV plays on the dangers in assuming trust in a life lived online. A divorced mother named Paula Saunders (ph) searches for companionship on CamBoys, a website for male content creators that's similar to OnlyFans.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED")
BRANDON FLYNN: (As Trevor) I hate to do this, but we've only got like six minutes left.
TATIANA MASLANY: (As Paula Saunders) Already?
FLYNN: (As Trevor) Yeah. Unless you want another hour?
MASLANY: (As Paula Saunders) Can we make six minutes work?
FLYNN: (As Trevor) Paula, come on. Six minutes? Six minutes is like a lifetime.
FOLKENFLIK: Trevor, the cam boy she opens up to, is involved in schemes to make money that go far beyond disrobing.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MAXIMUM PLEASURE GUARANTEED")
FLYNN: (As Trevor) Paula?
MASLANY: (As Paula Saunders) Just a sec, Hazelnut.
FLYNN: (As Trevor, crying) Help. I need help 'cause they kidnapped me, and they're going to kill me.
FOLKENFLIK: Paula's life falls apart, her shared custody of her daughter in doubt as she becomes the victim of a scam and the chief suspect in murder investigations. The series is called "Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed." Paula is played by the actress Tatiana Maslany, who joins me now. Hey there, Tatiana.
MASLANY: Hi.
FOLKENFLIK: Your character, Paula Saunders - she's a tolerate-no-errors fact-checker at a magazine in New York City. She has chatty coworkers. She has an adoring daughter, and yet, it feels as though she often feels utterly alone. How did you approach playing her?
MASLANY: I think, like, where we first find Paula, you know, a lot of the things in her life that she knew to be stable markers of, like, safety and happiness and identity for her have sort of been ripped away, that divorce with her ex and the sort of betrayal of him having an affair and all of this. And now she's fighting for custody of her kid. And so I think the place that I started with her was, like, massive heartbreak that can happen in your whatever, mid-30s, and suddenly you're in a totally different place than maybe you envisioned for yourself, and none of the people that you trusted can be trusted anymore.
FOLKENFLIK: Speaking of trust, we're introduced to cam boy Trevor. He's a charmer, despite what's clearly a commercial relationship. He in turn introduces chaos into Paula's life. What did she think she was getting from him?
MASLANY: I think she genuinely connected with him. I think there's something about being online with someone where you can present a version of yourself that is idealized, but I think also Paula felt safe enough to share parts of herself with him that were messier and sort of uglier or less, like, fully formed. He really drew her out. I think, you know, after you've, like, had that kind of heartbreak, you don't always have a connection to your gut instinct in the strongest way. And I think Paula's refiguring what that is for her.
FOLKENFLIK: The show involves online sex, although it's not graphic. Violence is a little bit more so. When I was watching, I felt like there was a little bit of Hitchcock in there, a bit of "Big Lebowski" as Paula seeks to untangle mystery herself. There's a bit of "Kramer vs. Kramer." In your head, what vibe were you going for?
MASLANY: Yeah. All of those references are really fantastic. Coen brothers were a big inspiration, I think, in terms of tonal sort of playfulness, that, you know, the violence is really brutal, and there are strange laughs out of nowhere and that the world can be dark but also very absurd. And I think "Rear Window" was a big one.
FOLKENFLIK: Totally.
MASLANY: The genre and tonal sort of thing throughout the piece was discovered kind of throughout. You know, it felt like even getting the script initially, I was like, oh, my God, what is this? Like, what does this look like? What does this sound like or feel like? It felt really new to me in a way that I actually have a tough time putting my finger on, like, how to describe it or - and even when we were doing it, there was just so much space for play. You know, when you're working with people like David Gordon Green and all of these amazing actors who want to try all kinds of things, it just - it really, like, discovers itself as it's going, I think.
FOLKENFLIK: This season has 10 episodes. Obviously, can't give too much away, but how does Paula transform over the course of this?
MASLANY: All of the characters really complicate maybe an audience's feelings towards them. You know, I don't think we're going to necessarily end the season in the same place that you started in terms of who you maybe relate to or empathize with or find yourself following and rooting for. I think, you know, even, like, I don't want to give too much away, again, but, like, Murray Bartlett's character.
FOLKENFLIK: Murray Bartlett plays a shadowy figure who becomes more and more important to the plot.
MASLANY: Yeah. Like, incredibly interesting complex, and he only gets more so. And I think all the characters have that.
FOLKENFLIK: So much of this show is conveyed - it struck me - by the constant connection Paula has that if you think about it, shows her as removed - the calls coming in on her iPhone what - that she doesn't really want to take, the texts, the notifications. There's everything pinging all the time. It's almost a shock when a homicide detective shows up at Paula's office in person, though that would be kind of shocking, (laughter) I guess, in real life too. How much of that pinging as communication is her life, and how much of it does it feel like all of ours?
MASLANY: Yeah. I mean, I think it's probably the thing that everybody, when they're watching it, goes like, yep, that's me, that's what day to day feels like, that kind of chaos. It's an interesting thing to play with a character who's seeking connection, real connection, and has all of this connection, but it's empty, or it's overwhelming, or it's not the kind that she needs and wants and that will, like, feed her. All of those chaotic, sort of, like, cutting between text messages and trying to do this and that and juggling all this stuff, I think that that's a very prescient sort of image.
FOLKENFLIK: We've been speaking with the actress Tatiana Maslany, talking about her new series, "Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed." Tatiana, thanks.
MASLANY: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
