By Hanna Rantala
LONDON, June 22 (Reuters) – Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham’s new TV series “Ride or Die” blends big action, comedy and a “unique” buddy pairing, the two actors, who also executive produced the show, say.
The series centres on long-time best friends Debbie Claybourne, the American wife of a British parliamentarian played by Spencer, and Waddingham’s Judith Burton, whose relationship is put to the test when Judith is revealed to be a top-level international assassin.
When their lives in London get turned upside down, the duo must find unity as they embark on a danger-packed European road trip.
“It’s like Bourne and Bond and the funnies and all of it together but this friendship … the fact there’s two women in their 50s, you know, it’s not seen very often,” Waddingham, 51, said at the show’s premiere in London on Monday.
“It’s very unique. I’m thrilled to be a woman of a certain age and getting these opportunities,” added Spencer, 56. “I’m really excited for the world to see Hannah and I completely out of context.”
The eight-episode series is created by comedian, writer and performer Tessa Coates, who set out to make a large-scale show about an assassin, whose anchor is her best friend, rather than a husband or a child.
“It’s really big. We shot it in Prague over nine months and we basically have made eight movies. It’s got some huge, big scope action pieces in it,” said Coates.
The trio said the series sparked a bidding war when they pitched it to streamers on a Zoom call.
“There is a huge appetite for this kind of show, and they’re so often sort of pushed aside,” said Coates. “You say ‘women’ and people immediately take their foot off the gas and say it doesn’t matter, but it does matter.”
“(It) was crazy because it was a bidding war in the room, which is really unheard of, all of us kind of pinching ourselves when they were going, ‘Oh, we’d like to take it on,'” Waddingham recalled. “I think because it is high-octane action, high-octane comedy, high-octane drama, all together, and at the heart of it, Octavia and I were constantly trying to root it and tether it to the ground with the friendship.”
“Ride or Die”, which also features Bill Nighy as the director of the agency Judith works for, starts streaming on Prime Video on July 15.
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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