An Interview with Yvonne Strahovski & Scott Speedman from ‘Teacup’

TEACUP -- Episode 107 -- Pictured: Yvonne Strahovski and Scott Speedman as Maggie Chenoweth and James Chenoweth -- (Photo by: Mark Hill/PEACOCK)

Yvonne Strahovski & Scott Speedman are a pair of accomplished actors that have appeared in some iconic franchises in their career. Currently, they star as Maggie and James Chenowith in the new Peacock series, Teacup, and we here at NTG had the distinct honor of sitting down with both of them to discuss their new series.
 
John Betancourt: First and foremost, I would love to know, what it was that attracted each of you to be a part of this series.
 
Yvonne Strahovski: This is not your typical horror series. I think that's definitely what attracted me to it, is that has an amazingly strong emotional arc. There's this huge family storyline. It's certainly how I leaned into it as an actor, and it really was an incredible challenge to perform some of these scenes that we had to do at the end of the show, which is always a bonus. That's always what I'm looking for, for projects that I'm a part of.
 
Scott Speedman: Yeah, for me, honestly, very similar. I, you know, I'd heard Ian was doing the showrunner/writer role, was doing something in this genre space or whatever, and I knew his writing from other things. So, I was very excited to see what he'd do in that world. And look, I mean, for lack of a better way to say it, it was just really good, I mean, and what made it good was there was this whole world that he created with this family on this isolated farm. I just really felt immediately invested in those people. And I thought, wow, these scenes leading up to this crazy circumstances that are coming down the pike, these scenes alone are going to be really fun to do. And if that's fun for me, I just, I just thought, wow, an audience is really going to go on the ride with us. And I knew Yvonne was doing the show, and that was really exciting to me. Once I knew Yvonne was doing the show with that character and what we had to do together, I was excited, because I really had a feeling we'd work well together, and that was true. So, all those elements really came together for us.
 
John Betancourt: I'm curious kind of what you hope, from a messaging standpoint, the audience takes away when they've had a chance to digest all the horror that they got here.
 
Scott Speedman: Yeah, you know, for me, I don't have a really good answer for you, because I don't know if that's how I, maybe Yvonne is the same way as how I look at pieces, especially like this, what I want them to take away is not so much a message, is if we were able to have them go on the ride with this family. And, you know, we start this story in a really fraught place with me and Yvonne as our family is crumbling, and the kids don't know yet, our marriage is crumbling, and through the series, I'm hoping they come on the ride with this meeting. I hope they, you know, fall in love with the family, and I think a lot of people are going to tune into a horror show and see what that is. But by the end, I mean, what blows my mind is how emotional these scripts got and how challenged both of us were as actors and as parents, doing these scenes we got going here towards the end of the show, so I hope that they find a measure of depth they weren't expecting, and I think that's really what's going to be a good jumping off point for hopefully seasons to come. So messaging, I'm not sure, it's a good question for Ian, but I don't know.
 
Yvonne Strahovski: I mean, I think echo what you say, you put it so beautifully, is to come on that emotional ride with us, and hopefully we've done our jobs well, and they do. And it's really unexpected, because, yeah, I agree. It's incredibly unexpected how emotional and complex it is at the end, and with the setup we have, with this rocky marriage that we enter into it really makes for a complex ending, given what we have to do at the end of this show. So yeah, I just hope people are really, really invested in it in a way that they never thought they would be.
 
John Betancourt: No, I appreciate that candor, and that you really want everyone to go on a ride. The last question that I have for each of you today, because you both turn in some amazing work over the course of this of the season. What are you each most proud of when it comes to your work on this?
 
Yvonne Strahovski: I mean, I'd say, I'd say, probably the ending… it's really challenging. I remember reading it and thinking, gosh, I always get really excited when I think, wow, how are, how am I going to pull this off? That's always a really good indicator that that it has the potential to be really gripping and fun. So, it provides such a fun challenge of sort of puzzle piecing, this emotional melody in this arc of how we going to keep the audience in in our world, and how the whole thing is going to pay off in a really great way at the end.
 
Scott Speedman: I mean, not to beat a dead horse here, but yeah, just the challenges for me were not only what we had to do physically, but just how emotional things got towards the end. And you know, by that point on the shooting, we were getting closer and closer as actors, with the whole family, with Emilie and Caleb as well. And you know, it had a summer camp vibe, and we were able to go to work. And you know, you were doing crazy stuff the day before, and crazy stuff that day, and it was just this onslaught of just craziness, which was really, really, really challenging, exhausting, but honestly, really fun. And I think at this point in my career, at least I'm most excited that, you know, I'm excited for people to actually see it. A lot of times you're doing stuff that you’re involved in, but you know, we'll see how it goes. I really think with this thing, this could be really cool, and I think people are really going to like it, so I'm excited for people to check it out.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

---