Michelle Pfeiffer and David E. Kelley have long and enviable Hollywood resumés but those credits never crossed — until now.
They teamed for the upcoming Apple TV series Margo’s Got Money Troubles, revealed for the first time on Tuesday with a teaser, first look photos and a panel discussion during the streamer’s inaugural press day at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar. The event found Kelley sitting alongside his stars including Pfeiffer, Elle Fanning, Nick Offerman and Thaddea Graham along with Rufi Thorpe, the latter of whom wrote the best-selling novel on which the series is based and is an executive producer of the series.
The eight-episode Apple Original series, made in partnership with A24, casts Fanning as the title character, a college dropout and aspiring writer who is the daughter of an ex-Hooters waitress (Pfeiffer) and ex-pro wrestler (Offerman). A surprise pregnancy, a mounting pile of bills and no cash to make ends meet leads Margo to make some entrepreneurial choices. Marcia Gay Harden, Greg Kinnear, Michael Angarano, Rico Nasty and Lindsey Normington round out the cast.
Thorpe had the task of moderating the discussion, and she opened it by describing the series as a “bold and acerbic” take on “the sacrifices we make as mothers and using your goods to get by.” She added that when she wrote the book, she “could not have imagined such a dream cast” embodying the characters who “lived in my head so long.”
She asked Kelley what drew him to the adaptation, and he said that he fell in the love with the book when he picked it up. “These characters spoke to me when I read the book, and the opportunity to make space for them in my head while adapting was just too exciting to pass up. It’s such original storytelling,” said Kelley, who had a relationship with Apple TV after making Presumed Innocent. He described the casting process as an easy one “because everyone fell in love with it.”
“I think when you and I first talked, Nick, you had read the book, and that was it. You were in without knowing what we were gonna do to it. Elle owned Margo, I think, before I even picked up a pen. And the actress there in the middle, who I vowed never to work with,” Kelley continued, turning his attention to his Pfeiffer. She quipped, “I’m very difficult.”
He continued: “When I read the book, I could only see one person playing it, and we’re lucky enough that she said yes, the second luckiest yes I’ve gotten from her.” The first, obviously, being the time he asked her to marry him. The couple wed on Nov. 13, 1993.
Beyond the material, it’s unclear why they made Margo their first time, but Kelley previously told Entertainment Tonight that they “took a chance” on this project by making it their inaugural collaboration and that it had gone “quite well.”
During the panel, Pfeiffer offered a lot of praise for her husband’s creative talents. “It’s built on such strong writing,” she said of the show. “So, all you have to do is really open your mouth and you just have to be smart enough to recognize that it’s really good writing. And you don’t have to do more than that. And I just think that it’s really important to always respect the character that you’re playing.”
She said that her character, Cheyenne, only appears in about 10 pages of the novel, and “then she disappears,” but it was enough to know that the part was for her. “I said, ‘This is a gem.’ I was, literally, ‘sign me up,’” she added.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles will premiere globally on Wednesday, April 15, with three episodes, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through May 20.
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