Maya Erskine may be on a pretty good run these days following the success of Pen15, her Hulu comedy series she co-created with Anna Konkle and Sam Svibleman, and now Mr. & Mrs. Smith on Amazon Prime, which has her on the shortlist for drama awards, but this confident display of talent hasn’t always been a given. In a recent article for the Los Angeles Times, Erskine recalled how she was actually kicked out during her first appearance on set.
“It was ‘Hart of Dixie’ on (The) CW,” she said. “I just had one line that was like, ‘Is this seat free?’ And I swear to you – have any of you seen ‘The Comeback’ where Lisa Kudrow repeats her line over and over for 24 hours? I did that at Photo Booth. The whole night I was thinking: “Do you want to take this seat?” I did it over and over again, and then on the day (of the shoot), I blacked out. It was this huge machine that you’re just a tiny part of, and I thought, ‘Oh, so there’s no rehearsal? We’re not going to do this, think it out together? You just show up?’ And they cut it out.”
Although Erskine has overcome this embarrassment, it may still have caused some anxiety because when Donald Glover approached her for the role of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, she wasn’t quite sure how seriously to take his offer.
“Donald (Glover, who co-created the series with Francesca Sloane) talked to me several times on FaceTime and I didn’t know what it was because I thought it was him and Phoebe (Waller-Bridge, who was originally set to co-create and co-star on the series). And so I thought, ‘Am I going to be killed off in the first episode? So what’s my role in this?'” Erskine told the LA Times. “And I really had no idea. And he was just gauging my interest, gauging whether I had the right talent for it, and then the third time he said, ‘Oh no, you would play Jane Smith.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, OK.'”
Despite the uncertainty that comes with moving into the drama genre, Erskine spoke openly about being ready to try something new. She said: “It’s always scary to step into a role, no matter what it is, but I was excited to try it because I was ready for a change from ‘Pen15’. That’s what I was looking for.”
