Malin Akerman is The Trophy Wife on ABC #ABCTVEvent

As a treat from all the Disney activities we were doing, we slipped over to the ABC building to screen a couple episodes of Trophy Wife. This is a wonderfully entertaining show that has cast full of character, like Malin Akerman; Malin Akerman is the Trophy Wife. Take a look and see all the cast and read about what the Executive Producers had to say about the show.

Malin Akerman is the Trophy Wife

They say the third time’s the charm, and reformed party girl Kate (Malin Akerman) is hoping that’s true when she becomes the third wife of a slightly older man, Pete (Bradley Whitford). They fell into each others’ arms (literally) at a karaoke bar, and flash forward a year later, Kate finds herself with an instafamily complete with three stepchildren and two ex-wives. But Kate is determined to make this work and become a part of the family no matter what.

Diane (Marcia Gay Harden) is ex-wife number one, an intense and overachieving former Olympic athlete and the mother of teenagers Hillary (Bailee Madison) and Warren (Ryan Scott Lee). Diane is quick to convey her withering disapproval of Kate’s barely tapped maternal instincts. Daughter Hillary is not a fan of her new step-mom either, despite Kate’s attempts to win her trust. And son Warren may have an erotic fixation on his dad’s beautiful, young spouse. Ex-wife number two, Jackie (Michaela Watkins), is mother to adopted son Bert (Albert Tsai), and can pull Pete’s strings with her special blend of neurotic, new-ageyness.

Juggling all this baggage is uncharted territory for Kate, who finds support in the most unusual place – with her best friend, Meg (Natalie Morales), a party-hearty singleton and the only woman Kate knows who has less experience with kids than she has.

Meet the Cast of Trophy Wife

Malin Akerman is the Trophy Wife — Photo Credit: (ABC/Todd Wawrychuk)

Malin Akerman is the Trophy Wife (27 Dresses) as Kate
Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) as Pete
Michaela Watkins (Saturday Night Live) as Jackie
Natalie Morales (Parks and Recreation) as Meg
Ryan Scott Lee (Super 8) as Warren
Bailee Madison (Once Upon a Time) as Hillary
Albert Tsai (How I Met Your Mother) as Bert
Marcia Gay Harden (Into the Wild, Damages) as Diane.

Interview with the Executive Producers

We had the pleasure to visit and interview with both Executive Producers Sarah Haskins, and Emily Halpern. They gave us some great insight on how the the show came to birth and the direct it is going.

How did you come up with the idea for Trophy Wife?

Sarah Haskins: We’re the creators, so we came up with the idea together. It’s very loosely based on my life. I married an older man who’d been married a few times before and has children from those different marriages. Kind of like Malin Akerman’s character, without rocking the short shorts.

It’s a situation that while unique and highly specific, is also very universal. People have dealt with divorce and co-parenting. It’s very common and we thought has a place on TV.
The characters have very good chemistry. How hard was it to get who you wanted?

Sarah Haskins: We filmed the pilot off cycle and we didn’t appreciate it at the time. That wound up being a huge advantage because we weren’t competing for all the exact same actors as all of the other pilots at the same time. And a lot of that had to do with Malin. She was really the first piece. ABC had actually passed on Trophy Wife the first year we developed it and ultimately it was given a second life when Malin read the script and ABC really wanted to work with her. And so did we.

Why do a wedding episode now?

Emily Halpern: We were kind of trying to think of a big episode idea. Honestly, we knew this was gonna air in March. It was a 2-parter. In a comedy, we can’t shoot the president [Laughs] so how big can we go? A wedding felt good to us.

What’s next for Trophy Wife?

Sarah Haskins: Hopefully season 2!

Emily Halpern: We just finished editing our season finale and our fate is in ABC’s hands. But we hope we get to come back to do some more.

Sarah Haskins: Yeah, and appropriately, our season finale is a Mother’s Day episode. It helps wrap up Kate’s arc all season of “Am I a mom in this family’s eyes or am I just a trophy wife?”

How’d you come up with the specific characters? Who were the influences?

Sarah Haskins: We talked about my emotional reactions to meeting my husband’s exes. His first wife is super intimidating. She’s French and she’s a lawyer and she went to Brown and blah blah blah. So she was so intimidating that we took that intimidating factor and made that Diane. I think everyone probably has an experience with an intimidating ex who you don’t want to hear about.

And then the Jackie character came out of dealing with the boundaries of a blended family. No one in particular. It’s just hard to say where your nuclear family ends and your everybody family begins. And Jackie is someone who is strongly on the everybody is family portion of the spectrum. That’s just a fun character to have.

Do the ex wives know it’s about them?

Sarah Haskins: I wouldn’t say it’s about them. One of them watches it and one of them doesn’t. The intimidating one does watch it.

Emily Halpern: And she has notes every week! [Laughs]

I do think we consciously try to write all three women as strong characters. And once we sort of had whatever the stereotype was, we really worked hard to try to make sure that they felt like complete characters and strong women and had their own independence.