Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer on digital sex work, money and babies

LOS ANGELES – Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer, in discussing their roles in the series “Margo’s Got Money Problems,” where they deliver acclaimed performances, talked about, well, money problems, digital sex work and babies.

In David E. Kelley’s Apple TV adaptation of Rufi Thorpe’s novel, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” which is up for eight Emmy Awards in September, Elle has the title role. An aspiring writer, Margo drops out of Fullerton College in her freshman year when her creative writing professor, Mark (Michael Angarano), gets her pregnant. He wooed Margo by complimenting her writing.

To deal with the financial drain and debt after the baby is born, Margo turns to OnlyFans, a British video-on-demand service that allows content creators, mostly pornographers, to upload videos and attract subscribers who also give tips.

While Margo’s content is not hardcore – she goes into alien cosplay (her roommate Susie, played by the wonderful Thaddea Graham, guides her), neon paint makeup and compares penis pictures sent by her subscribers to different Pokémon images – she soon starts to draw subscribers and earn tips.

Playing a young mother and an OnlyFans content creator, Elle wore prosthetic breasts and appeared in nude scenes with natural ease.

Margo’s messy family

Michelle Pfeiffer, Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman | Photo from Apple TV

Away from the world of OnlyFans and her space-themed adult persona named Hungry Ghost, Margo has to deal with the real world populated by assorted characters – her dysfunctional but caring family.

Mom Shyanne (an equally good Michelle), an ex-Hooters waitress now working at Bloomingdale’s, is very disappointed with Margo’s decisions but still loving and supportive. Shyanne is dating Kenneth “Kenny” (Greg Kinnear), a Christian youth minister.

James “Jinx” (Nick Offerman) is Margo’s estranged dad who is an ex-pro wrestler and a recovering addict.

Nick, combining gruffness and sensitivity, earned one of the show’s Emmy acting nominations in the comedy series category – Best Supporting Actor, along with those for Elle (Best Actress) and Michelle (Best Supporting Actress). The show is also up for Best Comedy Series.

Linda “Lace” (Nicole Kidman) is a retired wrestler and now a lawyer who helps Margo in her child custody dispute with Mark.

Elizabeth is Mark’s status-conscious mom. The recurring role is played by Marcia Gay Harden, who is always good – just watch her with a broken/fractured jaw after she was punched in the face by Shyanne.

Money struggles

In a roundtable interview at The London Hotel in West Hollywood, Elle and Michelle talked about their roles and how their characters’ issues, including jobs and financial matters, resonated with them in real life.

“I have not had any other job than this (acting), which is the thing,” admitted Elle, who was born in Georgia and started appearing in films as early as when she was three years old. In a flashback scene in Jessie Nelson’s “I Am Sam,” Elle played a younger version of her sister Dakota Fanning’s character.

That was the first time Michelle met Elle, then a toddler. Many years later, Elle and Michelle worked together as adults for the first time in Joachim Ronning’s Angelina Jolie-starrer, “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.”

Elle continued, “My parents certainly worked hard and they instilled that into my sister and me to be financially independent and work for that.

“For Margo, the cost of living is high. She’s struggling. She’s a single mother herself. And I think turning to OnlyFans is in the zeitgeist. We think of one thing when we hear that.

“But for this particular character, it’s an outlet and a place that is going to save her. The cost of living now is so high, and I feel like a lot of people can relate.

“But it’s hard for me to answer questions about other jobs I’ve had because acting is the only job I’ve had. I didn’t even go to college to do anything else. So I don’t know how to do anything else.”

Michelle, who was born in Southern California (Santa Ana), revealed, “I came from a family where we really lived paycheck to paycheck. I know there were times with my parents when they weren’t necessarily sure where the money would come from.

“And so I learned at an early age the value of a dollar. I started working at age 13. I started doing retail clothing. I did a lot of jobs. I worked in a printing press. I worked at a grocery store. I worked selling clothes.

“I worked selling Fuller Brush. Do you know what that is? It’s an American thing. We went door to door selling brushes like cleaning brushes. You clean houses with them. It was crazy. It was a huge thing here.

“So I did a lot of jobs. My father and mother really instilled in me saving for a rainy day. And so I was responsible in that way. I wasn’t making a ton of money, but I was working.

“Back then, though, you could work at a supermarket, and you could support yourself. You could wait tables, and you could support yourself. You’re not going to have an extravagant life, mind you, but you could have a decent apartment.

“It’s harder these days. But way back then, you could do that.”

Beyond judgment

Elle Fanning’s Margo turns to OnlyFans to support her baby. Photo from Apple TV

Elle reflects on how society, including family and peers, is quick to judge and look down on women struggling to survive, cope with motherhood and resort to sex work, even digitally only.

Watching Michelle and Elle navigate their complex mother-daughter relationship is one of the pleasures of watching this comedic family drama produced for Apple TV by A24. Michelle’s Shyanne had high hopes for Elle’s Margo, but the mother soon sees her daughter falling into the same path she experienced.

Elle, an Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy nominee, said, “Not only by playing this character, but just being involved with this piece, looking at the piece as a whole and at all of these characters and how judgmental we can be. And certainly in today’s world.

“It felt like such a refreshing story and one that needed to be told and seen, and to maybe bring people together a little bit. It reminded me of this famous quote, realizing the times when I’m actually more judgmental than I think I am. [It’s] that famous quote by Robin Williams where he said, ‘Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind.’ All of these characters are (fighting a battle).

“It’s really easy to judge what somebody is doing as a profession. If you’re on OnlyFans, how somebody is dressing, where somebody is living, or the choices that they’ve made in their lives, there’s a whole story behind that.

“And we’ve lost the ability to live the contradictions in life and the complexity of all of that. So I’ve learned quite a bit actually, and been enriched by it.”

Shattering stereotypes

Michelle added and gave well-deserved praise to showrunner and creator, David, her husband of 32 years. “It’s the cliché of don’t judge a book by its cover, but there’s also what David does so well with his writing – sometimes he sets up a cliché and then shatters it.

“With Greg Kinnear’s character, Kenny, you’re like, okay, I got this guy figured out completely. I know what he is. And you’re like, yeah, what an idiot. And then he surprises you.

“That’s David and Greg, of course. Gosh, my heart breaks for Kenny. I’m like, why am I rooting for Kenny? You know, there is no bad guy in our show necessarily. There can be questionable choices.

“Also, with Nick’s character, you see him as one thing. But he’s so layered, and building up to episode seven with his overdose, the way that he threaded that kind of deep sadness that he’s carrying with him throughout the season.

“It was beautiful to watch it all come together because, gosh, he’s broken, we’re all broken, and we’re all like, let us just get by, trying to survive.”

Michelle continued, “It’s really interesting. Because it is the crux of what I think the beauty of David’s writing is. He sets you up to be a bigot and to agree somehow with it, and then he just shows you what you are. And he does it in a way that is not shaming. It’s a way that you can digest it, and you can really look at yourself totally.”

A labor of love

Elle recounted how she and colleagues bagged the rights to Rufi Thorpe’s book. “Dakota and I have a production company called Lewellen Pictures. We produced ‘The Great’ (Elle played Russia’s Empress, Catherine) as well. And we produced a bunch of other things now.

“But this one particularly was a true labor of love. I feel really proud of this one. I feel like I had a say in a lot of things and in putting the team together.

“Working with my sister, whenever we get to work together or do anything together, I feel like it just makes it all that much more special. But we got to option the book before it came out.

“Rufi had sent it to us and she was like, I want to make it a TV show. And she was interviewing with people. But she sent it to David. She sent it to Nicole Kidman. And I realized, like, wait a second, we all know each other. We should group in on this and try to get this book.

“Rufi went with us and A24. Then we pitched to Apple TV, and they were like the perfect home. We were like, whoa, we have like a major team now. We got to get Michelle. I was like, David, get Michelle to play Shyanne because from the very beginning, we were like, Michelle has to play Shyanne.”

Breaking their rule

Michelle Pfeiffer plays an ex-Hooters waitress who had high hopes for her daughter, Margo. Photo from Apple TV

For her part, Michelle recalled, “The book had been lying on our kitchen counter for a couple of weeks. Its cover is kind of intriguing. Finally I said, so what’s this book?

“David said, ‘We’ve optioned it. It’s with Elle Fanning, and I think you would like it. And actually, there’s a part in it that everyone is saying only you can play.’

“I was very flattered. And so I read it. Shyanne comes in the beginning, and she’s not in the book for very long. The part was actually pretty small.”

Citing her long, successful marriage to David – an exception in Hollywood marriages – and their strict rule against collaboration in projects, which they followed until “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” came along, Michelle disclosed, “I wasn’t sort of super eager to work with David. It’s like we’ve lasted all these years. I sort of felt it was very sacred to me.

“But I just fell in love with Shyanne. I loved her fire. I loved how raw and flawed she was. And what a survivor she was. I thought there was so much to sink my teeth into.

“I don’t know how many pages it was, but it wasn’t very much, and it had a huge impact on me. So it worked out. I said yes.”

‘Margo is complicated’

Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer figure in a complex mother-daughter relationship. Photo from Apple TV

“For Margo, there were many aspects,” Elle said about her attraction to her character. “Every side of her was delicate and a challenge, not in a way that, oh, this is so hard because the scripts are so good. So it’s all there and the layers, but it’s just the challenge of stepping into something new.

“And I like feeling scared with a project. I’ve never played a character quite like Margo. I think about playing motherhood and also wanting the authenticity of depicting that in a way that feels like people could relate to it.

“I’m not a mother myself, and so I was really thinking a lot about that and getting the portrayal right. I really wanted the babies to be on set a lot. It was real babies most of the time.

“We had a lot of creepy dolls lying around, but they were used only occasionally. Mostly it was the real babies. And I felt like that put me at ease. I really love the babies so much, and they loved me.

“They really loved Michelle, too. They’re supposed to cry in her arms, but they would always smile with you (turns to Michelle). They (director and crew) were like, oh no, don’t smile like they loved her.

“I love the babies so much. They added so much texture to each scene.

“Margo is complicated. Every character is extremely flawed in our show and easily judged on the outside. And so it was just about tonally getting that right.

“But it’s much like life. It’s about this family and at the end of the day, you fight hard, but it all comes from this enormous amount of love, which is between all the characters, even if they are at odds with each other at times.”

“Margo’s Got Money Troubles” has been renewed for season 2.

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