IT’S FOR MY SON
Actress makes movie she could view with kid
Malin Akerman wanted to watch a kid-friendly flick with her 7-year-old son. So the Swedish-born actress decided to star in one.
“There are so many films I’ve done and my son can’t watch any of them,” the “Billions” alum told the Daily News. “I was dying to do a family film.”
That’s where “The Sleepover,” out Friday on Netflix, came in. The lighthearted, silly heist movie centers on two siblings (Sadie Stanley and Maxwell Simkins) who find out their mom, Margot (Akerman), is a former thief in witness protection.
“It feels like life before kids and after kids in real life,” Akerman, 42, said. “I thought this would be fun to play a woman who, all of a sudden, her past catches up to her.”
Margot’s past comes in the form of her former bosses who need her to pull off one last heist, and also in the form of her ex-lover, played by Joe Manganiello, or “hot hottie,” as Akerman describes him.
Onscreen husband Ron, played by Ken Marino, who also appeared with Akerman in the show “Childrens Hospital,” is less than pleased at the discovery of his wife’s past, and the usual high jinks ensue.
The film’s fun nature was part of its appeal for the actors.
“This seems to be in my wheelhouse,” Marino, 51, joked to The News about his tendency to play characters “in over their heads.”
“[Ron’s] just trying to keep up. He’s a simple man.”
Filled with child-induced chaos and sophisticated stunts — Akerman said she got to do “a lot” of her own — “The Sleepover” plays off Mom’s secret identity with a “Spy Kids”-like lightness.
That was enough to draw Akerman, who said she’s been more picky about choosing roles as her son has gotten older, especially when it comes to those that take her away from home in Los Angeles.
“The Sleepover” was filmed on location in Boston.
“There are definitely films that I would turn down if it was too big of a logistical deal,” the “Trophy Wife” star said. “It depends on where you are in your life and what your values and priorities are.”
The coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down film and TV production nationwide, has helped with staying close by her son.
“I see the impact it has on our unit when we get to spend this time together,” she said.
Son Sebastian, who just turned 7, came to the set with her and her husband for a long weekend, but Akerman said she’s trying to keep him away from show business for now. “He’s more of a science kid.
Robotics, coding, all that,” she explained. “Mostly he just wants to know why don’t [the child actors] have to go to school.”
Sebastian hasn’t quite figured out the science of acting yet, though, Akerman said. After a screening of the movie, he asked if she was “really a spy.” She hasn’t told him the truth yet.
But “The Sleepover” provided exactly what everyone wanted from it: family fun amid troubled times.
“Anything that’s happened within the last four years, any chance I get to do something that’s fun and positive and light and has a feel-good feeling for it, I’m all for it,” Marino said.
“I need it and certainly 62% of this country needs it.”