'MOODY' HOLIDAY
Christmas is a family dysfunction on Fox comedy
THE MOODYS Wednesday, 9 p.m., Fox
WELCOMING your adult children home for the holidays sounds dreamy for longtime Chicago married couple Sean (Denis Leary) and Ann Moody (Elizabeth Perkins). Then the kids arrive. Dan Moody (Francois Arnaud), the baby of the family, shows up without his girlfriend. Bridget Moody (Chelsea Frei) has a suitcase in hand after fighting with her husband. Eldest child Sean Jr. (Jay Baruchel) never left home and that’s becoming a drag for his parents. Throw in a boastful cousin, a thwarted romance or two and some medical surprises and you have the only kind of holiday this family seems capable of celebrating.
Elizabeth Perkins, 59, who played Jackie O’Neill on HBO’s “Sharp Objects” spoke to The Post from LA, where she was besieged by allergies.
When we last saw you, you played the person who knew the town’s sick secrets on “Sharp Objects.” Did you feel you needed a complete change of pace when you read the script for “The Moodys”?
I so prefer doing comedy in
general because it’s just easier to go to work. I just finished “Truth Be Told” with Octavia Spencer for Apple TV. That was a strong drama that we filmed for six months. Then when I got “The Moodys,” I was really ready. “Sharp Objects” was so dark. And when I found I would be working with Denis Leary, it was really perfect. We wanted to swear all the time.
Are you from a large family?
I have two sisters. My mother married a widower with eight children. Who does that? There were 11 of us at one point.
Ann drops a bomb on the kids to get them to go to midnight Mass. Can you explain?
I think it just comes out. Ann’s a slow burn. Things aren’t working out for her. Her husband has cancer. Her son from New York doesn’t come home with the girl she wants him to marry. The kids are not falling into line, and she’s had too much wine. I think that’s a more normal response than, “We’re going to sit down and tell you this important thing.”
The series is just six episodes. Is there a plan to do a second season?
Right now, we’re calling it a comedy event series. I think the wish is that “The Moodys” will take place in six-episode storylines throughout the year. Christmas seemed like the perfect occasion to start with.
It looks like you filmed inside an actual home. Did you?
We filmed in Montreal in a 1,200-square-foot home. It was the filmmakers’ idea to show the family crammed into a small house. It definitely felt like the walls were closing in.
Why are the Moody children having such a tough time this Christmas?
When you’re in your 20s and 30s, you’re figuring yourself out. As a parent you’re trying to help them and you’re always failing. Christmas is so sold to us by the media. I’m in the remake of “Miracle on 34th Street” and I know what that looks like, but that’s not anybody’s reality. “The Moodys” shows what it’s really like as opposed to that fake-y Christmas we’re presented. That’s what drew me to the project. Christmas is hard. Kids revert to the dynamic of their younger selves. I’m still mad at my sister because she got the Easy-Bake oven for Christmas and would not let me see the cakes bake.