Checking in with Malin Akerman
It would be easy for Malin Akerman to play the title role of ABC’s “Trophy Wife,” premiering Tuesday, Sept. 24, as only a knockout blonde.
She happens to be one, evidenced by her rocking a one-shouldered red jumpsuit and nude stilettos. Yet the actress gives a lot of thought to her character in the sitcom and sees Katie as more than what the title implies.
“She comes from a broken family,” Akerman says. “To me, she is missing a father figure. She meets Pete. He’s charming, not flaky. He’s a gentleman.”
Bradley Whitford is Pete, a successful attorney with two ex-wives: Diane (Marcia Gay Harden), a humorless doctor and mother of their older children, and Jackie (Michaela Watkins), the New Age mom of their adopted son.
“I come from a broken family and a blended family, and it’s so accepted now,” she says. “It’s almost a support system.”
She rattles off a list of siblings, but the familial role that looms largest is being a new mom. Like so many actors, she says she loves being on a sitcom because the regular hours let her spend time with her son.
Akerman, like so many actors, got her start in commercials.
“It was a great way to get out of school now and then,” she says. “I never thought of acting.”
Akerman was, instead, aiming for the Olympics. From ages 6 to 16, she was a figure skater.
“I hit 16, and it was all about boys and parties,” she says. “I didn’t want to go to the rink every day.”
In college she did more commercials to earn tuition money, then headed to Los Angeles to try her luck. For
more than two years, she didn’t work. As she was about to resume school, she was cast in “The Comeback.”
Birth date: May 12,
1978
Hometown: Stockholm; raised in Canada
Family: Husband Roberto Zincone and son Sebastian
Credits: “Watchmen,” “Suburgatory,” “Burning Love,” “Couples Retreat,” “27 Dresses,” “Entourage”
Other pursuits: Model and singer in a rock band, the Petalstones
Hobbies: “I used to draw a lot,” she says, “but I haven’t had much time for hobbies.”
Why “Trophy
Wife” drew her: “I prefer single-camera (shows),” she says. “They are more grounded in reality and not so farcical. They are real characters. I thought it was super well-written and relatable.”