Paul Feig has assembled a star-studded cast for his adaptation of The Housemaid, and the group took a few surprising deviations from the novel. Based on Freida McFadden's 2022 bestseller, the story revolves around a young woman named Millie with a complicated past who, while looking for a job, is hired in the titular position for a seemingly idyllic married couple, only for everyone's dark secrets to start to come to light in the process.
Sydney Sweeney co-leads the ensemble cast as Millie alongside Oscar nominee Amanda Seyfried as Nina, 1923 vet Brandon Sklenar as Andrew, Michele Morrone, Elizabeth Perkins, Indiana Elle and Mark Grossman. With a script from Archive 81's Rebecca Sonnenshine, The Housemaid has garnered largely positive reviews from critics for its self-aware approach to the genre and the performances from its cast, currently holding a 78% "Certified Fresh" approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a 91% from audiences on the platform.
Ahead of the movie's release, ScreenRant's Ash Crossan interviewed Paul Feig, Amanda Seyfried, Sydney Sweeney, Brandon Sklenar and Michele Morrone to discuss The Housemaid. When asked about their approach to adapting McFadden's novel for the screen, Feig began by praising that "the book is so great that you don't want to mess with it too much."
With that in mind, however, the producer/director still found there were "certain things we wanted to do that would make it a little more cinematic and a little more impactful on the screen." Explaining that there can be things that work better for a novel that "aren't as good on the screen," he and his team then took to looking for ways to "plus a few things up" to give viewers a more intense experience:
Paul Feig: What was really fun, too, is trying to fool the audience so much that the book readers kind of forget what the plot is, and I think people get so involved in the first hour of what they think they're rooting for, that it's really fun. I've had book readers say, "I almost kind of forgot the book for a while."
This mindful approach didn't only apply to behind the camera, either, as Sklenar explained that he and his co-stars really sought to "take these characters and deliver something that the fans of the book would enjoy" and would live up to the expectations that come from The Housemaid. But they also sought to give those familiar with the novel "something that they didn't see" in the source material, with Sklenar wanting to "turn certain aspects up to 11" for his character.
Denoting that in McFadden's novel, Andrew is "a little more passive" and, per Sklenar's reading of the book, "I don't think he's my size" — with the actor standing at 6'2" — he then sought to "lean into that" side of the character for some of the movie's heavier scenes in which he could "make him physically imposing and actually terrifying."
The Movie's Twisty Story Provided The Cast With Major Challenges While Filming
ScreenRant: I will say, I think one of the biggest things that people are saying is, "This is exactly how I envisioned the house. This is exactly how I envisioned this character." So what was your favorite thing to kind of translate?
Paul Feig: Well, it was fun doing that house, because I've always referred to this from the beginning as a Nancy Meyers movie that goes horribly wrong. So, my production designer, Elizabeth Jones, was really able to go and we found this house. It took forever to find that house, which is like one of the main characters, and then to transform it into this perfect white place that then we slowly degrade and make scarier, and eventually just take apart altogether.
ScreenRant: So for the cast, there are obviously so many twists and turns, but you have to play this line of carefully constructing a facade. So, how do you approach playing these characters? What is the biggest challenge in playing a character where you kind of can't show your cards up front, and then what is the most fun part about that?
Amanda Seyfried: You got to map it out in a way, but the script is so well mapped out anyway. Sometimes I was like, "Wait, I need you to remind me at what point I'm supposed to be bread crumbing with Millie." That was hard. You just had to keep me focused.
Paul Feig: No, it was fun.
Amanda Seyfried: Because, for me, Nina is so dynamic off the bat.
Sydney Sweeney: Millie kind of shows her cards pretty early on. Not to Nina, but the audience is aware. And then Millie is learning everything as the audience is learning,
Paul Feig: But I like that we discovered the person inside you by the end.
Amanda Seyfried: Yeah, but definitely, our characters were not who they see.
Sydney Sweeney: No, you guys were just [perfect] in the beginning, a complete 180 by the end.
Amanda Seyfried: And shooting that out of a sequence is challenging.
Paul Feig: The good thing is, because of the shooting in this house, we got to shoot kind of in order, but then all the attic scenes were on a sound stage, so then we had to backtrack later on to do that. That's part of the fun.
Amanda Seyfried: That room seems so big. It's small. [Chuckles]
ScreenRant: I'm curious for Michele, most of the movie, we're kind of figuring out who you are, but a lot of your role is kind of lurking. What is it like for you when you're kind, just a lot of your characters kind of lurking around the house, so how much fun is that for you?
Michele Morrone: The fun part for me was to get in touch with my weirdest part, because it's like, "Who is he? What does he want? Why is he walking around? Why is he looking at people in that way?" So, it was the challenge for me. I didn't have a lot of challenges in this film, but for me, just because I'm a very dynamic person, I like a billion things to do during the day. So for me, it was challenging to keep it quiet the whole time, and stay there and stand and look at people in a weird way. It was fun to discover this weird part of myself, and I like to keep being weird.
Paul Feig: So, you're saying it's hard to shut up, is what you're saying. [Chuckles]
Michele Morrone: It was really hard to shut up. Absolutely. [Laughs]
ScreenRant: And then Brandon, I just want to hear from you on that front in terms of towing that line. Because even the first scene, I'm like, "I like him, but do I like him? I don't know what's going on." You just don't know who to trust.
Brandon Sklenar's Andrew smiling while at a dinner table in The Housemaid
Brandon Sklenar: Yeah, it's a lot of fun doing that. Kind of what Amanda said, it is just the technical aspect of planting that arc and just having an awareness of where you're going, and foreshadowing it, and planting little seeds that are very subtle and misleading the audience. You're kind of playing chess, he's manipulating everybody around him, and you, as the actor, are manipulating the audience in sort of a more conscious way than you normally would playing a character. Normally, you play a character, you just kind of put it out there and then that's what it is. But I definitely had the most awareness of what the audience would think when I shot this movie in terms of you don't typically think about the audience. But in this, I think we all really thought about the audience, which is kind of a different way to approach the work, but it really helped because you want to confuse them, and you want them to be surprised.
Amanda Seyfried: Yeah, normally, you play the character more, but this book has such beloved fans. It's like there's that added responsibility.
ScreenRant: You have these moments where the two leads go toe to toe, like Anna and Blake in A Simple Favor, Kristen and Rose in Bridesmaids, Melissa and Rose in Spy. So what was the moment for you where Amanda and Sydney, you felt like maybe it was the chemistry read, or a scene where they're truly going toe to toe, and you were just so excited to capture it?
Paul Feig: I don't want to give any spoilers, but there's the scene about halfway through the movie where there's kind of the showdown that happens. They play it so masterfully, and when Amanda's coming down those stairs with this look on her face, and then how you take her on, that was such a fun scene to shoot. I was just celebrating behind the camera every time that we did it.
Amanda Seyfried: It was different every time. There was also some physical [stuff happening].
Paul Feig: Exactly. You [Sydney] just came off of a boxing movie, so you were ready.
Amanda Seyfried: He was like, "Do it, do it!" And I was like, "[In a meek voice] I can't!" [Laughs]
ScreenRant: I'll say, Nina has a scream that you can feel in your soul. Was filming that cathartic?
Amanda Seyfried's Nina screaming while in a car in The Housemaid
Amanda Seyfried: I felt like we didn't have that much time to shoot it. I think I would see it in a script and be like, "Oh no, when are we shooting that one?" And then all of a sudden, it just jumped into the schedule, and I was like, "Oh, I didn't have time to think about it. Okay, I'm just going to go do it." And it was actually kind of nicer. I was just more liberated on the confines of my own self.
Paul Feig: And it was freezing cold.
Amanda Seyfried: And it was freezing cold, but I was in the car. I don't know, it always feels good.
ScreenRant: This story is obviously built on a secret, so I'm just curious for everyone in your career, what is the project that you feel you had to be the most secretive about, and were you good at doing it?
Amanda Seyfried: I am doing one right now, and I'm doing a great job.
ScreenRant: Do we know what it is or is it not out there yet?
Amanda Seyfried: No, not at all, nope. Nobody knows. It's not necessarily a fictional thing.
Paul Feig: Oh, mysterious. We're going to get it out of you.
Amanda Seyfried: Maybe I'm switching careers.
Paul Feig: Oh my God.
Amanda Seyfried: No, I'm not switching careers. [Chuckles]
Paul Feig: Are you running for office? Is it a biopic? Oh, we're going to get it out of her. We're going to booze her up and get it out of her.
Amanda Seyfried: Did you say booze? Did someone say booze? [Laughs] They don't know me to be discreet at all, so I'm doing a great job.
Sydney Sweeney: It's hard. Everyone always asks me about Euphoria, and I just can't give 'em anything.
Paul Feig: That's true. That's very true. Fellas, what are you hiding?
Brandon Sklenar: Yeah, I'm working on something that hasn't been announced yet. It's not really a secret. And then, I guess maybe the show I was on, people were always like, "What's going to happen?" But the problem is, I would tell everybody. I'm like, "Oh, it's amazing. The finale, this happens. You're going to love it. Broke my heart, it'll break yours as well." And they're like, "Oh, f–k, why'd you tell me?" I was like, "That's just so good." They're like, "Stop telling me, man." I'm like, "Read this. Read this episode." They're like, "Don't give it to me!" [Laughs] Yeah. I'm like, giving it to my friends to read 'em. They're like, "I want to watch it"! "Ah, too bad." The irony is I never watch it. I just tell 'em about it and they can't watch it.
Paul Feig: The biggest secrets I've ever had to keep are for this movie. It is weird when you do a movie that is a book, so some people know all the twists and turns, but then when people go like, "Oh, I have to read the book first?" I'm like, "No, don't read the book. Go buy the book, then watch the movie, then read the book."
Amanda Seyfried: What was our secret name for The Housemaid?
Paul Feig: It was Winger. Winger. Our secret name for the movie was Winger because we put up signs directing trucks where to go. I don't know where that came from, to be quite honest. Somebody in the office just made it up, and I was like, "Okay, sure." [Chuckles]
Amanda Seyfried: I didn't like it. I didn't like going to work on Winger.
ScreenRant: Paul, do you know what you're doing next? Is that your secret that you're hiding?
Paul Feig: Yeah. There are three potential things that are in contention, and I can't tell you about any of them, so there you go. That's my secret.
Brandon Sklenar: Paul's secret is how many suits does he actually own? How many watches? How many suits do you have? Because, I'll tell you, we shot this movie for seven weeks, and this man wore a different suit every single day.
Paul Feig: I've probably got about 80 suits. [Laughs]
Brandon Sklenar: I think I've owned one suit.
Amanda Seyfried: Also, they're all bespoke. I mean, it takes a lot. It's very artful.
Paul Feig: You got to be tailored, because my body is very weird, so my shoulders are too sloping, and all this stuff, so I have to be tailored.
Be sure to dive into some of our other Housemaid coverage with:
- Our guide laying out everything from The Housemaid's ending
- Our guide to the eight biggest differences between the film and McFadden's novel
- Amanda Seyfried sharing an update on Mamma Mia 3 and hoping to work with Feig and Seyfried on it
