Everything in one house. From the (never celebrated) wedding to the police investigations: the dream home overlooking the ocean that serves as the backdrop for the Netflix TV series The Perfect Couple is an American beach house, an undisputed star episode after episode. Because its domestic walls, which know everything and say nothing, hold past and recent secrets that drive the entire thriller’s plot. But if the house has no voice, the actors it hosts do. Speaking of actors, the general public eagerly awaits to see Nicole Kidman in the role of the writer Greer Garrison Winbury, in a role that suits her perfectly: she is stern, strict, rigid; alongside her are colleagues Dakota Fanning, Eve Hewson, Billy Howle, Jack Reynor, Ishaan Khatter, and many others. All suspected of a sudden, nighttime murder.
The Perfect Couple, Netflix
The Perfect Couple, Netflix
Always in the background is the island and the house. The TV series directed by Oscar-winning Susanne Bier is an adaptation of the eponymous book by Elin Hilderbrand. In both the bestseller and the fiction, the setting is Nantucket in Massachusetts: an exclusive place where the Winbury family is preparing to celebrate the 4th of July and a wedding day. However, in reality, The Perfect Couple was filmed in Chatham (Cape Cod, Massachusetts), London, and Los Angeles. “Elin’s genius lies in creating a tangible and visceral sense of place,” said Nicole Kidman. “Reading her books feels like looking at photographs of Nantucket. This specificity of places is very important to me. (…) Susanne and the rest of the team wanted and needed to honor Elin’s sense of place. Most of the filming for The Perfect Couple took place in a house in Chatham and being on a sandy beach facing the ocean allowed us to recreate an unmatched atmosphere. The characters truly extend from the places they inhabit, just as in real life. I believe this connection between environment and characters translates beautifully on screen.” Jenna Lamia, screenwriter, showrunner, and executive producer of The Perfect Couple, added: “I am originally from New England, so it was really important for me to find the right setting. I am happy we found the house we chose for the Winbury estate in Summerland, because it has the typical Nantucket style, with cedar-shingled roofs and white trim. Elin was also excited about the house. It is the quintessential Nantucket house, but it was located in Cape Cod, so it was very windy. We are all really pleased with the house we found; it’s a true character of the series.”
The Perfect Couple, Netflix
The Perfect Couple, Netflix
Nantucket is a lovely corner of the world. There, adds actor Liev Schreiber, who plays Tag Winbury, “live the so-called American royals, the American aristocracy.” The house served as the base for filming, making the crew’s job less taxing as they moved along the shore of a lovely sea. A house like that: many rooms, floors upon floors, an apparently endless horizon beyond the windows, and with a private beach is the perfect setting for a binge-worthy thriller. “Visually and atmospherically, it’s an extraordinary series,” added actor Ishaan Katter, who plays Shooter Dival on screen. “It offers a closer look at the lives of these people and Nantucket is at the center of the action. From the colors to the set design, great attention was paid to detail during filming. Shooting in Cape Cod gave us a sense of the characters’ lives. It’s a vacation destination, but we managed to observe the people up close and get a sense of how they express their identity, sense of humor, and how they live their lives. In this sense, the series will heavily emphasize atmosphere. I think it will be fun and light, and there will be plenty to discover even for those who don’t intend to delve into the deeper and more serious aspects. For those who want to explore, there’s certainly much more.”
The Perfect Couple, Netflix
The Perfect Couple, Netflix
The Perfect Couple, Netflix