One of the most iconic movies in film history has been reimagined for a new Paramount Plus series in Fatal Attraction. While it has the bones of the original story, including a short-lived affair between Dan Gallagher (Joshua Jackson) and Alex Forrest (Lizzy Caplan), things are also quite different.
Both Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan have some big shoes to fill in Fatal Attraction by bringing a fresh take on the characters originally played by Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. Alex becomes obsessed with Dan after a couple of days together while his wife is away, and it all ends in death.
Screen Rant sat down with Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan to discuss if there was any intimidation behind taking on these iconic roles. Jackson also touched on creating two different versions of Dan present in Fatal Attraction – before and after he is in prison – and the tools he used to pull that off so perfectly.
Joshua Jackson & Lizzy Caplan Talk Fatal Attraction
Screen Rant: This was so good. I was immediately hooked right from the beginning. Was there any intimidation here? Because there are some big shoes to fill in these roles.
Lizzy Caplan: Yes, of course. Sure. Of course. But our story feels so different. The cat we're trying to skin is so different than the one that the film did that hopefully people will get the fun nods and the clear inspiration but see it as its own.
Joshua Jackson: The PETA people are gonna love that. Lizzy Caplan endorses cat skinning.
Was it intimidating at all for you, Joshua?
Joshua Jackson: Yes. For all the same reasons. It's an iconic movie. And unfortunately for us, it's also an excellent movie. It's so much better to be retelling something that's mediocre. It's not mediocre but that story is also very much of its time. There is an obvious opening, when you watch the movie again, to delve into the Alex character but also to have some repercussions or accountability for the Dan character. There's a lot of space that is opened up that the movie implies for the modern audience. And when you watch it, it's wonderful that he is able to skate on everything and the world just falls at his feet, but hard to get away with that these days.
Lizzy Caplan: Yeah. Until that horrible woman messes up this perfectly sweet guy.
Joshua Jackson: Sweet, innocent, man. Poor Dan.
Lizzy Caplan: I mean, that is what everybody left the theater thinking poor Dan. Yeah, it's wild.
Joshua Jackson: We were in different times.
Joshua, one of the things I love about your performance is it feels like you're a very different person before and after prison. I just see that. I'd love to know how you pulled that off, what was your mindset in doing that?
Joshua Jackson: One, I think that prison in the American carceral system is possibly the most degrading thing that a human being can go through. So, I think spending 15 years inside of an environment that is trying to strip you of your humanity, after you've been at the very center of the easiest version of being a human and a successful adult white male. I think that would be hard for an ego.
I had also randomly met a man who had recently come out of prison and was doing reintegration outreach. So, I was able to just have the conversation of like, tell me how far off I am here. And what an ego goes, what a personality goes through, when they have to be in this space for that long. And then stripping away the prison piece of it. Like I said, Dan is right at the center of the easiest version of life. He is raised inside a financially secure household, has every educational opportunity on the planet, has solid employment and a career path available to him the second he gets out of college. Also meets somebody who shares his vision of life, gets married, and has a kid. Is successful inside his chosen work life. Everybody has their difficulties, but that's as good as it gets. Right?
Here’s this guy whose self-conception is I am all of these things. "I'm a good dad. I'm a good father. I'm a successful man. I am a pillar of the community, and I'm on a path to achieving even more than that. So long as I do the right things, the world owes me these rewards." And then the second that his ego gets just a little prick, he doesn't feel like he's all of these things. He has a tantrum, and his tantrum is I need someone to flatter me so I can feel okay about myself. And he does this. He reaches outside of his marriage. He chooses a partner in that dance who is the perfect wrong partner, perfect in the negative sense, for the volatility of that situation. But also his conception of himself is such that he can't.
If Dan had just had an affair, gone to his wife said, "I messed up. A huge mess up. Very, very big mess up, and I'm going to make it right. Here's why I did the things that I did, and here's the pieces of my ego or whatever that I need to examine. It’s actually nothing to do with you. This is my work to do." Whatever that conversation needed to be, we would have had a very short show, but we can't do that. And because he can't do that, then he has to go through the darkest possible version of this where he loses everything and spends 15 years in a box thinking about it.
Then he has to come out and essentially recreate who he is as a human being, because none of the things that he used to be are available to him. He's not a good father. He's not a good husband. He's not a fine, upstanding member of the community. He's not a successful person. He's an ex-con that nobody gives a s--t about. Right? And he's old. So, he's all the things our culture doesn't have any time or space for. Where does that ego start to rebuild? And what does that man look like? That's a long answer.
Lizzy Caplan: I think what Josh is saying is that we as a culture have done a huge disservice to privileged white males. They just don't have thick enough skin, and it's our fault. Our show is an apology to privileged white males everywhere.
Joshua Jackson: That's true. That's exactly the meta-statement that I'm trying to make: you made us this way. And now you're trying to poke it, and we just don't have the tools because you stripped them by making it so easy for us, is what I'm saying.
Lizzy Caplan: I can only apologize.
Joshua Jackson: Thank you. You know what, it’s nice to be seen.
About Fatal Attraction
An affair threatens the lives of Dan Gallagher and his wife, Beth, in this reimagining of the 1987 movie, exploring marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes toward strong women, personality disorders, and coercive control.
Check out our other Fatal Attraction interviews here:
- Amanda Peet & Alyssa Jirrels
- Toby Huss, Reno Wilson, & Brian Goodman
- Alexandra Cunningham, Silver Tree & Kevin J. Hynes
Fatal Attraction premieres April 30 on Paramount+.