The future and ideas of destiny factor heavily into romantic stories, and both are at the center of the streaming series Maggie. Now available on Hulu, Maggie focuses on a woman whose perspective on the future is much more direct that anyone else around her. Meanwhile, other characters, like Leonardo Nam's Dave, offer a counterpoint in their more immediate view of the here and now.
On Maggie, the titular psychic of the show (Rebecca Rittenhouse) can see into the future, but her ability to do so grows more complicated when she sees glimpses into her own future life. Maggie comes to face questions of how she and others can enjoy their lives in the present if knowledge of the future overshadows it. While definitely a weighty subject, Maggie handles it with a light-hearted tone and plenty of humor.
We speak to Leonardo Nam on the making of Maggie, his role on the show as the carefree Dave, and the show's balance of levity with ideas of love and future destiny.
Screen Rant: How did you come to join Maggie as Dave?
Leonardo Nam: Initially heard about the project through my agent, and I met with the creators of the show, Justin Adler and Maggie Mull, and also in the room - or the Zoom room! - was Natalia Anderson, the executive producer and the director of the pilot. It was great to be connected with people who were interested in what I call a new way of working and this new kind of work experience that we have all gone through. So, it was really wonderful and refreshing to be with people who were interested in hearing how they wanted to kind of build a character who was grounded, yet had levity, that played the foil to Maggie's role and her journey, and were not afraid to really go there with the comedy and really play up certain aspects of who I am.
And so, in that world, it was also really tapping into that universal language of family and love and marriage, but also tapping into different aspects of what it means to be married in a cross-cultural relationship. So, I was really drawn to the show because of that. I had read the first two episodes that they had written, and really found it so refreshing the manner in which they approached how Dave was and how he kind of came to be with Amy. It was also going with this concept of the universe putting us together with just who we need to be with, and seeing that play against the idea of, in Maggie's story, she can see the future and see things kind of destined the way they are, or in my storyline, which is about accepting the presence of now and who and how and what is good about your life now and going for that without knowing anything about the future.
In joining Maggie via Zoom, how did the pandemic impact the experience of making the show?
Leonardo Nam: Definitely, we were all very grateful to be working and to be part of the show, super grateful. It was a really different experience, it almost felt a little bit like camp, in that you were very much relegated only to different zones. They had protocols where only people in 'Zone A', which was the actors, could kind of hang out together, and the same for people in 'Zone B' and 'Zone C'.
We kind of were forced to only solely hang out together, which is different, because usually on a set, you get to roam around and know everyone, and the whole crew becomes a kind of family. But because of COVID, we had to only hang out with our own designated crew, and it was a unique experience because you got to really know your other castmates in a really wonderful way. Especially shooting in L.A., people usually come in, they do their work very professionally, and you go off and you have your life, as opposed to if you're on location, you're all transplanted in the same place so you're all kind of hanging out together.
So, in L.A. when we were on this show, it felt a little bit like we were on location or at camp, and it was a wonderful experience, especially working with these creators who were very much open from the beginning with me to ad-libbing and making the show better, because as you kind of grow with the character, you're able to evolve the dialogue accordingly. So, it was a really fun and joyful experience and I really hope that the viewers will get to experience that too, that it is a funny, quirky, hopeful show. We did shoot it through COVID, so it was a very bleak time that everyone had gone through, and this is a positive thing that came out of that, so I really hope that people receive in the positive and hopeful manner that we made it.
You mentioned previously that Maggie deals with themes of destiny and things of that nature as they relate to romance. What can you share about how that relates to Dave?
Leonardo Nam: My character is definitely someone who lives in the moment, who gets moved in a direction in that moment. I play the foil to Maggie's character, who is so concerned about what the next move is that she's almost paralyzed, because she can see the future and she thinks that's the only way that it's going to unfold. And yet, I play a character who is very much about 'In this moment, the wind is blowing to the left, so I'm going to go left. I feel a journey for me to go down this hill, so I'm going to go down this hill.'
My character Dave, even having this role as an entrepreneur, happened because of something I decided and chose to do in the moment, so that's essentially what my character is like. Dave is someone who is this happy-go-lucky Aussie guy - very similar to me! - who is out for a good time, and ultimately knowing that a good time only is great if it's shared with your loved ones. And so, being open to love in whichever way it comes and believing in the destiny of now and creating that destiny now, that's kind of where my character comes from.
What were some of your favorite standout moments for Dave?
Leonardo Nam: There were a couple of moments for me, like in episode two - and spoiler warning here - there's a proposal I make, and it was a really wonderful moment to be able to share that really publicly on the show, and it was so funny the way it was written. It was very touching and very grounded and deep, and yet, it goes off into this quirky, random, esoteric moment, and he goes back to being very grounded.
I had such a great time playing with that, and I think people start to see a lot of the heart of the show from that episode onwards and the depth of it, the sweetness. Then, another stand out is when my wife Amy and I are trying to have a baby and we think we can only have a baby now, and really liked that part of the story.
What do you have coming up after Maggie?
Leonardo Nam: Well, I'm producing another movie, and I'm doing a lot of transforming in moving into producing as well. I also have another project that I cannot talk about just yet, because it's one of those under lock and key, so can't really say much, but that's a big one coming up for me.
Maggie is now streaming on Hulu.