Proud fathers! Fatal Attraction is a pretty dark show, but its stars — including Joshua Jackson and Reno Wilson — still found time to bond over how much they love their kids.
“Josh is the only dude that I’ve met who talks as much about his wife as I do,” Wilson, 54, exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the Paramount+ series’ Sunday, April 30, premiere. “All we did was talk about our lovely wives, and he has a new baby. And my babies are big. But yeah, we had a lot of fun doing that.”
The Good Girls alum — who plays Detective Earl Booker — shares daughter Deni and son Renzo with wife Coco Fausone. The 44-year-old Dawson’s Creek veteran, meanwhile, became a dad in April 2020 when he and wife Jodie Turner-Smith welcomed a daughter.
Earlier this month, Jackson said that fatherhood has been a “pretty spectacular” experience. “Mama does love a dress-up and I don’t mind getting dressed up and standing next to her,” the Fringe alum told E! News last month, referring to his red carpet appearances with Turner-Smith, 36. “But this having a kid thing together is pretty magical.”
While the real Jackson is a loving husband and father, his character in Fatal Attraction isn’t so praiseworthy. As in the 1987 movie the show is based on, Dan Gallagher cheats on his wife, Beth (Amanda Peet), with a woman named Alex Forrest (Lizzy Caplan). The affair wreaks havoc on his home life with Beth and their daughter, Ellen (Alyssa Jirrels), after Alex refuses to accept that it’s over.
In the original film, Dan and Alex were played by Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, respectively, and the cast told Us they loved the Oscar-nominated thriller.
“I haven’t watched in a while, but I am a big fan,” Brian Goodman, who plays Beth’s friend Arthur, said. “It was a great movie and it shook up the world a little bit at the time. The title alone!”
Wilson, for his part, said that he watched the movie with his wife recently and couldn’t help but wonder why Dan was making such bad choices. “It still holds up,” the Mike & Molly alum told Us. “Now, as a married man, you’re just like, ‘What the hell are you doing, Michael Douglas? What are you thinking?’ … Just blatant.”
Toby Huss, who plays an investigator for the district attorney’s office, pointed out that men are known for making mistakes. “Guys mess up,” the Dickinson alum, 56, joked to Us. “They’re fools.” Wilson chimed in to agree, adding, “This is true.”
Both men were excited to sign on for Fatal Attraction, which expands the scope of the original film by showing its characters in various timelines well after the affair.
“It was done in such a smart way, and there’s such a deep dive into the psychopathology of what happened,” Huss told Us. “It’s like a little nuclear bomb went off with Dan’s actions, and you see how everybody is sort of mutated by that. And you get to watch that over a few hours. It’s kind of brilliant.”
Wilson, for his part, was initially excited to work with showrunners Alexandra Cunningham and Kevin J. Hynes. “Then you read the script and you’re like, ‘The play is the thing,’” the New York native explained. “The script was amazing. And then you meet Alex and Kevin and you’re like, ‘Oh, OK, let’s ride.’”
Fatal Attraction premieres on Paramount+ Sunday, April 30.
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With reporting by Stephanie Webber
