Meghann Fahy Is OK Being Typecast in “Bodies in the Water” Shows

Jackie Strause
·3 min read
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Meghann Fahy is in her murder mystery shows era. And there’s a big link between her recent bingeworthy offerings.

Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t caught up on 2022’s White Lotus season two: In the Sicily-set season of the Mike White HBO series, Fahy’s character was the one who discovered a body washed ashore. The premiere scene kept the person’s identity hidden, kicking off the season-long whodunnit that eventually unmasked Jennifer Coolidge as the deceased.

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And now, a spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t started bingeing Netflix’s Perfect Couple: That series, which released all episodes Sept. 5, kicks off with Fahy being found dead in the water, kicking off another season-long mystery about who killed her character. (If you want to know the reveal, head here.)

“I do feel like it’s working,” Fahy said on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show (below), of leaning into the genre. “So from here on out, it’s just going to be bodies in the water for me.”

During her late-night appearance on Tuesday, she peeled back the Hollywood movie-making process of playing dead. Both her and Fallon agreed it was OK to spoil the premise of the show, since Perfect Couple has become a streaming hit in the two weeks since it released.

‘It’s called lifecasting,” she explained of the makeup and special effects process of making her dead body double. “They very, very slowly over the course of six hours, pour two different types of silicone all over you. They do it in two sections [the lower and upper half]. And then they put plaster on top of that. The worst part, though, was when they did the head.”

She and Fallon showed photos from the makeup department of Fahy’s molding process, resulting in a very lifelike double. Fahy even brought with her an on-set picture of her with the double.

“It’s kind of an indescribable experience,” she said of the double take. “It’s very strange to see your body in actual space.”

When chatting about her White Lotus scene with a dead body, Fahy revealed that she accidentally kicked her co-star Coolidge in her face while filming.

“I felt so bad,” she said. “They wanted to get a shot under water of my foot making contact with her body, but I couldn’t see where her body was, so she was just like floating, waiting for my foot to enter her general space. And I hit her in the face by accident, and she came up from the water and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry.’ And she was like [in a Coolidge impression], “Hey man, you gotta just go for it. Don’t worry about me.'”

Fahy also talked about the choreographed dance sequence that opens Perfect Couple, admitting that it was very difficult to learn the dance moves. “If you can’t beat ’em or join ’em, just do your own thing,” she said of the move she offered up during the sequence. She then taught Fallon the choreography, which the cast performs to the tune of Meghan Trainor’s “Criminals.”

Susanne Bier, who adapted Elin Hilderbrand’s murder mystery for Netflix, recently told The Hollywood Reporter that the musical opener, which was filmed in an hour and a half, was designed to convey the comic tone of the show to viewers, despite the series featuring a murder at its center.

“I felt that the title sequence needed to be something which was suggestive that the audience is allowed to have fun with this show,” she said. “There’s something joyous in a lot of people dancing together. And with all these characters, who are not necessarily sympathetic, having that moment, just seemed right to me.”

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