British comedian Jack Whitehall goes for a darker role as he leads the new Prime Video series Malice which also stars David Duchovny and Carice van Houten.
Whitehall stars as Adam Healey, a mysterious nanny and tutor who enters the wealthy Tanner family with a hidden vengeance. As he unleashes his revenge plan, the family breaks down and old secrets come out.
For Whitehall, the role helped him “break out of the comedy genre and find a challenge as an actor.”
Describing her experience with Whitehall, van Houten told Reuters: “It’s funny that you would imagine from a comedian always that there are like goofballs on sets, but my experience with comedians is the opposite.”
Duchovny was quick to add that he and van Houten came off more as “goofballs” than the show’s leading man.
As Whitehall had just become a father during filming, he himself was in the process of interviewing nannies.
The actor describes the process to Reuters: “The poor nannies that came to talk to us were put through the most rigorous vetting process. It was like they were trying to join the CIA.”
The series is created by James Wood who previously collaborated with Whitehall on the 2017 period drama Decline and Fall.
For the screenwriter and showrunner, Malice doesn’t just serve as an anti-rich satire but also a commentary on digital privacy.
For Wood, “Adam needs to learn their (Tanner family) secrets and, you know, their digital lives is a big part of learning about who they are and what they’re up to, as well as on the more social side.”
Actor Raza Jaffrey who plays one of the Tanner’s wealthy friends echoed similar sentiments when he told Reuters: “I think what makes ‘Malice’ timely at the moment is really about who you invite into your lives more than anything else. We’re far more open to letting people into our lives and we think we know everything about everyone. But, but maybe we don’t and we shouldn’t.”
Malice releases on Prime Video on Friday (November 14).
