Teacup season 1 episode 7: Scott Speedman on James’ challenge
As we prepare to see the final two episodes of Teacup season 1 on Peacock, of course survival is a top story. How can it not be?
Yet, simultaneously we tend to think there is a lot of other stuff to be said when it comes to the characters themselves. Scott Speedman’s character of James was not exactly set up to be well-liked at the start of the series. After all, a huge chunk of it was based around his affair! Maggie (Yvonne Strahovski) is trying to deal with the fallout of that, while also of course dealing with these aliens transporting through different bodies and the danger it presents. It’s a lot.
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How does Speedman approach this? Playing a character who is so unlikable off the top can be tough, but he explains to Salon that he found it to be a writing challenge:
That was interesting to me. Earlier in my career, I probably would’ve been a little scared off by that, of starting the character where we do, where he stepped out from his family. He’s cheating on his wife. He’s revealed it off-camera before we meet the family. He’s talking about leaving the family for another woman to be with her. You don’t see any of that. You don’t know the whos and the whats and the whys of how we came to be and how our relationship fell apart to get us to that point. You’re just jumping in with these characters, what [series creator and writer] Ian [McCulloch] did there as a writer was challenging. I thought, “Wow, this could be challenging for me as an actor to start there, knowing that they’re going to hate me or not be with me, and then spending the next six, seven, eight episodes trying to win my wife back and win the audience back.”
Will he win the audience back? There is not a lot of time left and while he could have some heroic moments, we still tend to think that betrayal could still linger. Of course, there is a chance for a season 2, but we’ll have to see if James and Maggie make it out of this first.
Related – Learn more about the chances of a Teacup season 2
What do you think we are going to see in the Teacup season 1 finale?
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This article was written by Jessica BunBun.