Teacup: Yvonne Strahovski & Scott Speedman talk the interpersonal dynamics in the series

It’s October, and that means a lot of scary shows and movies are coming out. Peacock has us hooked with Teacup, a series that is not your average horror.

Yvonne Strahovski doesn’t just star in this series, but she is also an executive producer. She plays Maggie, the matriarch of the Chenoweth family, who is also the veterinarian for the area. She will do whatever she needs to in order to protect her children, and they are all who matter to her in the world.

Scott Speedman, who Grey’s Anatomy fans currently see every now and then as Meredith’s love interest Nick, plays James Chenoweth, Maggie’s husband. He is a part-time farmer and full-time English teacher, with the dream of becoming a novelist. Things aren’t great between him and Maggie at the start of the series, and that is something to figure out as the story goes on.

Yvonne Strahovski and Scott Speedman talk about pulling audiences into the horror in Teacup

We don’t get to know what the horror is in the series until closer to the end. We learn as the characters do, which actually helps to make this horror more of a horror. We feel the anxiety that the characters face as we try to figure out what’s going on with them.

This is something I asked the two stars about. What was it like for them as they played it out in Teacup.

Strahovski was happy to hear that it’s one of those that will likely have many sticking with to the end. That is the goal, after all!

"I think that the whole show really relies and depends on the relationships and the family setup here. In order for the audience to stick with us to the end, to these incredibly unimaginable scenes that we performed."

Speedman jumped in to back his co-star up. He even teased a little about the series with the timeline.

"I think a really interesting part of this season is it takes place over 48 hours. So, the interpersonal dynamics are often running right away and the genre elements are off and running. So, there’s not a lot of time to sit back and breathe…We’re trying to figure ourselves, our relationship at the same time…It’s pretty crazy from the jump."

From the beginning, Maggie and James are living a parent’s worst nightmare. It all starts with a child going missing. Every parent knows that feeling. We’ve all been there in a grocery store or a park and taken our eyes off the children for a second. That feeling of the heart dropping is something that can’t be mimicked by anything else.

How did the two prepare? Strahovski shared that it helps that they’re both parents, and Speedman confirmed that with roles he’s played in the past.

"I’ve played many fathers before I had kids and I look back and I didn’t know what I was doing at all. That’s an actor…This is a whole different thing when you know what that feeling is…This was a whole different ball game, and that’s where it starts, and it only gets worse from there."

The fastest slow burn ever in Teacup

What’s funny about this series is that the character elements are relatively slow burn, but there’s this fast pace in the horror. I described it as a fast-pace slow-burn, which did make sense to Strahovski.

"I think the key is that we’re all trying to be really thoughtful about each scene. So when we look at each scene, we’re not trying to speed through [it]. We’re focusing on the scene itself, from what the scene is trying to say, and what we’re trying to set up with the characters."

Speedman touched on the dynamics again within the series, as well as a positive about doing eight episodes instead of a traditional movie.

"Maybe it’s the luxury of doing eight episodes and not it being a movie. Sometimes when…you set up these dynamics, the character dynamics or the relationship dynamics, when the genre elements kick off, that kind of falls away. But really, this show’s sort of mirroring each other with the genre elements and it never gave up on us trying to figure out our relationship the whole way through."

I did end by asking Strahovski about what made her come into the series as an executive producer as well as the female lead. Two jobs at once is not an easy task.

"I wouldn’t be here if it was just a straight up horror."

It all came down to the showrunner, Ian McCulloch.

"Ian [McCulloch] has such an amazing vision for the show. He’s so specific in what he was trying to get at and I think it shows. And we were on the same page with that…As we get to the end and I’m reading these scripts before we’re shooting them, I was really blown away by what was asked of us as actors. We really had to rise to the challenge."

Check out the full interview with Yvonne Strahovski and Scott Speedman below:

Teacup premieres on Thursday, Oct. 10 with two episodes on Peacock. It will then air two episodes per week until Thursday, Oct. 31.