LOS ANGELES: After last starring on television in the short-lived series “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”, Amanda Peet returns to television once again in the new comedy “Bent”.
The 40-year-old actor plays a newly divorced, high-strung lawyer and single mom looking for a fresh start by renovating a new home. She hires a reckless, recovering addicted gambler as her contractor, and finds herself attracted to his charming ways even though he is everything she
cannot stand.
Peet, who is married to Hollywood screenwriter David Benioff, talks about her new show, being a mother and how married life has changed her.
What made you return to television?
I like the idea that she’s a single mom trying to keep it all together. I think most working moms have this sinking feeling that they’re failing, so I related to that.
Is the show meant to be realistic or a fantasy?
I’m not sure yet, actually. We definitely want to make people laugh. We have JB Smoove and Jeffrey Tambor so we want everyone to escape and laugh. But hopefully it’s more on the realistic side.
Your husband is the executive producer of the HBO hit series ‘Game of Thrones’ which shoots in Europe. How do you guys make it work?
Everyone packs up and goes. For the last three summers we lived over there. In season one, I came back with the girls and did a play in New York. This past year I shot “Bent”, so David commuted from Belfast to LA. He’d make little videos for (daughter Frances) so at breakfast she’d see David on a glacier in Iceland and all the actors were in costume saying ‘Good morning Frankie!’
Do you have rules about working or not working together?
We don’t have rules about anything. We don’t have rules about how long we’re going to be apart or about working together. We tried to have a rule about getting off the computer at a certain time each night. It didn’t work.
How has motherhood changed you?
I’m fatter, I’m saggier. And I’m still a jealous, ambitious person. I think my perspective on things has changed more by being with David than having children, especially in terms of work. I used to do projects thinking it would be a launching pad to something, but when I met David, he was like, ‘Stop doing that, do it only if you want to do it’.
What do you consider your big break?
The Whole Nine Yards, hands down. It was a great role — a contract killer who was obsessed with being an expert contract killer. The movie did really well and at the time, I didn’t realise how special and rare it was.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2012.
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