Susanne Bier, ‘The Perfect Couple’ | The Monocle Weekly

[Music] [Music] hello and welcome to the monacle weekly for today's show I speak with Danish award-winning director Suzanne beer to discuss her latest series the perfect couple on Netflix and you must watch murder mystery with an incredible cast that includes Nicole Kidman Li shraer and Isabelle a Jenny Suzanne tells me all about [Music] it hello am I under arrest or can I go get something to eat they're rich kill someone and get away with it rich we are the perfect [Music] family suzan beer what a pleasure like on love the perfect couple and can I tell you something my first impression is I was expecting because I haven't read the book something a little bit serious and kind of dark it's fun it's light I mean tell me a bit more were you also surprised because there is murder but there is this aspect of the lightness the comedy it's really prevalent in the series you know that's what I wanted to do I think what what drew me to it was in a way from me as a as a director it was the potential of of doing something fun and light in English because most of the English language stuff I've done has been a little bit I mean it's been very Thriller driven but it's been a little bit more serious I'm my sort of biggest home run is is a comedy is a Danish comedy and so I was like okay I want to do that in English and um I thought the combination of who did it and something fun and light was just um irresistible how much did you knew about that world in net which I I I felt like I was transported to that place I kind of want to go you know in a way but uh how much did you knew about that kind I did not know a lot about it and at first I was also slightly hesitant I actually said no first time rout because I didn't know a lot about it but then I got very kind of then I spoke with people who really knows the world very well and I kind of felt okay I understand this I understand what kind of wealth that is and how does that work and what kind of of privilege that comes with that weth because it's there not all the same and one of the things I I dislike when portraying wealthy people is when it becomes generic it always needs to be very specific and I think we did that and even let's talk about Nico Kidman's character again another one of my surprises I thought she would be she was going to be very ice see very but no she's very connected to her sons do you know what I mean she's she's quite an interesting character well her iciness in this part is an acquired iciness which he carries on the surface it's an iciness which is there because first of all maybe it's been necessary but also it's a kind of convenient Shield but underneath her iciness she's everything but icy yes I mean she looks the part I mean she looks like this magnificent creature of of Elegance and restraint but we quite quickly get to understand that that is actually not who she really is and then we spent a long time not knowing who she is absolutely how was it to work with Nicole again after the amazing success of the undoing which was another incredible series as I said in in the beginning very different tone uh to that one it was really fun and we were both very excited about doing something together with a different tone she was really enjoying the comedic aspects of her part because you know I think in a way all everything emotional everything kind of forceful comes to her it's like it just comes to her like that you know comedy is is a different it's it's like a different science in a way and it takes that sort of precision and that sort of thing but we really had fun with it even best of liers get very tired or gets too overwhelming and they snap and it's not just Nicole I mean The Supporting Cast is incredible and and I have to say I love that Isabelle Jan in there I didn't know and I was like oh wow she's one of my kind of acting Heroes how is it to cast her and and and and I mean that was like a real honor that was like a real honor and and I think all it was really because she when she came to said all the actors were like whoa and all the all the guys were like you know I had a poster of her for 15 years in my living room or in my in my bedroom and so it's this this sort of icon that comes and and she uses that element very much in her part but I I want to say I won't even call the cast a Supporting Cast because I actually think it kind of is almost like more of an ensemble piece where every all characters has real important moments and and Eva husen is I mean between her and Nicole you know it's quite hard to tell who's the main character and they're very different and equally enticing you're very right I mean it does look more of an emble and I was going to ask how much do you bring from your Danish Heritage to some of your work outside Denmark uh you you we mention about comedy do you bring some elements of of of the sense of humor from Denmark to Hollywood I I would I I certainly hope I bring some Danish sensibilities somewhere but um I think in a way the fact that Denmark is a very equalitarian Society particularly compared to America gives me a kind of a sense of naturally belonging that I might not have had otherwise um you know being a female director coming from a from a country that has like a child care and a whole lot of other things has also enabled me to to work in a way I think I I do think I bring some things but essentially as a director it's a number of things it's also you know how you were brought up in your family and how that brings you to where you are so I think it's a bit of all of it do do you enjoy doing uh TV by the way I know recently you know of course have the undoing of the perfect couple and and many others or how would you differentiate um when you do a feature film and a series like this because this could also be a film but I'm actually very happy that is a TV series because there's more to enjoy of it as well so am I I'm also very happy look it's very exciting for me to do six parts it's very exciting for me to do six hours it's very exciting because it gives space like we spoke about earlier it gives space for other character to actually really breathe and be very meaningful do I want to make a movie again I do but I'm much more concerned about the right Story the right character the right setting than I am concerned about whether it's 2 hours or 6 hours I treat a TV series the same way I treat a feature film and it's also shut the same way it's not like we shoot episode one and then two it you know on one morning you shoot a scene from episode 5 in the morning and it seen from episode 2 in afternoon and and so it's crossboard the same way you would with a feature film because there is something about the perfect couple that it is it is a delight to see it I mean it is Cinematic it it does look wonderful and you're mentioning about the ultra wealth I mean it's hard these days you have to really know who are you dealing with but from the clothes to the to the house you know to the objects in the house I mean how much did you do research to make sure that everything was kind of as realistic as it can be a lot a lot of research but we also had a couple of very very good Consultants we had a a lady who was helping us a lot who is very intimately connected to to the sort of net society and and we could go back to her and ask about things but it you know it's interesting because you kind of go okay a lot of men has pink trousers that is not a look I necessarily enjoy at all times so let's do a specific you know my point being is that it needed to go beyond the generic the wealth needed to go beyond the generic so it was specific to the place and specific to the sense of net but also very specific to these characters so Lea shrier does not look necessarily the way a lot of wealthy people in N does but he's still very believable so like whatever he's wearing of linen is all very expensive linen but he he just looks great and likewise for example the bedroom gria and tax bedroom had we had to redress it a few times because I came and I looked at it and I felt okay this is generic I don't like that you know it needs to be they need to have real taste they need to actually maybe know what kind of paintings are good or bad paintings and let's get some of those in here so that you have all the the sort of texture the correct texture but still it needs to be personally specific and you know finally just going back to the topic of comedy and and lightness but also we all like a murder mystery I mean what what's the appeal I mean it is something first of all you can do a murder mystery in so many ways right and I think the Perfecto did it in an excellent way very much known cliche I would say but what what's the pill we all love it I love it too yeah I love it I think I I think if I look back at at my work in general there's always been one of the things that I've I've been obsessing about is the tension I think all my work whatever it been there's always a lot of tension there and that works very well for murder Mistry because you want to keep the tension and you want to keep the you want to kind of tell audience just so much that maybe they think they know but also not more than they anticipate that they don't know and it's that fine dance which is so exhilarating for director you know because you you kind of go into editing like you edit after you've shot it and you go into editing and you realize that look on that one character in episode three tell us way too much in episode 5 so we have to go back and re-edit episode three and that sort of every single microscopic detail matters and it's a lot of work but it's also ultimately incredibly exciting and and interesting somebody died and somebody's [Music] guilty thank you very much suzan B Here There and the perfect coupo is out now on Netflix the show was edited by liily Austin and I am fust [Music]