Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 24.5: 'The Housemaid,' Sydney Sweeney & Looking Ahead to the Freida McFadden Adaptation
11 Plays3 months ago
In this special episode of Lighting Round: An Adaptation Podcast, Nate is joined by his sister, Katie, to discuss a book she loves ahead of its film adaptation: 'The Housemaid' by Freida McFadden.
They discuss the casting of Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, director Paul Feig's filmography, and why it's so difficult to talk about this story without revealing any of its plot.
UP NEXT: 'The Housemaid' by Freida McFadden and its film adaptation directed by Paul Feig.
Follow us on social media:
Nate's Letterboxd (@professor_n8)
Chris's Letterboxd (@cjanderson878)
Hosts: Nate Day
Producer: Nate Day
"Adaptation Theme"
- Written by: Chris Anderson, Jem Zornow
- Performed by: Chris Anderson, Jem Zornow, Nate Day
Recommended
Transcript
Wayfair Store Tax Refund Sale
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey, Chicagoland.
00:00:02
Speaker
Wayfair's tax refund sale is on now at the Wayfair store in Wilmette.
00:00:06
Speaker
Stop by the store from February 24th through March 2nd to score up to 70% off everything home in store, like up to 40% off of appliances and up to 50% off mattresses.
00:00:16
Speaker
Come test top brands in store and make the most of your refund with huge savings.
00:00:21
Speaker
Shop Wayfair's tax refund sale February 24th through March 2nd at the Wayfair store at Edens Plaza in Wilmette.
00:00:30
Speaker
Thanks.
Introduction to the Lightning Round Podcast
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to Lightning Round, an adaptation podcast.
00:00:46
Speaker
I'm Nate and I'm without my co-host today because I'm traveling to visit my sister and I'm here with Katie.
00:00:53
Speaker
Hi Katie.
00:00:54
Speaker
Hi, how's it going?
00:00:55
Speaker
I'm great.
00:00:56
Speaker
How are you?
00:00:56
Speaker
Good.
00:00:57
Speaker
Good.
00:00:58
Speaker
I'm in Omaha for the Thanksgiving holiday and I wanted to get Katie on the mic because later this year Chris and I will be covering
00:01:06
Speaker
The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden and its film adaptation directed by Paul Feig.
Discussion on 'The Housemaid' by Frieda McFadden
00:01:11
Speaker
And my sister Katie is a huge fan of the book and not just that book but she's a pretty voracious reader, a very big bibliophile in her own right.
00:01:20
Speaker
And I wanted to talk to you a little bit about The Housemaid.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yes, I love this book.
00:01:24
Speaker
The whole series actually, all three of them are fantastic.
00:01:27
Speaker
There's three?
00:01:28
Speaker
There is three.
00:01:29
Speaker
This is the first one.
00:01:30
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:31
Speaker
And it's like the series is done or is there more coming?
00:01:34
Speaker
It's done as far as I know and the story just continues through all three books.
00:01:39
Speaker
She's written the same like two characters.
00:01:42
Speaker
It's Millie the maid and Nina the lady.
00:01:46
Speaker
Um, no.
00:01:47
Speaker
Millie the maid works for other people in the second and third books, but it continues to follow her.
00:01:53
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:54
Speaker
But this was the first one, and this was the first Frida McFadden book that I read as well.
00:02:00
Speaker
Oh, really?
00:02:01
Speaker
Okay, so you're a big... Yeah, you're a huge Frida McFadden fan.
00:02:04
Speaker
How did you first find this book if it was the first Frida one?
00:02:08
Speaker
Um, I think just by popularity, mostly, um, seeing it on Goodreads and things.
00:02:14
Speaker
Um, she, this one, she published in 2022 and I read it the summer of 24.
00:02:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:22
Speaker
Um, so I think it was just starting to get popular and then it really, really boomed after that.
00:02:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:29
Speaker
Um,
00:02:30
Speaker
But, Frieda McFadden is actually a neurologist too.
00:02:35
Speaker
She is?
00:02:36
Speaker
Oh wow.
00:02:36
Speaker
She's a doctor.
00:02:37
Speaker
Frieda McFadden is her pen name.
00:02:39
Speaker
Her real name is not known to the public.
00:02:42
Speaker
Really?
00:02:42
Speaker
At all?
00:02:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:43
Speaker
Wow, that's legit.
00:02:45
Speaker
Yeah, she's a doctor, specializes in brain injuries, so any of her, like, psychological thrillers, and she has, like, like, all of that is very accurate.
00:02:54
Speaker
Wow, that's cool.
00:02:55
Speaker
She knows what she's talking about, yeah.
00:02:56
Speaker
Okay, that's right up your alley, too, because you're a nurse.
00:02:59
Speaker
Yes, I do enjoy that stuff, and it drives me crazy when it's not accurate, so it's kind of nice.
00:03:04
Speaker
I scrolled through your Goodreads the other day, and
00:03:06
Speaker
I can't remember what book it was, but you were like some of the stuff could have been more better researched.
00:03:10
Speaker
And I was like, I bet you almost anything that was medical.
00:03:15
Speaker
Yes, probably.
00:03:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:17
Speaker
Okay, cool.
00:03:17
Speaker
Well, I'm so excited to see the movie later this year.
00:03:20
Speaker
As you know, I don't read all that much, but you got both mom and dad to read this book.
Movie Adaptation and Casting Choices
00:03:25
Speaker
All three of you have rated it five stars on Goodreads.
00:03:28
Speaker
I want to get a read.
00:03:31
Speaker
on what you think of the movie so far obviously we're recording this like I said I'm I'm in town for Thanksgiving so the movie hasn't come out yet we've gotten a couple trailers so I want to ask you about sort of the vibe the casting so tell me what do you think of the casting first of all particularly Amanda Seyfried as Nina and Sidney Sweeney as Millie
00:03:54
Speaker
The casting for Nina I think is great.
00:03:56
Speaker
I think that'll be good.
00:03:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:57
Speaker
She's one of the better actresses working today too, I think.
00:04:00
Speaker
And that is very much a character who they want you to think one thing about her and... Oh, and it's something else.
00:04:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:09
Speaker
So I think that that one's going to be really good.
00:04:12
Speaker
She's good at that nuance, yeah.
00:04:14
Speaker
The Sydney Sweeney for Millie, when I first heard that I was kind of pissed, honestly.
00:04:22
Speaker
Just because she's so stereotypically in that like,
00:04:26
Speaker
I mean, she's known for her boobs.
00:04:28
Speaker
Right, right.
00:04:29
Speaker
She is just like the hot blonde.
00:04:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:32
Speaker
And Millie's a richer character than that is what you're kind of getting at?
00:04:35
Speaker
I mean, she makes this a psychological thriller.
00:04:37
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:38
Speaker
She's like a genius?
00:04:40
Speaker
She's a genius.
00:04:41
Speaker
She is scary.
00:04:43
Speaker
She is... Oh, yeah.
00:04:45
Speaker
And so I just had a hard time seeing Sidney Sweeney in that role.
00:04:49
Speaker
Sure.
00:04:50
Speaker
And even after the first trailer, I was kind of still thinking that.
00:04:53
Speaker
But since I saw the second trailer, I've gotten a lot more excited for the movie.
00:04:58
Speaker
Really?
00:04:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:59
Speaker
Maybe because that trailer showed a few details that I wasn't sure if they were going to have those in the movies.
00:05:06
Speaker
Oh.
00:05:07
Speaker
So I feel like sometimes...
00:05:09
Speaker
I mean, I almost always like the book better than a movie.
00:05:12
Speaker
Sure.
00:05:12
Speaker
Because it has so many more details and little things.
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:16
Speaker
But it did show a couple things like that in the second trailer.
00:05:20
Speaker
Oh, got you buzzing a little bit.
00:05:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:05:22
Speaker
And I have heard that Frieda McFadden is pretty excited about the movie.
00:05:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:26
Speaker
Like said that it's pretty good.
00:05:28
Speaker
Really?
00:05:28
Speaker
Good.
00:05:29
Speaker
Great.
00:05:30
Speaker
So I'm excited.
00:05:31
Speaker
I think it'll be good.
00:05:33
Speaker
I was definitely nervous at first, but the second trailer has gotten me excited.
00:05:37
Speaker
Really?
00:05:38
Speaker
Good.
00:05:38
Speaker
That makes me excited.
00:05:39
Speaker
I think it looks really good.
00:05:40
Speaker
I mentioned to you offhand the other day that they're sort of funny trailers because I still don't really know what the movie is about.
00:05:47
Speaker
But I assume, my understanding is that there's lots of twists and turns and it would probably be really hard to market this story.
00:05:54
Speaker
without revealing.
00:05:55
Speaker
I mean, you haven't told me anything about the plot.
00:05:57
Speaker
Anything.
00:05:58
Speaker
That's because I would give something away.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker
100%.
00:06:00
Speaker
There is twists and turns.
00:06:03
Speaker
And you even, you learn a lot throughout the story too.
00:06:06
Speaker
Like from the very beginning, you know that both Millie and Nina have some sort of history.
Character Complexity and Plot Twists
00:06:12
Speaker
Together?
00:06:13
Speaker
No.
00:06:14
Speaker
Oh, like there's more to their characters than meets the eye.
00:06:16
Speaker
Yes.
00:06:17
Speaker
Like Millie gets this job as a housemaid right at the beginning and you know that there's something that she's covering from her past, but you don't know what that is until much later.
00:06:26
Speaker
And then same with Nina.
00:06:27
Speaker
When you first meet her, you know and you hear rumblings through their very posh neighborhood that Nina has some sort of a past, but it's kind of been swept under the rug and that doesn't kind of come out until later too.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:42
Speaker
it's, yeah, it's really hard to not give anything away.
00:06:45
Speaker
Okay, well, I'm still excited that the trailer did that thing.
00:06:49
Speaker
I'm sort of a sucker for it, even though it's like a total cliche at this point where they put in a really popular pop song, you know, it had Please, Please, Please by Sabrina Carpenter, but it has this like,
00:07:00
Speaker
creepy mix.
00:07:01
Speaker
You know, I'm such a sucker for that when they do that.
00:07:04
Speaker
So I was just like, I'm ready to party.
Director Paul Feig's Unique Approach
00:07:06
Speaker
And it does look kind of like a party.
00:07:07
Speaker
Like there's screaming and there's blood and there's like, not in like a horror way, I just made it sound like a horror story.
00:07:14
Speaker
But I also saw it's tracking for a $30 million opening, which is really big for the week before Christmas.
00:07:20
Speaker
And I've heard that Lionsgate, the studio behind it, is also very confident in the movie as well.
00:07:25
Speaker
So
00:07:26
Speaker
I'm excited for it.
00:07:27
Speaker
I want to run you through a list of Paul Feig's movies, the director, and just hear if you've seen them and if you like it.
00:07:35
Speaker
Ghostbusters with Melissa McCarthy.
00:07:38
Speaker
Yeah, I saw it.
00:07:38
Speaker
What'd you think?
00:07:39
Speaker
I love that movie.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, I like it too.
00:07:41
Speaker
I think it's really funny.
00:07:43
Speaker
He's mostly known as a comedy guy every once in a while.
00:07:45
Speaker
He sort of zags into this like...
00:07:49
Speaker
almost catfight-y drama that's kind of a reductive and misogynistic way to describe these stories.
00:07:56
Speaker
The look I got from Katie was not very pleased.
00:07:59
Speaker
Spy by Melissa, or with Melissa McCarthy.
00:08:01
Speaker
Yep, another funny one.
00:08:02
Speaker
The Heat with Melissa McCarthy.
00:08:04
Speaker
Okay, he directed Bridesmaids.
00:08:06
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:06
Speaker
One of the greatest comedies of all time.
00:08:09
Speaker
So it's interesting because those movies are very far from Housemate.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:14
Speaker
He did do the movie A Simple Favor and its sequel, which sort of goes into that thriller.
00:08:19
Speaker
Yeah, psych thriller, mystery, crime, dark comedy.
00:08:23
Speaker
Is there any dark comedy in this?
00:08:24
Speaker
Like, is it supposed to be ironic or anything like that?
00:08:27
Speaker
I wouldn't say necessarily in this one, I don't think.
00:08:30
Speaker
But Frida does some, like, dark medical humor kind of stuff.
00:08:35
Speaker
In her other stuff.
00:08:36
Speaker
In her other books.
00:08:37
Speaker
Oh, interesting.
00:08:38
Speaker
But I'm...
00:08:39
Speaker
Not really remembering any comedy in this one.
00:08:42
Speaker
Okay.
00:08:42
Speaker
It'll be interesting to see.
00:08:44
Speaker
I'm super excited, mostly just because the three of you are so excited.
00:08:48
Speaker
And I can't wait to see it.
00:08:49
Speaker
And are you going to run and see it in theaters as soon as you can probably?
00:08:52
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:08:53
Speaker
Good.
00:08:53
Speaker
That's what I like to hear.
00:08:54
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited.
00:08:55
Speaker
And then maybe we'll get the second one too.
00:08:57
Speaker
That'd be awesome.
00:08:58
Speaker
Yeah, I hope so.
Future Podcast Plans
00:08:59
Speaker
I mean, if it opens with 30 million, that's a pretty good sign.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:01
Speaker
As long as it can hold out against some of its Christmas competition.
00:09:06
Speaker
But I wanted to have you on to discuss this beforehand, and I'd love to have you on afterwards after you've seen it and I've seen it so we can talk about, you know, some of the details.
00:09:14
Speaker
You can talk a little more spoiler, and I'll actually know what