Rivals returns to Disney Plus this month with darker episodes following the death of Lady Monica Baddingham, but the cast say there is still plenty of horseplay, much of it involving Lizzie, Freddie and his wife Valerie. Freddie (Danny Dyer) is still sleeping with his wife Valerie (Lisa McGrillis) while having an affair with Lizzie (Katherine Parkinson), and he reuses the same bedroom move on both women.
Dyer: the move shows 'a bit of the flaw in his character'
Dyer said the scenes show "a bit of the flaw in his character", while Parkinson described the situation as "incredibly truthful". The move was rather vague in the script, so the actors crafted it between them.
"Lizzie shows Freddie a little move, and then Freddie passes it on to Val and it sends Val insane," Dyer said. McGrillis had a different reaction when she watched it back.
"I was like, 'Oh my God, is that my actual orgasm face?' I look like a worm. Or a thumb. I'm sort of orgasming with my chin," she said, acting out the melding of her neck into her face. "I did a full backbend. I don't know what I was doing," she added.
The 44-year-old explained that the team wanted the orgasm to go on longer and sort of float out the window, so she had to re-record the audio for it.
Dyer's naked bath exit and a spray tan mishap
Dyer's Freddie at one point has to flee a house stark naked after canoodling with Lizzie in a bath. He was not allowed a body double. "You've got to get on with these things," Dyer said, adding that he tried to exit the bath "gracefully".
"I'm glad they didn't show that shot of me climbing out the window with my arse up in the air because it was awful," he said. "I made a mistake by having a spray tan, and then realised I had to sit in a bath for three hours. So when I jumped out of the bath, obviously I was sort of brown from my chest up and white as a sheet for the rest of me."
Parkinson was left sitting in the watery remnants of the fake tan. "I didn't know, so I couldn't understand why the water was brown," she said.
Valerie softens, but Lizzie's husband stays selfish
McGrillis said the episodes show why Valerie, previously an awful, on-the-make character with a penchant for body-shaming her family, behaves as she does. "There always has to be some sort of insecurity or vulnerability within them," she said. "It's nice to hate a character, but it's also nice if you can feel sorry for them and understand why they are the way they are."
Parkinson said Lizzie's husband James (Oliver Chris) is not so redeemable, describing him as "quite a selfish husband" and saying viewers will want her to leave.
Rivals returns to Disney Plus with three episodes on November 11, then weekly until December 2.
