Malin Akerman Defends 'The Hunting Wives' Aging Up Her Love Interest to 18

While Netflix’s The Hunting Wives is all about pushing boundaries, the show intentionally aged up Malin Åkerman‘s onscreen love interest so he was of age — barely.

Åkerman, 47, exclusively told Us Weekly before the show premiered on Monday, July 21, saying, “The controversy is what appealed to me. [But] the boy that [my character] has moments with is 18. He’s supposed to be of age so that we don’t cross into that border.”

The actress acknowledged that the show was cutting it “real close.”

“That [underage] element wasn’t thrown in there. That can be a really different conversation. So he is of age — technically — but he is very young,” Åkerman noted. “He’s just of age. He also happens to be her best friend’s son.”

The Hunting Wives followed Sophie (Brittany Snow), who moved from Boston to an East Texas town where she found herself drawn to prominent socialite Margo (Åkerman). While Sophie is caught up in the sexual chemistry with her new friend, Margo is having a secret affair with friend Jill’s (Katie Lowes) 18-year-old son, Brad (George Ferrier), who was in high school in the book of the same name.

“That — for me — is more of the controversy. But I’m not trying to tell a story through Margo where I hope people aspire to become her at all. As we continue to watch, you might change your mind on how you feel about her,” Åkerman teased. “But I love all of this stuff and anything that’s plot driven and that moves the plot forward, I’m happy to explore even it’s gratuitous.”

The eight-part series, which is based on the novel by May Cobb, was originally filmed for Starz before Lionsgate Television acquired rights to The Hunting Wives and Netflix licensed U.S. rights to the series for a year. As a result, viewers should expect some NSFW sex scenes.

“[My character] gains power through many different ways. Part of her manipulation is sex, it is sexual and it’s how a lot of people operate in this world and in order to gain control. So when you have that power — and she’s very aware of it — she knows how to use it and she does,” Åkerman explained. “So I like that about her. That’s what becomes controversial and fun and salacious and saucy, and that’s why we want to watch her.”

While reflecting on adapting The Hunting Wives from page to screen, Åkerman teased the other changes the show made, adding, “[Creator] Rebecca [Cutter] and May Cobb have a really great relationship. They’ve been talking a lot and May was kind of like, ‘Go for it.’ She was on set and was really elated to see her characters come to life and really loved the direction that Rebecca went in with the characters and the changes.”

The cast was thrilled to get Cobb’s “stamp of approval” on the show.

“It’s fun to have some of the changes from the book so that people who are fans of the story can go along and be surprised as well. Hopefully it’s not too far gone where it doesn’t veer too far off the book so that they know the characters,” Åkerman told Us. “I read the scripts before I read the book, so my bias might be the other way around. But again, I just feel like we get the essence of the characters. We get the world and I hope that fans will like it who’ve read the book.”

The Hunting Wives is currently streaming on Netflix.