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Lizzy Caplan is now taking on the notorious ‘bunny boiler’ role of Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction (Picture: AP)

Lizzy Caplan is worlds away from her Mean Girls icon Janis Iain as she turns into ‘bunny boiler’ Alex Forrest for Paramount Plus’ TV series reboot of Fatal Attraction.

We caught up with Lizzy, 40, to hear about working with an intimacy coordinator for the steamy series, what she took home with her from the Mean Girls set and bizarre fan encounters with middle-aged woman about their sex lives.

What did you think when you first read the script for Fatal Attraction? 

I thought it was very compelling, I wasn’t sure what to expect, I thought it could go in any number of directions and I was pleased to see how carefully calibrated it was and considered especially some of the legal stuff which can drag a bit in some shows. I found it very compelling. 

Was there anything you were nervous about, or had any reservations filming, like the intimate scenes? 

I think at this point, it’s so part of the job. It’s a little daunting to take on something that’s so iconic but beyond that it’s just another day at the office. 

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What was working with an intimacy coordinator like? 

That is a new non-negotiable thing. I think that for actors like Josh [Jackson] and myself who have been doing scenes like that since well before intimacy coordinators, at first it’s like adding a new step to a process that you can feel like you have actually down pretty well. So it’s a period of adjustment.

Our intimacy coordinator on this was amazing and it just requires a lot more conversation around things. But I know a lot of actors that find it frustrating and find the transition into this new way of doing things frustrating, but it’s important to remember that it’s not for the people on the poster of the movie, it’s for the people who don’t feel like they can stand up for themselves or slow things down even or they just want to be a team player.

You know, it takes a while for anybody to find their voice on set and if one of the first things you’re doing is coming in and doing an intimate scene, the idea of having an advocate in your corner who can stop anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, it’s almost crazy to think that we did it without that person for so long. 

Were there any other ways you and Joshua made each other feel comfortable on set? 

I mean, we’re pros at this, we know the right level of joking around required to make a super weird situation slightly less weird.  

Do you have any pre-shoot rituals before filming? 

I don’t have any rituals. I find that, like any universal rituals that apply to every show, I think it all comes from me, it all comes down to who I’m working with, how comfortable I feel with them, how comfortable I feel trying things. And then there’s just a few quiet moments in your trailer before you go out there to centre yourself. That’s sort of all it requires at this point. 

Tell me about the bunny boiler scene, were you nervous to film it? 

I think there’s a certain expectation for things to happen to a bunny and Fatal Attraction. And you’ll have to just wait and see if those things occur. 

Did you feel any pressure stepping into the role because the 1987 film was so iconic? 

Lizzy takes over from Glenn Close, starring alongside Joshua Jackson (Picture: Paramount Plus)

Obviously, when people have strong feelings about a film, often times I’m a member of the audience who would be adding to the chorus of like, why go back to something that was so great and worked so well the first time around. So I completely understand that that’s a lot of people’s knee jerk reactions to hearing that something is being rebooted or revisited in any way.

I actually think with Fatal Attraction, specifically, there’s more to explore in this story that they didn’t have time to explore in the film and the culture wasn’t particularly interested in exploring at the time.

I know that Glenn Close paid a lot of very careful attention to Alex’s mental illnesses and what she was going through and there wasn’t a lot of room for that, you can completely miss that when you watch the film. We take the time to really get into all of that and so of all the things to go back to, there’s something that made sense about this one. 

What do you think of a Mean Girls’ revival? 

I think it’s great. I saw the play, the musical on Broadway, and there’s a movie of that. I mean, I love a movie musical so I’m thrilled. 

The Janis Ian actress spoke about reprising her role (Picture: CBS via Getty Images)

Would you want to see it as a TV adaptation? 

It seems like the next logical step in the progression. I don’t know what else. So it’s been a movie, a play, now another movie. Maybe it’ll be like an ice skating show. What else could they do? 

Can you ice skate? 

I could learn, I could get there! 

Would you be keen to reprise your role if you could? 

I mean, I don’t know what that really looks like. It’s such a teen movie, it’s such a high school movie. I don’t know what the middle-aged version of those characters, that would ultimately be satisfying for people. Which is not to say like, I think maybe people are doing cameos in the movies and that’ll be like… But I don’t know… I sit here like talking about a reboot of Fatal Attraction.

But when something is so loved, we sometimes want to go back to it over and over again. And I don’t know. I don’t know if everybody’s like… I like what they’re doing with the musical, it was great.

I like they’re doing a film of the musical that feels like its own totally different animal. But I don’t know if anybody needs to see Janice Ian at age 40. Like, what does that look like? 

Did you ever steal anything from the Mean Girls set? 

Lizzy took home the iconic shirt (Picture: Michael Gibson/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock)

I have one of her pairs of pants [trousers]. And like that “Rubbish” shirt. I have no idea where it is. It’s got to be somewhere. But yeah, just some clothes. 

What do you think is the biggest misconception about you? 

I don’t really know. I don’t know what people’s conceptions are of me, quite honestly, I don’t really pay much attention to it. I have to assume there’s probably a lot because I don’t give that much away. So it’s safe to assume that at least 50% of what anybody’s saying about me could be a misconception. 

Have you had any weird fan encounters? 

There was a period of time when I was doing the show Masters of Sex where women like my parents age, women wanted to talk to me in detail about their sex lives. That was an interesting time. 

I kind of loved it. It’s like these women really want to talk about this and they feel safe talking to me about it because they think of this character on TV, which I’m not. But I don’t know, I thought it was great to be that person for them. That was an honour. 

What’s been your favourite role to play? 

I couldn’t pick one which makes me feel full of gratitude. There’s at least six that I think are parts that I can’t imagine not being a part of. I’ll give Mean Girls number one, Party Down was a huge, a huge show for me in my life. I really love Cloverfield, I loved Masters of Sex. I love Fleishmen is in Trouble, I have been fortunate. 

What are you watching at the moment? 

Succession!  

I loved The Last Of Us.  

Episode three of The Last of Us, the Nick Offerman episode, I thought was so beautiful, just like so powerfully executed in every way, everybody was so amazing. It’s like there’s no better episode three this year. 

And then Succession’s like “hold my beer”. 

Just like the rest of us, Lizzy loved Nick Offerman’s The Last Of Us episode (Picture: 2023 Home Box Office, Inc. Al)

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Would you want to star in Succession, or any other TV show if you could? 

I would actually not want to, I mean Succession is over now, but I wouldn’t want to be on that show. I purely enjoyed being a viewer of that. I don’t want to see how that sausage is made. I just want to consume the sausage. But the Last of Us that would be a fun show, I think that show is awesome. 

Who would be your dream cast to star alongside? 

The list is so long. I mean 100 people long, but then honestly like, while it’s really fun to work with people who you so admire, I think my favourites I already know and love. I don’t have one, I really don’t, I’m so bad at picking favourites of anything, there’s too many. 

Would you ever do a reality programme like Strictly Come Dancing? 

My in-laws, I can’t tell you how happy they would be if I said Strictly – I’m not saying Strictly! I’d be too scared to do the Bake Off. But the one I would want to do is Taskmaster. 

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What’s your most controversial food opinion? 

I like if my coffee gets cold like it has now, I almost prefer it. Not an iced coffee, but a coffee that has turned cold. 

Do you have any regrets? What’s your biggest? 

Of course, everybody has regrets. But I try to look at what you learn, what one can learn from situations instead of wasting time on regrets. 

Fatal Attraction premieres on Paramount Plus in the UK on Monday, May 1.

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Sky TV’s Martin Brunt talks crime novels, being a victim of a crime while investigating one of the worst crimes in British history and the worst thing to happen on live TV (Picture: Rex)

As Sky TV’s crime correspondent, Martin Brunt, 68, has witnessed the very worst – and the very best – of humanity. His new book captures the murders and mysteries that have shaped his career, as well as the pressure of broadcasting live from a crime scene.

Do you come home at night and read crime novels?

I’m a huge fan of crime, and particularly American crime because there’s more scope to use my imagination. In particular, I like Dennis Lehane and Elmore Leonard, who conjures up such fantastic images of Miami and Florida. I suppose some people might think that reading about crime after reporting it by day is a busman’s holiday.

One of the themes of my own book is people’s fascination with crime, which is enduring. People like to play detective, and on TV I do a lot of stories about fugitives, and viewers love to see images of people on the run and they like playing detective.

People can also put themselves in those situations where you think, ‘But for the grace of God go I’. Millions of us had been on that holiday in southern Europe where we’ve felt totally relaxed and let the kids run around far more. Then along came Madeleine McCann, and people think, ‘That could have been us’.

Martin Brunt’s book explores people’s fascination with crime (Picture: Instagram/martin_brunt)

In the book, I write about the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne. She was running through a cornfield in West Sussex in 2000 and went through a hole in the hedge where a paedophile grabbed her seconds before her siblings came through the same hedge.

How many of us have let our kids play in a cornfield?

We can visualise ourselves in that situation.

You reported on Nicola Bulley, whose case prompted people to turn detective.

It was Nicola’s ordinariness that attracted a lot of people – she appeared to have this idyllic life, she was fit and healthy and she often took selfies at the riverbank in Lancashire where she disappeared.

Nicola went missing after doing incredibly normal things – she’d dropped the kids off at school and then taken the dog for a walk in beautiful countryside.

So because the police didn’t know what had happened to her, it fuelled the need for people to seek their own answers – and these amateur sleuths got out of their armchairs and went to the scene. The coroner is still trying to get to the bottom of what exactly happened.

Nicola Bulley’s crime investigation was infiltrated by amateur crime sleuths (Credits: Lancashire Police / SWNS)

What’s the biggest crime story you’ve worked on?

In terms of mystery, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007. I flew out to Portugal on day four, and since then I’ve travelled more on this story than any other. I’m not privy to what fresh evidence the German prosecutor has against suspect Christian B, but there’s no trail of evidence I’m aware of – it’s still a mystery.

Martin Brunt flew out to Portugal on day 4 of the disappearance of Maddie McCann (Picture: PA Wire)

What questions do people always ask if they meet you at a party?

They ask, ‘What’s the worse case you’ve ever covered?’ It was Fred and Rose West in 1994, and nothing has ever come close to the horror and the grim details that unfurled – of death, kidnap and torture. It was a serial killer story, which is probably the biggest story you do as a crime reporter. But it happened in a street that was within a few hundred yards of the beautiful cathedral.

Martin Brunt is a big fan of crime stories (Picture: Getty/iStockphoto)

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Have you ever been a victim of crime?

During the Fred West investigations, it emerged that Rose West was a prostitute, so I bought dozens of contact magazines to see if her details were in any of them, and put piles of the smutty magazines in the back of my car.

I drove home late one night and parked outside the local primary school. A neighbour rang me in the morning to say thieves had smashed the back window. Fluttering in the wind and outside the car were hundreds of the magazines, which were littering the pavements as parents were bringing their children in for morning assembly.

Fred and Rose West, the serial killer couple who tortured, raped and murdered at least 12 young women and girls, including members of their own family.

Is there more crime today than before?

We have all sorts of statistics – some show crime going up, some show it going down. But the thing that’s dominated my crime coverage in the past few years is the prevalence of inner-city knife crime and gun crime – more so outside London.

Terrorist crime has become a big part of my job, and we’re much more aware of child sex crime, grooming gangs and violence against women.

What’s your advice on staying safe?

As a crime reporter, you get a real sense of the thin dividing line between life and death. I’ve always told my kids there’s no need to be too worried but just be aware of situations and people. Keep your eyes open – and if you ever feel threatened, just walk away.

Live TV. What could possibly go wrong?

I once had somebody with a placard come up behind me at Southwark crown court, and my producer tried to push him out of the way. The protester ended up falling over a wall and their dog started barking like mad – I think it actually bit the protester. When I watched the film later, it was hilarious.

Martin Brunt has had some funny encounters while filming live TV (Picture: Sky News)

No One Got Cracked Over The Head For No Reason: Dispatches From A Crime Reporter, by Martin Brunt, out now, £20, Biteback Publishing

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