'Why Women Kill' actor Leo Howard says he shared a 'pretty natural chemistry' with Lucy Liu on sets: 'She made it very comfortable'
In CBS' upcoming dark comedy 'Why Women Kill', we see three leading ladies from three different eras, all suffering from the same marital crisis: infidelity. One of them happens to be Lucy Liu's Simone, an '80s socialite all about posh houses and elaborate parties, but her husband (Jack Davenport) is secretly gay. When Simone finds out her husband has been sleeping with other men and confronts him, he threatens to taint her image in the public eye by revealing his sexuality. Amidst all this turmoil, the only ray of hope Simone finds is in the affections of the strikingly young 18-year-old Tommy, who just wants to be there for her and offer her the loving support she needs from a male companion. And Leo Howard, who plays Tommy, would have fans assured that apart from the luxe and grandeur of the 80s where their plot is set, it was Liu's incredible expertise and Simone and Tommy's unique pairing that sold the deal for him - something that fans should also watch out for.
In an exclusive interview with MEA Worldwide (MEAWW), Howard shared about the chemistry between him and Liu, which also transcends into the relationship their onscreen personas share. "It is very easy," Howard remarks about working opposite the 'Charlie's Angels' star who has worked in the industry for a while now. "Lucy and I had, or rather have a pretty natural chemistry on set and that makes it comfortable to kind of exist within the scenes. She definitely made it very comfortable."
Their on-screen romance was definitely not something that was considered within one's comfort zone for the time period they are set in. "When we open up, Tommy is a waiter at one of Simone's parties and he is the child of one of her best friends," Howard teases about the premise of the relationship between his character, and the much older married woman, Simone. "It kind of starts when he sees some stuff that Simone is going through, and he's always had a crush on her and so he decides to step up to act as a support system for her."
For a married woman to indulge in her best friend's teenage son is not something that you'd imagine happening a lot in the 80s, and Howard addresses all the oddities of the pairing, calling it an 'interesting situation.' He explains: "Tommy is young and he's immature in a lot of ways. He's also very mature and in other ways, he and Simone really do connect on a much deeper level than just a physical thing and they both know that. So he's determined to be the husband or the male figure in her life that she's always needed. That's his kind of life goal in this. It ends up being actually a very sweet relationship as you see it blossoming in later episodes. Tommy is really intuitive in this and he brings out some qualities in Simone that perhaps I haven't seen before so I like that."
All of that unique pairing and emotional connect aside, Howard was also hooked on to the project because of its incredible setting. "The era is something that is very attractive to me about the storyline," Howard shares, adding: "I'm a big fan of that retro feeling, especially in the 80s. Tommy is a really cool character too. To be able to play a teenager sort of coming into adulthood in 1984, in a cool time for television, culture, and politics was one of the things that excited me most. And also Lucy Liu is not difficult to look at," he quips. "She's truly wonderful. A great human who's really good at her job. She's also one of the most professional actors I've ever worked with. The crew loves her and it's not super common that you hear that the entire crew love someone as much as they love her and also she's a really fabulous director."
Howard is also gearing up for his role in the upcoming second season of 'Legacies', where his character "goes to Mystic Falls High and is a jock football player, so he has a little run-in with Hope on the show." So that's something to watch out for!
'Why Women Kill' comes from 'Desperate Housewives' creator Marc Cherry and will premiere on Thursday, August 15, only on CBS .