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Scott Speedman Explains the "Reason" for James' Affair on Teacup
We're meeting James Chenoweth at "probably the worst time in his life" — and it's only going to get worse.
**Spoiler Warning! This story contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Peacock's Teacup!**
The two-episode premiere of Teacup starts out strong and ends with one hell of a shock: Don't cross the blue line, or else.
But the newly discovered body horror isn't the only uncomfortable factor in our heroes' lives. Teacup, a sci-fi horror series, starts out as a classic family drama, with audiences meeting the Chenoweth family at a crossroads.
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"He’s a good man, a good dad who has strayed from his family. We meet him at probably the worst time in his life," Scott Speedman, who plays patriarch James Chenoweth, told SYFY WIRE and other outlets during a Teacup set visit earlier this year.
The audience learns pretty quickly that James has had an extramarital affair, cheating on his wife, Maggie (Yvonne Strahovski), and throwing a wrench into their lives.
Curious, we asked if the reason for the affair would be explored in the series. What caused James to stray if he loves his family so much?
Why does James cheat on Maggie in Teacup?
"It's not that kind of a show," Speedman said of whether or not the reasoning will be explored. "If we were doing This Is Us [we might]."
But just because it's not in the script doesn't mean he didn't think about the character's motivation as an actor.
"[Maggie's] very comfortable around horses and not so much around humans, and we do layer that in a bit," Speedman said. "And I think through that, she’s this dominant force in the family. I think he’s strayed into other arms. I think they were together very young, too, and stuff like that."
He was quick to clarify, while laughing, that he's not "making excuses for [James] being an a--hole." But James certainly justified it in his own mind, so it's useful for Speedman to understand.
"This what I loved about [Teacup] is that it doesn’t really matter," he continued. "Because ... the show could have been about that, a family on a farm and their interpersonal dynamics with their neighbors and their community, but it would have been [that] if this thing didn’t happen. So this thing happening takes over all the backstory, basically, and now we’re thrust into, 'Who are these people under stress?' And that’s kind of interesting, and their interpersonal dynamics with their neighbors and their kids and their husbands and wives come up to the forefront through that."
And these complicated family dynamics will continue over the course of the show's eight episodes.
"He’s a great dad," Speedman said. "Those two things can exist at the same time. I’ve been playing fathers for a long time, but I’m kind of new dad myself, so they resonate very differently now when you read these characters and you don't wanna go do a bad version of a dad now — as opposed to before I wouldn’t think much on it.
"So that part, I think, is really felt and he does have this unique relationship with [his kids] outside of being ... through the television lens ... a sh--ty husband," he added. "Or a lapsed husband, hoping not to be a sh--ty husband at some point."
The first two episodes of Teacup premiered on Thursday, October 10, on Peacock. Two new episodes will drop every Thursday through Halloween.
