“Why are they shooting at us?! Why do you have a gun?!” screams Debbie Claybourne (Octavia Spencer) to her friend of 20 years, Judith Burton (Hannah Waddingham), both clad in evening gowns, as they careen through nighttime London in a stolen van pursued by mysterious baddies.
It’s not the way either woman expected the evening’s charity gala to end, but it is a hell of a way to hit the gas in the premiere of the Prime Video action-adventure series Ride or Die. Created by comedian Tessa Coates, the eight episodes deliver James Bond–level set pieces that pack an emotional punch.
Soon after the pursuit, Debbie, an empty nester and political wife who has given up her career dreams to support those of her aspiring British prime minister husband, is shocked and horrified to learn that her bestie is an assassin, codenamed Whiptail, and not a boring old forensic accountant.
Judith’s excuse that she kills only “really awful, terrible people” doesn’t fly with Debbie, who suspects she was always used as a cover. “It’s about trust and how we deal with trust and betrayal,” says Spencer.
And the betrayals pile up. Debbie’s self-absorbed husband, David (Jamie Parker), who can’t even find his nasal spray without her guidance, is suddenly MIA, and his wife’s being targeted by gangsters to whom he owes money — that would be those same car-chase bad guys.
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“She has to grapple with where her life actually is,” says Spencer, who loved the story from the start. “I had never heard such a dynamic pitch about women of a certain age.” Even Judith is facing her own kind of forced retirement. She must successfully terminate her quarry, Billy Donovan (Ed Skrein), or be terminated herself.
To save themselves and each other, the two tested besties are soon chasing and being chased — and fighting the entire time about lies and life choices. “Judith didn’t want her to come. Debbie finds her feet and says, ‘No, I’m doing this with you. I’ve been sidestepped. I’ve been ignored for too long,’” Waddingham says.
Pretty soon, no one can ignore Debbie, who takes to the intrigue of false passports and clearing a room with a fire extinguisher in glamorous locations like Monaco or aboard an Orient Express–style luxury train. She even concocts a heist to solve her money problems.
The action that makes Debbie feel more alive echoes Spencer’s enthusiasm for the genre. “I love action films. I loved being able to get to do a little action myself,” she says. “I love all of the Marvels with the Russo Brothers at the helm.”
Waddingham, who did many of her own stunts and brought in her stunt double from The Fall Guy, Chanique Greyling, says, “It was literally Dancing With the Stars gone stunt-style. It would take me a week to learn one, mangling myself senseless. We’d then shoot it, and the next day I’d be starting on the next.”
More than one set piece happens at formal events, so Waddingham designed the gowns her character would wear to suit the action. She chose a Grecian goddess number in a later episode because, “I wanted a dress that was totally soft and fluid that she could still fight in — and that she could have a bit that she could wrap around a guy’s neck.”
No matter how crazy the antics get, the award-winning actors (Spencer has an Oscar for The Help and Waddingham an Emmy for Ted Lasso) keep it grounded and have superb chemistry.
“We would have a scene that would go from being really serious and questioning their whole relationship together to suddenly howling about something, and you have to have a great scene partner to do that,” Waddingham says.
“We do run the gamut of emotions. I’ve never played all of them [in a single project], which made it feel very complete, very real,” Spencer says. And, she admits, “It kept us on our feet!”
Ride or Die, Series Premiere, Wednesday, July 15, Prime Video