Netflix’s The Hunting Wives is pushing boundaries with its steamy sex scenes.
Based on May Cobb‘s novel of the same name, The Hunting Wives follows a woman named Sophie (Brittany Snow) who moves from Boston to an East Texas town where she finds herself drawn to prominent socialite Margo (Malin Åkerman). In addition to being a murder mystery, The Hunting Wives won viewers over with lots of drinking and intense chemistry between Sophie and Margo.
Before it premiered, the show was slated to air on Starz, but Netflix ultimately got exclusive licensing rights in the U.S. for one year after Lionsgate Television acquired the rights back from Starz. Netflix confirmed in September 2025 that the show would be returning for a second season and would be released “exclusively as a Netflix branded series in nearly all countries Netflix is available, with the original cast set to reprise their roles.”
“I’m so excited to write these amazing characters again, and I can’t wait to take the audience on another sexy, twisted, bats*** crazy ride through Maple Brook,” showrunner Rebecca Cutter said in a statement at the time.
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Åkerman previously spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about the show’s edgy story lines — including the writers aging up her onscreen love interest so he’d be over 18.
“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,” she shared in July 2025. “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. He’s just of age. He also happens to be her best friend’s son.”
Åkerman continued: “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. 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.”
Keep scrolling for the cast’s most candid quotes about stripping down for the show:
Developing Her Character
“[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 told Us when the show debuted. “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.”
Feeling Safe
Åkerman previously spoke about feeling supported by the cast and crew.
“Every director was a woman, and the woman who directed mine and Brittany’s first intimate scene is Melanie Mayron, and she is herself a lesbian,” she said while on a September 2025 episode of Sophia Bush‘s “Work in Progress” podcast. “And so she’s like, ‘I want this to be beautiful and what we think is sexy and what we deem as sexy, and also have that nuance of the tenderness and the love and the excitement behind it.’ So, that was really beautiful to just have that discussion.”
Having Discussions Off Screen
While speaking at the She Sees Me: The Power of Female Friendship (In Life and Art) panel in October 2025, Åkerman recalled how she and Snow prepared for their first racy scene.
“Before our very first intimate scene together, there [were] a lot of nerves, and we’re so used to dissecting our own bodies and looking in the mirror and finding all the things that were wrong with our bodies, and it’s terrible,” she said. “And we saw it in each other firsthand as we were like, ‘Oh, my God.’”
Åkerman called the conversation a beautiful “cheerleading moment,” adding, “I just went, ‘Britt, you know what? We’re f***ing beautiful. We’ve worked hard for these bodies. We’ve worked hard our whole lives, and you’re a beautiful f***ing person and let’s not do this. Let’s just go out there and have a great time — as much as you can with all these cameramen. It’s a weird time, but let’s just be in it together and let’s support each other right now and let’s just feel great about ourselves and let’s just, I look at you and you’re beautiful, and let’s celebrate our bodies right now.’”
She continued: “It’s been so important to have these relationships work because of the intimacy of the relationships on screen. I hope and I think that it shines through that there is this baseline, there’s this support group between every take and everyone just wants everyone to win.”
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Supporting Each Other
During an October 2025 episode of the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast, Snow compared filming NSFW moments with a female costar vs. a male counterpart, saying, “There were so many mints on that set — to the point where both of us got sick. As women, you are so mindful of each other. With guys, sometimes they don’t care [and] there’s no mint in their mouth.”
Snow praised Åkerman for being mindful while filming their scenes.
“But with Malin and I, we were constantly like, ‘Are you OK? Can I put my hand here?’ It was just so nice and so different,” she noted. “We ate too many mints. I had an entire tub. It was people-pleasing too. And she was like, ‘Girl, I don’t care.’”
Snow recalled a specific moment where Åkerman looked out for her. “Something really great about Malin too is she’s really, really attuned to what I was thinking or what others were thinking in terms of comfortability,” she added. “So she was always very aware — [since] she’s Swedish — that she’s more open with nudity. She is still a woman and wants to look good and isn’t just walking around naked. But I was more conscientious about it. She would go like, ‘Do you want me to put my body here so you don’t have to show this part of yourself?’ I was like, ‘This is so selfless and nice.’”
She concluded: “It is very unfortunately rare to see women [having sex on screen at 40]. There is a stigma in Hollywood that once you reach 40, you are no longer seen as a sexual being, which is completely false. I love that our show brought new light to that. You don’t stop having sex when you are 40.”
