Prime Video’s Malice is setting up a twisted — and toxic — dynamic between Jack Whitehall and David Duchovny’s characters.
In Us Weekly‘s exclusive clip from the upcoming series, which premieres on Friday, November 14, Adam (Whitehall) tauntingly walks behind a very drunk Jamie (Duchovny), who has no idea the danger he is in.
Jamie passes out before Adam quietly threatens him, saying, “I could kill you right now if I wanted. But I am not going to do that, because I want you to suffer — just like I did.”
While the sneak peek didn’t offer context to the one-sided feud, Malice follows charismatic tutor Adam as he insidiously infiltrates the wealthy Tanner family (Duchovny and Carice van Houten). His intentions are far from pure as Adam plans to execute a hidden agenda that would destroy the family.
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“I’ve worked a lot in the comedy space, but I’ve never had the opportunity to sort of flex those muscles as an actor and play a very different part in a very different type of show and new genre to me,” Whitehall, 37, told TV Insider earlier this month. “I leapt at the opportunity to get to have this opportunity to try something so different.”
In addition to Whitehall, Duchovny, 65, and Van Houten, 49, Malice also stars Christine Adams and Raza Jaffrey. Before the premiere, Whitehall teased Adam’s issues with Jamie, which the audience will find out about throughout the season.
“He has a real kind of vendetta against Jamie, but again, can’t reveal his hand too early. So, it made all of the scenes really rich when David Duchovny’s Jamie is kind of [needling] away at me and trying to undermine me or assert his status and I had to sort of bite my tongue,” he continued while speaking with TV Insider. “And Adam’s just so desperate to sort of keep on his good side but is quietly seething in so many of these scenes.”
Whitehall loved pushing boundaries as an actor.
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“I really enjoyed that aspect of it and digging into that dynamic and trying to just hint at how much stuff that was going on underneath the surface whenever he was in Jamie’s presence,” he continued. “We actually had certain exercises that I discussed with the director where I’d hold quite violent and disturbing thoughts in my head in these scenes where seemingly it was all just kind of quite convivial and we were talking and the discourse was all very charming on the surface, but there was definitely an inner rage that I was trying to play. And so, I enjoyed trying to unlock all of those aspects of the character.”
The actor wouldn’t give away the full reason for Adam’s hatred, saying, “He definitely holds a lot of trauma and unresolved trauma, and I think that’s kind of at the heart of why he’s doing what he’s doing because he hasn’t been able to work through what’s happened to him in his past.”
He concluded: “I think he’s someone that’s doing something that he thinks is going to help him. Ultimately, that’s the arc of the whole story, is him trying to do something to fill this hole to make him feel more complete again, and it’s materialized in quite a dark and sordid plan.”
All episodes of Malice premiere on Prime Video Friday, November 14.
