Malin Akerman: The Hunting Wives, Hustling & Healing

Episode of Call Her Daddy · November 11, 2026 · 58 min

Alex Cooper interviews actress Malin Akerman about The Hunting Wives, her childhood, abuse in the modeling industry, divorce, therapy and finding love again.

Summary

Alex Cooper hosted actress Malin Akerman, opening with Akerman's love of hosting dance parties and her recent move to Connecticut. Akerman discussed her initial hesitation about the tone of The Hunting Wives, the creators' insistence on grounded performances amid wild situations, the show's all-female directing team and female gaze, and her close friendship with co-star Brittany Snow.

Akerman recounted being born in Sweden, growing up in Toronto after her parents' amicable divorce, and her mother's depression during her teenage years. She described living on her own at 16, modeling in Europe, and witnessing chaperones giving underage models drugs and alcohol, a 14-year-old being sexually coerced, and a photographer throwing a light stand at her after she refused to undress, with the agency declining to act. She contrasted this with what she saw as Swedish gender equality and women's directness in dating.

She described moving to Los Angeles at 23, singing in a band where she met her first husband, and separating from him months after their son was born. Akerman credited friends, weekly dance parties, transcendental meditation and therapy with helping her identify a fear of abandonment rooted in her father's move back to Sweden. She explained how practicing vulnerability with her husband Jack, their shared interest in Esther Perel, and choosing not to say "forever" in their vows shaped her second marriage.

The conversation closed with reflections on motherhood, inner dialogue, letting go of people pleasing with age, and a preview of The Hunting Wives season 2, which Akerman said was as wild as the first, with scripts written during filming and improved wigs.

Chapters

  1. 0:03

    Disco balls and dance parties

    Cooper welcomes Akerman, who describes her party setup and her family's move to Connecticut.

  2. 3:56

    Signing on to The Hunting Wives

    Akerman explains her hesitation about the show's tone, its grounded approach, its sexual content and its female directors.

  3. 9:01

    Friendship with Brittany Snow

    Akerman describes how her on-screen relationship with Brittany Snow became a close real-life friendship.

  4. 10:53

    Childhood and family

    Akerman recounts moving from Sweden to Canada, her parents' divorce and her mother's depression.

  5. 16:50

    Modeling at 16

    Akerman describes living alone as a teen and the exploitation and abuse she witnessed in the European modeling industry.

  6. 22:03

    Swedish culture and women's agency

    Akerman credits Swedish culture and her mother with a sense of gender equality and directness in dating.

  7. 24:07

    Los Angeles and the band

    Akerman recalls moving to LA with a friend, struggling for work and singing in a band where she met her first husband.

  8. 28:25

    Divorce and new motherhood

    Akerman discusses separating soon after her son's birth, advice on pre-parenting conversations, and healing through friends, dancing and therapy.

  9. Linked moment · 34:54Skip to 34:54 using a listen link in the info box.

    34:54

    Meeting Jack

    Akerman describes reconnecting with her now-husband Jack and practicing vulnerability and communication with him.

  10. 42:36

    Marriage and honest vows

    Akerman explains how her view of marriage changed, their Vegas and Tulum weddings, and why they omitted 'forever' from their vows.

  11. 46:01

    Identity, motherhood and aging

    Akerman reflects on motherhood, her view of her own mother, inner dialogue and letting go of people pleasing.

  12. 51:35

    The Hunting Wives season 2

    Akerman teases season 2, discussing new scripts, keeping Margo Banks grounded, better wigs and a cast trip to Charleston.

Key points

What was said, by whom, with the exact words. Timestamps jump to the moment.

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman said the show's creators told her the characters had to be grounded so that the wild situations could carry the craziness.

    “we need this to be as grounded as possible because the situations are so wild”

    Listen from 5:40 · The Hunting Wives

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman noted that The Hunting Wives used only female directors, while saying she generally favors hiring the best person for the job.

    “it was all female directors which was really cool. I'm always a person who says like best person for the job”

    Listen from 8:11 · Female gaze

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman said trust with Brittany Snow was especially important when filming intimate scenes.

    “especially on those days with the intimate scenes, it's really important to have somebody that you feel like you can trust fall with”

    Listen from 10:21 · The Hunting Wives

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman said her mother's depression was hard to understand because mental health was taboo in that generation, unlike today.

    “it was so taboo to talk about. Which nowadays it's like we have mental health days”

    Listen from 14:11 · Depression

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman recounted that a man connected to the modeling agencies took young models to clubs and supplied them with drugs and alcohol.

    “He would take us to the clubs and feed the girls cocaine and alcohol”

    Listen from 18:31 · Sexual exploitation in the modeling industry

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman said that when she reported a photographer who threw a light stand at her, the agency refused to act because of his status.

    “they were like, what do you want us to do? He's the best photographer we've got”

    Listen from 19:18 · Sexual exploitation in the modeling industry

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman advised young women not to play dating games and to contact men they like directly.

    “there's no three day rule of don't text him back or like you like a guy you go get it”

    Listen from 22:26 · Gender equality in Sweden

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman argued that Swedish culture feels like an equal playing field and that women there pursue what they want in dating.

    “there's an equal playing field for men and women is what it feels like”

    Listen from 23:09 · Gender equality in Sweden

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman cited a quote from a mother that helped her through early parenthood: grieve the imagined version of life to embrace the real one.

    “allow yourself to mourn the fantasy of what you thought it was so that you can step into the joy of what it is”

    Listen from 29:07 · Motherhood

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman attributed the end of her first marriage partly to a lack of communication, including never discussing parenting before having a child.

    “Communication is key. And I know we've all heard it before, but we were not communicating”

    Listen from 29:57 · Divorce

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman said that after her divorce she took a year of self-reckoning involving transcendental meditation and deep therapy.

    “I started doing transcendental meditation, learning how to do that. I started doing some deep, deep therapy”

    Listen from 32:03 · Psychotherapy

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman said therapy revealed she kept partners at arm's length because her father's move to Sweden felt like abandonment.

    “I think that my body was protecting itself from abandonment”

    Listen from 39:07 · Fear of abandonment

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman said she and her husband follow Esther Perel's idea of treating the relationship as a third entity.

    “in a relationship there's three people there's you there's him and there's the relationship and you have to treat it like its own thing”

    Listen from 39:54 · Marriage and long-term partnership

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman advised people who are dating to state their values openly early so incompatible partners can leave.

    “girl, just say the things that are on your mind so that they know exactly who you are, what you stand for”

    Listen from 41:38 · Marriage and long-term partnership

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman explained that she left 'forever' out of her wedding vows out of a commitment to honesty.

    “I don't want to say forever because it doesn't always turn out that way. And that's okay too”

    Listen from 45:13 · Marriage and long-term partnership

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman argued that people speak to themselves far more harshly than they would to others and need to change that inner dialogue.

    “We say things to ourselves that we'd never say to anyone else. And we have to stop it”

    Listen from 50:05

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman said aging freed her from being a people pleaser.

    “You can't please everyone. You really, really can't. And that's also who I am at the core or was at the core was such a people pleaser”

    Listen from 51:04 · People pleasing

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman said season 2 differed because the cast received scripts while they were still being written.

    “we were reading the scripts as we went along. They were being written”

    Listen from 52:28 · The Hunting Wives

  • Malin Åkerman

    Akerman said the show improved its much-discussed wigs in season 2 with a bigger budget and a skilled wig maker.

    “We got a real wig maker who really knew what they were doing”

    Listen from 55:12 · The Hunting Wives

People

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From the publisher

Join Alex for an interview with Malin Akerman! Malin opens up about bringing Margo Banks to life in the hit series The Hunting Wives and teases what's in store for Season 2. She also gets candid about the lessons she's learned from past relationships, the work she's done on herself, and how approaching love with honesty and openness helped her find it again when she least expected it. Enjoy!

Summary, chapters and key points were generated from the episode transcript on November 14, 2026. Quotes are checked word for word against the transcript.

Categories: Relationships·Film Interviews·Mental Health