Margot Robbie's Money Trouble is coming to Apple TV on April 15th, starring Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Nicole Kidman. Here's why you should watch it.
The story centers on Margo Millet, the daughter of a Hooters waitress and a former professional wrestler. After an affair with her college English teacher that leaves her pregnant, Margo decides to support herself through OnlyFans. Reconnecting with her father, who shares his wrestling wisdom with her, Margo achieves significant success on OnlyFans.
Margot is played by Elle Fanning, while her on-screen mother is played by her longtime friend and film partner Michelle Pfeiffer. In fact, “Margot's Money Problems” was born from the synergy of Fanning and Pfeiffer, who have known each other for over 25 years and are the series' producers. Nicole Kidman also joined them as a producer.
Interestingly, Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer seemed destined to play mother and daughter. Pfeiffer, 67—a Golden Globe and BAFTA winner and the embodiment of mobster wife glamour since Scarface (1983)—first worked with Elle Fanning in I Am Sam. The tearjerker from 2001 marked Elle's screen debut at the tender age of—imagine—three, playing a younger version of her sister Dakota.
Elle and Michelle stayed in touch and reunited nearly two decades later for the film “The Witch: Mistress of Darkness.” Now, the close friends are back together, bringing audiences a first-rate entertainment story: the Apple TV series “Margot's Money Trouble.”
The 2024 adaptation of Ruthie Thorpe's gripping novel follows Margot Millet (Fanning), a promising college student with a knack for writing. When her English teacher (Michael Angarano) takes a liking to her, their whirlwind romance leads to a pregnancy. She drops out of college, has a baby (an adorable baby boy named Bodie), loses her job as a waitress, and finds herself at a crossroads. Caring for her child means she's mostly at home, but she's also in dire need of money. And that's where OnlyFans comes in. Margot goes down a rabbit hole, fascinated by everything weird and wonderful that's being created on the platform. Will this be her path to salvation? And can she rediscover her passion for creative writing by creating surreal imaginary worlds?
The series is primarily interesting due to its bright acting. Fanning, as always, is impressive – completely devoted to the role, fearless, sometimes wild and painfully close to the viewer. And with her – Pfeiffer in one of her brightest roles in recent years: she plays Margo's distant mother, Shayann – a former Hooters waitress who raised her daughter alone.
In Thorpe's book, Shayanne's role is smaller, but in this adaptation — helmed by veteran TV producer and Pfeiffer's husband David E. Kelly (“Big Little Lies,” “Play Back”) — it's vastly expanded. Her character is hilariously vain, ruthlessly outspoken and pleasantly judgmental, always impeccably dressed and vehemently disapproving of her daughter's choices while also overflowing with love for her. On the verge of a trip to Vegas to marry her somewhat bland but kind-hearted new boyfriend Kenny (Greg Kinnear), she's also bewildered by the return of Margot's father, a former professional wrestler named Jinx (Nick Offerman).
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The rest of the cast is equally compelling: Nicole Kidman as another eccentric former wrestler, Lace, who now works as a lawyer; the ruthless Marsha Gay Garden as the mother of Margo's irresponsible teacher; Thaddeus Graham of “Bad Sisters” as Margo's cosplay-loving neighbor; and rapper Rico Nasty and Lindsay Normington of “Anora” – veteran OnlyFans authors who take Margo under their wing.
But ultimately, this is Elle and Michelle's show, and it's their touching and complex connection that makes it so enjoyable to watch.