Margaret Qualley was already quarantining in Canada, ahead of starting production on Maid, when she first had the idea of casting her own mother, Andie MacDowell, as her on-screen parent. But how to make the dream a reality? Lucky for Qualley, the answer was already saved in her phone. “I called [Maid executive producer] Margot Robbie, because I somehow have her contact [info], and pitched her the idea,” Qualley tells Krista Smith in a new episode of the podcast Skip Intro. “She was so excited.”

In the miniseries inspired by Stephanie Land’s 2019 memoir, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother's Will to Survive, Qualley plays Alex, a young mother who escapes an emotionally abusive relationship and takes a job as a house cleaner to care for her young daughter Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet). As she confronts obstacle after obstacle, Alex must also navigate a fraught relationship with her mother, Paula (MacDowell), who has a history of mental health struggles. Both Qualley and MacDowell were nominated for Golden Globes for their performances. 

Though Maid marks the first time the two women have appeared on-screen together, Qualley tells Skip Intro that she’s been waiting to work with her mother for some time. The series, created by Molly Smith Metzler and rife with meaty mother-daughter themes, seemed like the perfect opportunity. “This is such rich material,” Qualley says. “It was such a special experience for me to be able to work with her and to put so much of my heart into something.”

Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix

“She was just the greatest acting partner I could ever ask for,” Qualley adds. “She goes 100% every time. I learned so much from watching her. I learned so much from everybody I work with, but to be able to learn from my mom is pretty extraordinary.”

As for the challenge of playing a mom herself, Qualley stresses she took the job very seriously, working constantly with 4-year-old Whittet to gain her trust and keep her comfortable. “I was her advocate,” Qualley says. “[I made] her feel close enough to me so that she really could fall asleep in my arms and so that she could really cry with me, laugh with me, all the things.”

Having spent time on sets as a child watching her own mom work, Qualley knew the environment could be daunting for a child. “It's a scary thing for a 4-year-old to be on a set with so many strangers, in weird hours and weird places. I would just hold her all the time and eat lunch with her and hang out with her and run the scene with her and just try to make it feel like it was never any different when we were off-camera [and] when we were on-camera.” 

You know what they say: Like mother, like daughter. 

For more great celebrity interviews, check out Skip Intro on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.