‘Good Girls’: Christina Hendricks Says Kissing Manny Montana is ‘Easy’: ‘We Have Great Chemistry’
Good Girls stars Christina Hendricks and Manny Montana play unlikely partners in crime, Beth and Rio. Throughout the NBC show’s four seasons, the characters play what Montana describes as a “cat and mouse game.” The tension between Rio and Beth ignited when they slept together in season 2. In 2019, Hendricks discussed her steamy scenes with Montana. The Mad Men alum also shared how the actors interact with each other when the cameras aren’t rolling.
Christina Hendricks and Manny Montana joined the ‘Good Girls’ cast in 2018
Good Girls aired on NBC on Feb. 26, 2018. When the show came out, it reintroduced some viewers to several familiar faces. Hendricks, 45, appeared in movies in films such as Kevin Hill and Life As We Know It. Other actors, including Retta and Mae Whitman, starred in Parks and Recreation and Parenthood, respectively.
Around 2018, Hendricks and Montana booked the roles of Beth and Rio. Beth is a mother of four living in the Detroit suburbs. Forced to find money, she decided to rob a grocery store in the show’s pilot. The action led her to work for Rio, a young crime lord.
Before joining the show, Montana said on The Neil Haley Show that he wasn’t used to playing a villain on TV. According to IMDb, he played multiple cops on shows such as CSI: NY and Graceland. However, Montana said that Rio’s bad-boy appeal is fun to portray. The Rosewood alum also thinks the clashes between Beth and Rio have plenty to do with their strikingly different personalities.
“It’s weird because opposites attract,” Montana said. “So they both dislike each other but love each other at the same time, so it just makes for a really complex relationship.”
‘Good Girls’ stars Christina Hendricks and Manny Montana ‘have great chemistry working together’
Since Good Girls Season 1, many fans have shared their opinions about Beth and Rio’s relationship. While some viewers wrote on Reddit that the pair could be an endgame, others feel the “chemistry” between them is purely physical.
In season 2, Rio and Beth had sex in a bar bathroom after almost a year of tension. For the first time, viewers saw the business partners share a passionate on-screen kiss. Hendricks shared why she and Montana didn’t have a problem locking lips for the scene.
“Easy,” Hendricks told Medium about the kiss. “I mean, he’s a great actor and, we have great chemistry working together, and…He’s just…it’s just a very sort of respectful work.”
The actor continued to say that she and Montana’s professional relationship is less appealing than Beth and Rio’s.
“You know, it’s funny because I know people love, they love it,” she said. “We, of course, we love that. It’s exciting and stuff, but it’s not as…it’s much more professional than anyone would think.”
Did Beth Boland kill Rio?
Although Hendricks and Montana respect each other, their Good Girls characters need some more work. Fed up with Rio’s demands, Beth hired a hitman to kill Rio in season 2. However, he survived the shooting and confronted Beth about the ordeal in Good Girls Season 3.
Throughout seasons 3 and 4, Rio and Beth decide to continue working together. Good Girls showrunner Jenna Bans said his decision not to murder Beth is more personal than professional.
“They have a twisted obsession with each other,” Bans told Distractify. “I do think Dean’s right in that Rio won’t kill anything he loves and/or that he’s twistedly sort of obsessed with sexually and in terms of her potential in crime. “What we see this season is a very sort of clear recognition of that.”
