‘The Perfect Couple’: How That Bizarre Opening Dance Credits Came About

The riveting new Netflix murder mystery The Perfect Couple unfolds during a storybook summer wedding weekend on the picturesque island of Nantucket, and viewers will undoubtedly be chattering about which members of this dysfunctional upper-crust clan committed foul play. But it’s the ebullient, ironically funny opening credits sequence, featuring a flash mob of characters joyously grooving and swaying in a beachside group dance during the sun-dappled rehearsal dinner party, that will surely generate just as much buzz.

Set to the booty-shaking sounds of Meghan Trainor’s banging bop “Criminals,” the opener finds its stars, including Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Eve Hewson, Dakota Fanning, Jack Reynor, and Meghann Fahy, shimmying in sync to the rousing tune. As the camera films them from high above and up close, the characters swivel their hips, slide their feet in the sand, and wave their hands in the air to the song’s pulsating rhythms.

The show’s Oscar and Emmy Award-winning director and executive producer Susanne Bier (The Undoing, The Night Manager, The First Lady) says she was drawn to the show’s “wit, delicious sense of humor and lightness of tone,” inspired by the delectable beach read novel by Elin Hilderbrand. She wanted the tone to feel “sexy and fun,” and that influenced her idea for the opening credits dance scene. Still, she faced some skepticism. “I had a whole lot of producers shaking their heads when I wanted to do the dance thing. They were like, ‘What is that?!'” Bier says over Zoom, imitating their confused faces.

Hilary Bronwyn Gayle / Netflix

The idea for The Perfect Couple opener came to Bier when she read an early version of the script. “There was a nightmare scene where there was a suggestion of a TikTok dance,” she reveals. “And I was like, ‘No, we are not doing a TikTok dance, and I don’t want to do a nightmare.’ But maybe the credits need to be a dance sequence. And maybe it should just be fun and full of life, to show all the characters enjoying themselves, even for a split second.”

There’s a winking irony to a credits scene that is not referenced anywhere in the show’s plot. The song itself, though, was carefully selected and has a connection to its setting. The Grammy-winning Trainor, known for hit songs like “Lips Are Movin'” and “All About the Bass,” is a native of Nantucket. (“Criminals” appears on the deluxe version of Trainor’s new album Timeless.) Hilderbrand also hails from the island and is known for her Nantucket-set novels.

Bier reveals that producers didn’t think the compressed schedule would allow space to shoot the dance number, but she pushed hard to make it happen, guerilla-style. (The series was filmed mostly on Cape Cod.) “They were like, ‘We have no time. We have no time.’ Usually, those kind of things take a day-and-a-half to two days to shoot, but I shot it in like an hour and a half.” If they did have the time to plan out a credits sequence beforehand, Bier believes it wouldn’t have been as good.

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Centered on the wealthy Winburys, led by celebrated mystery novelist mom Greer (Kidman), The Perfect Couple offers viewers a glimpse into rarefied strata of blue-blooded society, “a window into a world that very few of us have access to,” Bier says. She was intrigued to explore how “entitlement and wealth doesn’t necessarily foster decent human beings and makes you think you can do whatever you like and nobody’s going to stop you.”

Perhaps that theme inspired the dazzling dance sequence of characters looking blissfully unaware of what’s lurking around the corner and all the damage they’ve done. “I can’t actually explain it,” Bier adds of her inspiration, “but I just really enjoyed it and think it’s fun.”

While she chose not to create a TikTok dance for the nightmare scene, Bier may have paved the way for a new viral moment. After all, Trainor has over 18 million TikTok followers, so big social media buzz feels inevitable. Cue the viral dance videos!

The Perfect Couple, Now Streaming, Netflix