“You’re never thinking: ‘You crazy cat. What are you doing now?’ She is as believable as possible,” Tessa Coates told UPI.
1 of 3 | Left to right, Hannah Waddingham, Octavia Spencer and Ed Skrein star in “Ride or Die,” premiering Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Prime Video
Ride or Die creator Tessa Coates and show-runner Matt Miller say the women Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham play in the action-comedy are surprisingly relatable, despite the outrageous circumstances they find themselves in.
Premiering on Prime Video Wednesday, the eight-episode series follows mild-mannered Debbie Claybourne (Spencer) as she discovers that not only is her best friend and fellow book club member Judith (Waddingham) an international assassin, but her own bosses now want her dead.
“What I love to watch and to write is ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events,” Coates told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
“When we’re living through Debbie, we’re always like: ‘Oh, that’s what I would have done. That’s a smart decision.’ Or even: ‘That’s clever, Debbie. Well done.’ You’re never thinking: ‘You crazy cat. What are you doing now?’ She is as believable as possible. Hopefully, that’s the thing that will resonate with people.”
Audiences might also recognize how both Judith and Debbie’s lives are drastically altered without their permission as they hit middle-age.
“I’m younger than our leads are, but I was feeling that the shows and the movies and the content being presented to me is always that aging is not a thing that you should look forward to and is something to be afraid of,” Coates said.
“I want to be like: ‘What if it’s not? What if we make a show where it looks awesome and it’s aspirational,’ and we’re saying, ‘Wow, these women are 50, and they’re also badass and they’re powerhouses and they’re loving their lives,'” she added.
“I feel like when you tell stories of women of this age, it is a retirement story or it’s a one last job, or it’s an ‘I’m too old for this.’ And what if they’re like: ‘I’m not too old. I’m incredibly good at my job?'”
Directed by Peyton Reed, the show also features Bill Nighy, Ed Skrein, Sylvia Hoeks, Calam Lynch, Savannah Steyn, Jamie Parker and Jacky Ido.
The stars were believable as long-time best friends almost immediately.
“That just happened by chance. They were both cast in the roles and then we had a table read in Prague and then, a couple of days later, we’re shooting the show and there was no rehearsal, there was no nothing,” Miller noted.
“So, we just got incredibly lucky with this almost undeniable chemistry that the two of them have. You genuinely believe that they’ve been friends for 25 years and that just came naturally to both of them,” he added. “That scene in the kitchen is the first scene that they shot together and it’s unbelievable, really, to bring that much history and friendship and everything to it.”
Although the show has so many moving parts, the filmmakers and their cast deftly balance the mash-up of genres.
“The action is logistically complicated, but we had a phenomenal crew in Prague where we shot the show, an amazing stunt coordinator and his team. So, we got again, very, very lucky with that part of it,” Miller said.
High risk, higher reward pic.twitter.com/ZvS2n4po20— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) July 15, 2026
