Pascale Hutton on Playing Nice With a Rival in Double Life

Pascale Hutton is taking a little time away from Coal Valley, where her hit series When calls the Heart takes place, to step into a grimier, more dangerous world in Double Life, out in theaters this week. Hutton, who had a minor role in the 2005 Fantastic Four movie, created a little Marvel/DC crossover in the film, which also features Batwoman star Javicia Leslie. In Double Life, Hutton’s Sharon Setter’s husband passes away — and that’s just the start of her problems, as Leslie’s character Jo Creuzot approaches her. It turns out, Sharon’s late husband was having an affair with Jo — and that she knows more about his secrets than he ever told Sharon.

The result is that Sharon and Jo have to “team up” to figure out what happened to the man they loved — something that, as you can imagine, is easier said than done. Hutton praised Leslie’s performance, saying that it was easier to sell a very difficult interpersonal relationship, because the two went into the film on basically the same page.

“That truly was the challenge in this movie because that is at the heart of this whole movie and what propels it,” Hutton told ComicBook.com. “There’s the mystery aspect, of course, but I think the driving force is these women who are thrown together against all odds and have this very complicated relationship. First and foremost, I think it was in the script. The script laid it out and progressed these women in their relationship really carefully and logically in terms of exactly what you’re talking about. And then secondly, I think it was a lot of conversations about where when we obviously were filming out a sequence and just really having a lot of conversations with [director Martin Wood] and with Javicia and with me, to make sure that we’re really plotting that along carefully and that we’re not overly familiar with one another too early, and that when does that camaraderie happen? And just keeping that timeline clear, helped significantly. And so that was the other element, I think, that helped in terms of plotting that out in a really thoughtful, careful way.”

Of course, how do you trust someone who comes to you, claiming that you and your husband were at the center of a conspiracy — but don’t worry, you can totally trust me? Hutton admits, that was a big part of why their chemistry had to be good.

“I think that is something when I was reading the script that came into my mind,” Huytton said. “And then a lot of it ended up making sense when I saw how Javicia was playing the role of Jo and that she really did seem in the way that she was interacting with Sharon, she was treating Sharon like a normal human being, instead of being really careful and protective about her, she was being honest and upfront and that inherently builds trust and makes her somebody. And she also had information that she was being candid and forthright about, which no one else was being with Sharon. Sharon had these suspicions, but Jo is the only one who was saying, ‘Yes, I think your suspicions are right. And I also have this other information to add to the puzzle.’ So that felt natural, her needing and wanting to trust Jo. What really threw a wrench into it is when she obviously discovers oh, and Jo was having an affair with my husband. That’s a new development. But I think the movie really explains how she, even once she tried to break away from Jo, she still needed Jo, and they were forced to be together. And through that forced partnership, forced proximity to one another, and now that the truth was on the open, a real friendship could actually develop between the two of them.”

Wood has worked with Hutton before on a series of projects, across various genres, which made it easy for the actor to board Double Life when he came calling. 

“Martin and I have worked together…I don’t even know how many times over the last 20 years,”  He cast me in one of my very first things that I ever worked on 20 years ago. And then we’ve just continued to work together in multiple different genres as well. We did a bunch of sci-fi stuff together. We’ve done action adventure kind of stuff together. We’ve done more romantic comedy stuff together, period pieces, and then this, a thriller. So Martin phoned me out of the blue and said, “I’ve got this movie. I think you would be great for it. Let me talk to you about it. And let me tell you this story.” We were on the phone for over an hour. And Martin is so dynamic and exciting to listen to. When he’s excited about a project, it’s really contagious.

In Double Life, a grieving widow learns from her late husband’s mistress that his death was no accident. The two women will form an unlikely alliance to uncover the truth behind his murder and unmask the man they both loved.

Double Life is now in theaters and available to purchase on Digital platforms.