IT’S HARD TO make a film or television show where everyone is a zany, wild, over-the-top character. Sure, those can be really fun to watch, but in order for viewers to really invest in something, they need someone who they can enter the story with, at their level. In Rian Johnson‘s Knives Out, for instance, that’s Ana de Armas’s character Marta; she’s the even-keeled de facto protagonist, working with detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to find the truth amidst a sea of outlandish personalities played by Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, and more.
Netflix’s The Perfect Couple is structured similarly, and it’s Eve Hewson—who plays Amelia, the bride-to-be at a wealthy Nantucket wedding—who becomes the de facto protagonist of the story. What should be the best weekend of her life, as she’s marrying the wealthy Benji Winbury (Billy Howle), instead descends into chaos and madness after her maid of honor and best friend Merritt (Meghann Fahy) is found dead on the beach on the morning of what would have been her wedding day.
Hewson, who was born in Dublin, Ireland and adapts an undetectable American accent in the show, is constantly bouncing off characters with big personalities and bigger hidden agendas, from Nicole Kidman’s successful author Greer, to her aloof husband Tag (Liev Schreiber), to her pill-popping, asshole brother-in-law-to-be Thomas (Jack Reynor) and his pain-in-the-ass pregnant wife Abby (Dakota Fanning). There’s also Amelia’s own forbidden romance with Shooter (Ishaan Khatter), her fiancé’s best man who she kiiiiinda likes better than him. It’s a lot! And Hewson does a wonderful job of taking the role at the center of it all by the horns and balancing it all with a calm, likable demeanor. Plus, she’s having a whole lot of fun in the show’s opening dance sequence.
If it feels like Hewson is approaching the Amelia character with the steady hand of an acting veteran—after all, sharing scenes with Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, and all those others ain’t easy—it’s because, at this point, she is. Hewson has worked in a number of acclaimed films and series, and with a number of exciting and legendary directors, already in her career at the age of 33. And that’s not even counting her famous dad, who’s a guy you may have heard of before.
Eve Hewson’s latest great role is as Amelia in The Perfect Couple—and her dad happens to be Bono of U2.
Eve Hewson is actually the daughter of Bono—of U2 fame. You may not have put that together, but Bono’s government name is actually Paul David Hewson. Her mother is Ali Hewson, whom the frontman has been married to since 1982, and was famously the inspiration for many U2 songs including “Sweetest Thing.” The couple have three other children.
