Animal Kingdom: Ellen Barkin is One Bad Mother in TNT’s Sexy New Drama

The cast of Animal Kingdom on TNT
Animal Kingdom

Ellen Barkin is 62. Sixty. Two.

Trust me, you’re going to need to remind yourself of that mere moments into Animal Kingdom, TNT’s scorching, action-packed new drama based on the critically acclaimed 2010 Australian film starring Guy Pearce, Jacki Weaver and Blindspot’s Sullivan Stapleton.

Barkin — all tousled locks, burnished skin and plump pout — also rocks skyscraper heels, skinny jeans and plunging tanks like a boss as Janine “Smurf” Cody, matriarch of a crime family that is literally family. Though Smurf sits out the actual heists that have made her crew filthy rich, she rules her grown sons — scruffy, smart-mouthed testosterone cases Craig and Deran, spooky parolee Pope (real name: Andrew) and savvy, adopted Baz (real name: Barry) — with an iron will and silky persuasiveness that vacillates between mama-bear protectiveness and barely veiled seduction.

And when Smurf’s long-estranged, drug-addled daughter Julia — the only Cody not game for the game — ODs as her weary teen son “J” (real name: Joshua) sits beside her, blankly watching Press Your Luck as the medics do their thing, Smurf sees a chance to bolster her troops.

“It’s like, ‘OK, let’s go! We’ll take him through recruitment with the boys, and then he’s ready to go!’” says the mesmerizing Barkin, relaxing in a Pasadena restaurant with Scott Speedman, who plays Baz (and, indeed, gazes at his costar like a smitten son). “He’s another soldier for her. Also, in some ways, I take something away from my daughter, dead or alive. It’s like [Smurf] does end up having the final word.”

And one of her dead girl’s shirts, which Smurf wears to the burial — because nothing says “mourning mother” like pilfered gold lamé.

Thus begins an enthralling battle of wills as J moves into Grandma’s house just as the simmering Pope (Southland’s Shawn Hatosy) — sacrificed to a stint in the pokey after a run goes wrong — is released from prison and finds the perplexed lad living in his room. With his rank in the Cody army already threatened by Baz, and Smurf still miffed about his screwup, Pope arguably has the most to lose. And no intention of doing so.

The cast of Animal Kingdom on TNT
ANIMAL KINGDOM on TNT stars (l-r) Jake Weary, Finn Cole, Scott Speedman, Ellen Barkin, Ben Robson and Shawn Hatosy. Photo: FOX

So, as the lusty Deran and Craig test their nephew’s taste for life on the edge, Baz cultivates J’s considerable smarts — perhaps because he knows his brothers’ shared temperament. Or maybe because he wants to give the kid the escape hatch he, too, is mulling for the sake of his pretty girlfriend and their child. Could be both.

“J’s kind of mirroring what Baz went through to a certain degree, and that’s the fascinating part,” says Speedman. “That’s why I relate to him so much, and I think Shawn and I are going to really battle for that kid’s soul — his ‘innocence’ in a certain way. Baz is deeply conflicted at this time in his life. What does he want to be in this family? Where is he going to go? It’s going to be interesting to watch play out.”

Though the idea for the feature film was culled from Australia’s colorful Pettingill family and its glass-eyed matriarch, Kath, Barkin said that, in researching her character, she also considered her own sweet mom and grandmother and what it might take to break them bad. “What motivates a woman — especially at my age — to still be really actively involved in a life of crime and passing it on to her, not just sons, but now her grandson?” Barkin ruminates. “What’s the psychology of that?”

And what might it do to her progeny, especially when she’s not there to run the show?

“It’s not just about whether or not you’re your mother’s favorite — because their whole lifestyle depends on their mother,” Barkin reflects. “So if she cuts you, you’re done. It’s like, you’re done. You’re done in the neighborhood, you’re done in the community — you’re done. And she wields that power unapologetically. She knows it. She likes it.”

Barkin says she’s keen to see how the 10-episode series — which moves the action from Melbourne to Oceanside, Calif. — allows a deep dive into the film’s compelling characters, fleshing out who the boys’ dads were, why they still have rooms at Mama’s and, yes, why Mama seems to score her outfits at Forever 21.

“Being a woman who has probably arranged her whole entire life to be surrounded by men, I think appearance is always a big deal,” says Barkin of Smurf’s sultry ways. “But why is she inappropriately sexual with all her sons? Why are her clothes a little too tight and certainly too young? It’s like she’s using whatever currency she has, for as long as she has it.”

Then Barkin pauses a moment and smiles at Speedman.

“And,” she purrs, “if one of those boys were ugly, she wouldn’t like them so much. You know that’s true.”

MEET SMURF’S BOYS

Barry “Baz” Blackwell (Scott Speedman) —The careful one.
Adopted at age 12, Baz — played by Felicity’s Speedman — usurped his “birth” brothers as Smurf’s go-to guy in planning the family heists. But as Pope returns to the fold — and Baz’s gorgeous baby mama begs him to go straight for the sake of their daughter — Baz considers cutting the apron strings.

Andrew “Pope” Cody (Shawn Hatosy) — The creepy one.
 Smurf’s eldest son and Baz’s onetime buddy, Pope — played by Southland’s Hatosy — has a hair-trigger temper, an iffy grip on reality and a serious sense of entitlement, all of which are exacerbated by his incarceration, J’s arrival and the notion that his family is none too happy to have him home.

Craig Cody (Ben Robson) — The towering one
Smurf’s middle son — played by Vikings hunk Robson — likes his drugs, his ladies, showing off his bod and living on the edge. And though he’s the mega-muscle of the operation, a funny scene with his mama and a juicer in the series premiere makes it patently clear who’s running the show.

Deran Cody (Jake Weary) — The pretty baby.
He’s sexy and he knows it, but Smurf’s youngest — played by Pretty Little Liars’ Weary — is tired of being low man on the familial totem pole. Though he loves bashing heads and catching waves with big brother Craig, when J comes along and captures Smurf’s attention, Deran starts to rebel.

Joshua “J” Cody (Finn Cole) — The next generation
Tragedy lands J — played by Peaky Blinders’ Cole — at Smurf’s house after a 10-year estrangement. Swept up in a strange new world of power, affluence, testosterone and manipulation, the levelheaded J struggles to keep himself — and the girl he loves — from being seduced by a life of crime.

Animal Kingdom airs Tuesdays beginning June 14 on TNT

5 Comments

    • I love Ellen Barkin and think she has a cute slightly mischievous smile!!! I am 66 and most of my friends feel like our spouses don’t think of us sexual ..l hate that!!! I am still an attractive woman too!!! So l love that this mama is sexy and enjoys the power she has over that family of hunks!! But Smurf??? I am curious why??

  1. If the sexes were different, we’d see this as wholly creepy. Hell, it’s creepy as is.

  2. I saw the first episode and it was the best pilot of a drama series iv seen in years,this show will be huge!!!!

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About Lori Acken 1195 Articles
Lori just hasn't been the same since "thirtysomething" and "Northern Exposure" went off the air.