Lizzy Caplan says bunny-boiler scene is worse in new Fatal Attraction

Lizzy Caplan stars in the new TV remake of Fatal Attraction, and says that a rabbit suffers a fate worse than death when the show pays homage to the movie’s most famous scene.

Caplan stars opposite Joshua Jackson and Amanda Peet in this new version of the Fatal Attraction story, which starts on Paramount+ this Sunday.

It’s a remake of the 1987 film, in which a man has an extramarital affair with a woman, and when he tries to break it off, said woman makes his life hell, coming after both him and his family.

In one particularly memorable scene, she boils up their pet rabbit. A sequence that the new show revisits, but with an apparent twist.

Lizzy Caplan says bunny-boiler scene is worse in new Fatal Attraction

Lizzy Caplan plays woman scorned Alex Forrest in the forthcoming series. But she and showrunner Alex Cunningham wanted to explore mental health issues through the character in a way that the movie didn’t. Meaning boiled bunnies were off the menu.

“If you’re trying to tell a story where you’re trying to humanize someone with mental health struggle,” Cunningham tells The Hollywood Reporter. “For better or worse we know they can’t kill an animal. We definitely wanted the rabbit to be a real part of it, but I came in knowing I wasn’t going to kill it.”

Caplan herself says she’s been surprised at attitudes to said scene, telling THR: “Times have changed, and yet I would argue that killing a rabbit maybe would have been better than what she actually does in the show. It’s been very funny, obviously it’s one of the most iconic parts of that movie, but there’s a bloodlust to people when they ask that question, ‘What happens to the rabbit?’ People want that rabbit to die!”

Why Glenn Close hasn’t seen new Fatal Attraction

Glenn Close played Alex Forrest in the Fatal Attraction movie, but in the same interview, Cunningham revealed that she hasn’t seen the new show.

The showrunner was given Close’s email to reach out, but chose not to to protect the actress. “I really thought about it and then I was like, you know what, so many people are going to ask her if she’s seen it and what she thinks, and she’s so kind that if we brought her into our inner sanctum, she’d feel like she couldn’t say she didn’t like it,” Cunningham explains. “So I sent her a long email like, ‘Look, I would love nothing more than to use this excuse to get close to you, but honestly I want you to be able to tell people if you don’t like it, and I know you wouldn’t do that if you liked us.”

The first three episodes of Fatal Attraction hit Paramount+ on Sunday, while you can see the rest of the release plan as well as everything else we know about the show here.