Madelaine Petsch isn’t just revving engines in ‘Maintenance Required’—she’s also helping to steer the story.
In Prime Video’s latest feature, the ‘Riverdale’ star takes on dual roles as both lead actor and producer, helping to bring the story to life with a deeply personal take on her character, Charlie: A car-loving, quietly complex woman navigating friendship, grief, and unexpected love.
To chat more about her role and experience working on the film, Petsch sat down with Metro to discuss this fresh, modern rom-com set to drop on the streaming platform this weekend.
What prompted you to want to sign on with this project as not only an actor but also a producer?
Honestly, Charlie. She’s a complicated character, and on the page, she was already strong and had found her way. But I think I felt that there was a way to nuance her and add some complexities that felt a little bit more three-dimensional [and] real. So when I came onto the project, I asked if they’d be comfortable with me coming in and doing some rewrites and being really close on the character. That naturally progressed into me producing the film.
The story is about three women and then it’s also about love, so it’s really important that the friendship feels real, that the connection feels real, and that Charlie feels real. On the page, she just loved cars and was mourning her father, [but] there’s so much more to people than just one thing. I can love acting, and I can also love being with my friends, and I can have a crush on somebody, and there’s more, you know what I mean? Sometimes it’s very easy to write something very linearly, and I kind of wanted to come in and just make her feel a little bit more well-rounded.
Were you involved with casting? What were you looking for dynamic-wise both for your love interest and with you on-screen group of friends?
I was involved in casting in terms of love interests. I chem read with three people, and Jacob (Scipio) was one of them. I’ve never had this experience before, where when I got off of the Zoom, I was like, it has to be him. There was just no question; there was no comparison between him and the other two. Something about him was so purely Beau, you couldn’t replicate it. So Jacob was a non-negotiable part for me.
And then in terms of the friends, I’ve known Madison Bailey for a long time. I’ve been a fan of hers forever, and we get along really well and I already knew it’d be nice to have somebody that I know that has that really bubbly energy for Izzy. That feels really important.
And then I’ve just been a long-time fan of Katy O’Brien and ‘Love Lies Bleeding’, and I’ve been watching her work forever. So when they brought her up for Kam, I was so excited and I was like, would she do that? I would love to have her. And then she did it. Katy O’Brien is such a star in this film and she has the funniest one-liners. And all of them were ad-libbed.
It sounds like there was a lot of room for improv on set for this. Is that normal for a rom-com?
I don’t know if it is normal, but we just got so lucky to have such a great set of talented actors who lean into comedy. Every day we were finding the scene together with improv, which was so fun. And I think it made every character feel a bit more lived in and authentic. I will say in the editing room, it made it tough because we didn’t always have the coverage for everything.
There are a couple of lines that I loved so much that we had to figure out how to work [it] in with coverage. But other than that, it was a really collaborative and a really fun, improvisational set. I don’t think that’s normal for a rom-com specifically, but I think it’s what makes this one shine—the personalities come out.
I saw that you also attended mechanic training for the role. What was that experience like?
It’s really important to me when I am playing a character that has a profession that to the best of my ability, I can understand the profession before I step on set. So I’m not in the hood of a car thinking about what I’m doing while I’m also performing. It wouldn’t happen like that, it won’t feel natural. So I had the luxury of time, and I got two months before the movie and then some time on set with a consultant as well.
I honestly really loved it. I think the most important thing that I learned from it is that it’s really therapeutic for me because there’s always an answer. It really is like a math problem. There’s always a way to fix something, and I found a lot of solace and peace in that. So I can still change a tire, change your brake pads, radiator, radiator hose. I can take apart a carburetor and put it back together. I can do all the fluids and oil change, all that kind of stuff.
The enemies to lovers storyline is a big and popular trope in the romance world. Is that fun to film?
It is. Actually, I think it’s one of my favorite things to play. As enemies to lovers, I like to have that relationship with someone where I can verbally spar in a fun way. And I think when it comes to the enemies-to-lovers trope, it helps so much that I usually will find costars that there is that verbal sparring back and forth or banter, if you will. That helps with that tension in those scenes a great deal. It’s actually such a fun thing to play because in order to feel like enemies, you have to really love each other and vice versa.
‘Maintenance Required’ also brings the world of online dating into the story. What does the digital aspect bring to the story?
It’s definitely challenging more than anything just to track. It’s basically two separate relationships for Charlie. So the most important thing was tracking where is she with [her online relationship] and where is she with Beau, and when do those two things intersect? And then for him, he finds out so much earlier that she’s Grease Monkey. So it’s more tracking the two separate storylines of the same characters than anything else. But I think it’s the only way to modernize these movies. We have to have digital in there because we are in a digital age now.
Overall, what do you people walk away thinking or feeling after watching the film?
All I hope is that they walk away with a big smile on their face. I don’t think there’s any overarching message that needs to be taken away, but I think it’s just meant to make you feel good. And I hope it does it well.
‘Maintenance Required’ premieres globally on Prime Video Oct. 8
