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What would a wedding be without a little dancing?

Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson) and Benji Winbury’s (Billy Howle) wedding weekend in The perfect couple is no exception. But in this case, every guest/cast member comes together to dance the same choreography to a song by Meghan Trainor – fitting for this juicy crime thriller called “Criminals.”

“The thing I’m most excited for people to see is the dance scene we shot,” Meghann Fahy, who plays the bride’s best friend and maid of honor, Merritt Monaco, told Netflix. “We were all a little nervous about it, but we ended up having so much fun.”

The flash mob dance sequence – designed by renowned choreographer Charm La’Donna – accompanies the opening credits and serves to set the tone of the series. “It puts a very specific atmosphere in the show of ‘This is a slightly heightened reality and as an audience you can allow yourself to have fun and enjoy it,'” says director Susanne Bier Tudum. “It was very gratifying that everyone joined in.”

Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Netflix

The series is based on the bestselling novel by Elin Hilderbrand and follows Amelia as she prepares for her wedding to Benji on his family’s estate on Nantucket. The wedding is an East Coast dream, with oysters and plenty of seaside glamour, until a body turns up on the beach, disrupting the careful planning of Amelia’s future mother-in-law, Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman).

The original idea to show a dance in the series came from executive producer Gail Berman. Also a producer of WednesdayBerman knew the value of having a viral dance routine under his belt. (Who could forget Jenna Ortega’s moves to The Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck” at the Nevermore Academy’s annual Rave’N Dance?) “We thought that was really funny, so we kind of had that in the back of our minds,” The perfect couple Showrunner Jenna Lamia tells Tudum: “Obviously, it’s a completely different show in terms of tone.”

Bier discovered Trainor’s bop during filming. She received several song suggestions for a planned dance sequence, but fell in love with Trainor’s “Criminals,” with its recurring lyric, “Call us criminals, criminals,” which prompts the audience to ask along with the characters, “Who’s guilty? Who’s not guilty?”

The dance was originally supposed to take place somewhere else in the series, as part of a nightmarish dream sequence at the beginning of Episode 5. However, it turned out that it would have been difficult to film it there for practical reasons, so the order was changed.

“Susanne had the brilliant idea that if we used a dance like this as the opening credits, we would immediately tell people that while it is a crime thriller, yes, it is a thriller, they are also going to have a lot of fun, so sit back and enjoy the ride,” says Lamia. “I think it’s really important that people realise that the tone of the show is not The downfallor something Susanne has done before; it’s an entertaining crime thriller. Sure, someone will die, but you’ll laugh too.”

The cast learned the dance sequence in which Bier advised La’Donna to Saturday Night Fever mood, in a couple of days, max. “I learned it in 10 minutes,” Mia Isaac, who plays Chloe Carter, the police chief’s teenage daughter, told Netflix. “It’s a very simple dance. It’s a bit like Macarena style, so we got the hang of it after a couple of tries.”

Ishaan Khatter, who plays the groom’s best friend and best man Shooter Dival, loved busting out his dancing skills. “Where I come from, in the Indian film industry, music is a very big part of our narratives and stories, and so in a way I felt comfortable doing it,” he told Netflix. “I mean, where else would you see Nicole Kidman, Isabelle Adjani and all these veterans doing a TikTok dance? It’s like a fever dream.”

Bier didn’t think it should be a TikTok-style dance outright, although the cast and crew briefly referred to it that on set. “I was afraid that if it was a TikTok dance, it would go out of style by the time the show came out,” Bier says. “It had to be something that didn’t have an expiration date.”

Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Netflix

When it came to performing the choreography, the director knew that the actors were nervous and kept telling her: “I don’t dance. I not Dancing. I’ll watch.” But that resolution didn’t last long, because beer reminded them all: “It’s not about perfection. It’s about having fun. Let’s just do it!” she says. “They all really got into it.”

Not wanting to miss anything, Bier also jumped into the flash mob with the cast – the footage can be seen at the very end of Episode 6 after the credits. “I felt like I forced them to do it, (so) I’m going to put myself out there and be really embarrassing and they can get their ‘funny revenge,'” Bier says, laughing. She wanted them to feel like, “‘OK, I’m so bad at this and you guys are so great at it, and you can all have permission to laugh at me.'”

The opening credits are intentionally unusual – and Lamia is absolutely thrilled about it. “Don’t you want to get up and learn the moves?” she says. “I can’t sit still when I see it.”

Additional reporting by Keely Flaherty.

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