Dakota Fanning’s Pregnancy In 'The Perfect Couple' Isn't The Only Mystery: Is The Actress Really Expecting?

The Perfect Couple is Netflix's new murder mystery that has an impressive ensemble cast featuring Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning, and Eve Hewson. But the real mystery is whether Dakota Fanning is pregnant in real life.

Dakota Fanning plays the very pregnant Abby Winbury in The Perfect Couple. Abby is the groom Benji’s sister-in-law. She’s married to Benji’s older brother, Thomas, and they’re expecting their first child together. Fanning previously worked with director Susanne Bier on The First Lady and she would gladly work for her— even if she’s acting as a pregnant woman. “She is a person that I can confidently say [I would] do anything for, and I trust her implicitly as a director and as a person,” Fanning told Tudum.

In the show, Abby’s belly seems late in her pregnancy term—with a very obvious bump when she’s wearing normal clothes and even when she’s wearing a swimsuit. The bump looks a little too realistic for us.

Dakota Fanning wasn’t pregnant during the filming of The Perfect Couple, so that’s quite an impressive pregnant prosthetic. She also doesn’t seem pregnant in real life now, and the actress hasn’t announced the birth of a child since filming the show. Also from looking at her Instagram feed, it seems like she hasn’t sported the pregnant belly in photos either.

However, being a mom isn’t out of the picture for her. She’s ready to take on the role of being a mom. “Being an actor is a huge part of my identity. I don’t really know who I am without it,” Fanning confessed to PORTER. “But I also have a desire to set up my life and career so that I always have a choice. Having kids is probably more important to me than anything, even being an actor. If somebody said I had to choose, I would choose having kids. I’m one of those people who has always felt that pull.”

Fanning hasn’t been in a public relationship since she was dating Henry Frye in 2017. They attended two sports games at Madison Square Garden at the time and wore matching couple outfits. Regardless of relationship status, it seems like Fanning is open to the conversation of motherhood and maybe The Perfect Couple is a good start!

The Perfect Couple: A Star-Studded Murder Mystery

The Perfect Couple is based on Elin Hildebrand’s best-selling novel of the same name. The series opens on the idyllic rehearsal dinner for Benji Winbury and Amelia Sacks’s hastened Nantucket wedding. Since Amelia’s mother is dying of cancer, Benji’s family rearranged their Fourth of July to host a fabulous society wedding at their home, Summerland. However, the wedding doesn’t happened because a dead body is found on the Winbury property the morning of the “happy day.”

Like other glamorous, star-studded, murder mystery shows, The Perfect Couple plays with timeline and perspective to keep its audience on its toes. We flit back and forth between the present and the past, learning new details about key characters or finally seeing an exchange from a fresh perspective. In many ways, Fanning’s performance does this heavy lifting for Abby. The way she flits between kindness and cruelty, confidence and jealousy leaves you feeling like you’ve never quite figured Abby out, even if the character feels so wholly familiar.

Dakota Fanning’s “Hot Rich Bitch” Era

It goes without saying that playing uppity rich bitches is nothing new to Dakota Fanning. Besides breathing fresh life into Marge Greenwood in this past spring’s Ripley, she also famously played a pint-sized Park Avenue princess in the 2003 hit Uptown Girls. Abigal Winbury feels like this template’s final form. She’s a complicated character who seems obvious at first glance. Ergo, the work of a maestro.

The Perfect Couple made me realize how much we, as a culture, take Dakota Fanning for granted. When she was a precocious child actress, she was routinely feted for her brilliant performances. Now, at the still tender age of 30, she’s matured into a performer who is still offering us new, refreshing angles of the human experience. Her craft is unmatched and it’s only getting better before our eyes. Abigail Winbury is proof of that.

Dakota Fanning: A Nuanced Performance

There’s a scene in Netflix‘s The Perfect Couple, specifically in Episode 5 “Never Gonna Give You Up,” where someone walks in on Dakota Fanning‘s Abby Winbury doing something she’s not supposed to be doing. The well-heeled, vintage-dressed, pregnant blonde woman is packing up a murder victim’s clothing. It sounds like a kindness, but it’s also tampering with a crime scene.

“If they have a problem with me packing up [the victim’s] things, then they can arrest me,” Abby says. “But they won’t. Because I’m a white woman.”

“So gross,” she says in a way that lets you know she doesn’t actually think so.

Throughout the rest of the scene — and, indeed, throughout all of The Perfect Couple — Dakota Fanning manages to simultaneously be both brilliantly vapid and penetrating in her observations. Moments of clear-eyed empathy for her would-be sister-in-law Amelia (Eve Hewson) make Abby feel not just human, but likable. But then the cruel glee with which she joins asshole husband Tom (Jack Reynor) in taunting his brother, the groom-to-be, Benji (Billy Howle) reveals a base meanness that links her to her spouse.

Dakota Fanning is utterly incredible in The Perfect Couple, pirouetting between comedy and drama, fakeness and sincerity with each and every line delivery. What’s wild is how effortless the former child star makes the nuanced performance. You might not even realize how detailed, inventive, and clever her turn as Abby is until the final credits roll.