Why does ‘The Perfect Couple’ start with a choreographed dance? Stars explain

"The Perfect Couple," a six-episode Netflix murder mystery series, features an opening credits scene so outlandish and memorable the cast can't help but laugh while explaining its origin story.

"Why did we shoot the rest of the show?" Ishaan Khatter, who plays Shooter Dival, tells TODAY.com.

"We should have just done a whole music video sequence and put out six hours of us dancing," Eve Hewson, who plays Amelia Sacks, adds with a smile.

"The Perfect Couple," based on Elin Hilderbrand’s novel of the same name, is set on the island of Nantucket in the days before before Amelia Sacks and Benji Winbury's lavish wedding.

But when the bride's maid of honor Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy) washes up dead on the shore of Benji's family home the morning of the wedding, paradise turns into a nightmare as everyone begins to question who could be innocent — and who could be a suspect.

Despite the show's intensity, each episode kicks off with a lighthearted, made-for-TikTok line dance. In it, the actors wear their outfits for the rehearsal dinner, as if this was something their characters all really did.

The cast of the show, including Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning and more, stand together on the beach and perform a choreographed dance routine to Meghan Trainor’s "Criminals."

The lyrics to "Criminals" match the vibe of the show: "Anything that feels this good/ Well, it must be illegal."

Trainor tells TODAY.com she felt her song and the show were "a match made in heaven."

"I was so excited about the opportunity for my song to be included, and even more excited once I saw it brought to life in this opening number," Trainor said in a statement. "It has been a life long dream of mine to have one of my songs be used as the intro for a show and to have this many icons dancing along is just too good to be true."

"My best friend and role model, Charm La’Donna, was the one that did the choreography for this song in the show," Trainor continued. "I couldn’t think of a more perfect person for that role than Charm."

Hewson and Khatter explain how the dance came together from their perspectives.

"It was really a surprise thing that (director) Susanne Bier sent us over our Christmas break, and we didn't know what it was either," Hewson says. "Like, we were just as confused."

"I think it's in the same theme and spirit of being suspenseful and not letting anyone know the next move, à la a murder mystery," Khatter adds. "So she kind of murder mystery-ed us. She didn't let us know that was coming until the very last moment, and then we had to do it, and the rest is history."

Hewson says members of the cast were a bit skeptical of Bier's idea, but eventually went along with it.

"I think it was an idea that just came to (Bier), she was like, 'Just do this.' And we were like, 'Well, what is this for?' Like, 'How does this fit into the story?' Like, 'Why would our characters all be doing a dance that they've all learned?' And she just kept saying, 'Just do it,'" Hewson recalls.

"And honestly, up until a few weeks ago, we didn't know if it had made it into the show," she continues. "We'd been texting each other, like, 'Anybody hear anything about that TikTok dance?' 'Nope, didn't hear anything, I think we're good! I think it's not in there.' And then boom — it's the opening credits."

Charm La'Donna, the choreographer behind the routine, tells TODAY.com about creating the dance.

"Susanne envisioned the dance with a 'Saturday Night Fever' vibe to offset the murder mystery theme of the film in a light-hearted way," La'Donna said in a statement. "It was such a fun idea to work with and Meghan’s song 'Criminals' was a perfect fit for it. I really enjoyed creating this with them. The cast got really into it!"

Bier told Netflix's Tudum the dance wasn't originally thought of to be a TikTok dance, but that's what the cast and crew started referring to it as.

"I was worried that if it was a TikTok dance, it would be out of fashion by the time the series came out," Bier said. "It had to be something which didn’t have a sell-by date."

According to Tudum, the original idea to have a dance in the series came from executive producer Gail Berman, who was also a producer on "Wednesday," which also had a viral dance moment. Jenna Ortega got down to "Goo Goo Muck" by The Cramps.

Jenna Lamia, showrunner for "The Perfect Couple," shared more about the dance and how it came together on the show.

"Susanne had this really brilliant thought that if we were to use a dance like that as the opening credits, it would tell people right away that, yes, this is a murder mystery, and yes, it’s a thriller, but you’re also going to have so much fun, so sit back and enjoy the ride," Lamia told Tudum.

"It’s really important, I think, that people realize the tone of the show is not 'The Undoing,' or something that Susanne has done before; this is a fun murder mystery," Lamia continued. "Sure, somebody’s going to be dead, but you’re also going to laugh."

"The Undoing" is another based-on-a-book thriller about a married couple with secrets starring Kidman, although it aired on HBO.

"Perfect Couple," which premiered on Sept. 5, was already getting some reactions on social media as of Thursday morning.

"The Perfect Couple opening credits will not be getting skipped," one X user posted.

"Can’t stop thinking about how the new nicole kidman series on netflix opens with the entire cast doing a synchronized dance to a meghan trainor song," another user wrote on X.

One X user compared the opening sequence to HBO's "The White Lotus," which received widespread praise from fans for the fun songs used in its intros.

"The White Lotus: I have the best opening credits ever," the X user wrote. "The Perfect Couple: Hold my beer…"

"Every frame of The Perfect Couple opening credits is perfect," the streamer declared on X.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com