The first time most of the nation will tuck into Missing You, the latest in an ever growing list of Harlan Coben novels adapted into Netflix series, they will do so from beneath bed covers strewn with hangover-quenching takeaway wrappers.
It’s out on New Years Day (1 January), and like last year’s Fool Me Once, the twisty-turny, five-part thriller will almost certainly become the day’s go-to binge watch for anyone whose brain is in need of numbing.
For actress Mary Malone, the first time she saw herself in one of the miniseries’ full episodes was in November, in a swish hotel basement cinema. She recalls first seeing a clip of her character Aqua in action before this – “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, who is this?’ Because that’s how I would feel seeing a trans person in a Harlan Coben series” – but seeing episode one in its totality was a moment of self-realisation.
“Watching it now, I really was able to see myself as a part of it, and not just this tick-box person. So yeah, I think it’s sinking in that it’s a huge deal for me and my career.”
In Missing You, Detective Kat Donovan (Slow Horses star Rosalind Eleazar) discovers her former fiancé Josh (Top Boy’s Ashley Walters) on a dating app, despite him disappearing without trace 11 years prior following the murder of her detective father (Lenny Henry).
Kat wants answers – who really killed her father and why; where has Josh been for the past decade – but ends up with more questions than conclusions. At work, under the heavy-handed direction of her boss Ellis Stagger (Harlan Coben stalwart Richard Armitage), she becomes embroiled in a strange string of missing persons cases in her Manchester town. It’s typical Coben: all soapy melodrama and glossy action, cliffhangers and serendipity.
Malone, who until now was best known for a small part in Doctor Who and a head-turning lead role as Jules in cult musical Fangirls, is Aqua, a yoga teacher and Kat’s closest friend.
“She’s an astrology girly to the core. She’s a Gemini witchy queen,” Malone smiles, cozying up in the hotel’s restaurant post-screening, wearing a frilled white shirt, grey skirt and knee-high socks. The relationship between Aqua and Kat has “like a mother and daughter energy, but also it switches between them both frequently,” Malone explains. “Aqua has just really always got her back and has been there through the hardest times.”
Is it safe to assume then that Aqua is involved in the series’ juiciest revelations? Malone, with the poise of a laser-dodging lead in a heist movie, attempts to answer without spoilers. “As with all, like, real friendships, there’s, like, difficult times, and because they’re almost like family, it’s not all… it’s not, you know, things do get complicated,” she laughs.
It’s a Coben adaptation, so viewers will be expecting Aqua to be involved in all the biggest thrills, I suggest. “She is intertwined in the complex spider web that is Missing You. She’s woven in. She’s not this trans side character. She’s an essential part of the narrative. I don’t know if I can talk about stunts,” she says carefully.
“You can say you got involved in that,” a PR for the show, sat with us, offers gently.
Malone slaps her knees with glee. “I got to do some stunts which is really exciting, really fun, something I’ve not done before, and I really enjoyed it,” she says breathlessly. The trailer for the series arrives weeks after we speak and shows Aqua weeping, wielding a knife, and revealing that she is more involved in Josh’s cobwebbed back story than her friend Kat is aware.
Missing You the novel came out in early 2014, at the dawn of a surge of LGBTQ+ representation in media. Laverne Cox had only just arrived in Orange Is The New Black, and fully-realised trans characters were all but non-existent in TV, film and, clearly, books. Aqua appears in Coben’s novel, but is deemed Kat’s “transvestite” friend, a person seemingly confused about whether they are trans, gay, or a cross-dresser, though this is likely due to Coben’s own misunderstanding of the LGBTQ+ community at the time of writing. Following the screening, the author admitted Malone had brought Aqua to life in a way that didn’t translate on his original pages.
“I guess what Harlan is talking about is he wrote about a trans character quite a few years ago, and giving that voice to a trans woman today, I think I’ve added myself to it, and been able to really ground her in a real life trans human,” Malone says, agreeing that the character has “changed a lot from the book”.
She’s got a “rich complexity” to her Malone adds, where “she’s not all good, and she’s not all bad, and I think she’s a real human with a lot going on, which is really a joy to play”.
While it wasn’t initially clear, Malone soon learnt that Netflix was specifically looking for a trans actress to play Aqua as a trans woman. It was “really beautiful, because that means it was for us too. We got to have that,” she says. On set, she received tailored support from Trans+ On Screen, an initiative supporting people under the trans umbrella in all areas of TV and film. They answered questions from Missing You’s executives about authentic trans representation so Malone didn’t have to, and helped bolster her confidence.
“I really think it was just a vital part in me feeling comfortable there. I think obviously I got the part for a reason, I had what they were looking for, but to tell myself that is really hard. When you’ve got someone else [there] and you look out and you see someone like you, that’s what allows me to let go of that anxiety and give what I need to give,” Malone says. “I just always felt safe.”
The Missing You cast and crew, too, were a huge part in her feeling like she belonged. Armitage, who is queer himself, recently heaped praise on Malone, dubbing her performance a “revelation”. “Richard is just like so, so completely sweet and approachable and lovely, and checked in a lot with me. So, I’m really grateful for him,” she shares.
“Working with Ros [Eleazar] was really special. She’s such a generous actor, and we spoke a lot and texted a lot. And, you know, on any hard days on set, she was really there for me, texting up late at night. She’d be there to reassure me,” adds Malone. For her first series regular role, she didn’t exactly pussyfoot around, going straight in with a big Coben adaptation on Netflix. She felt “the pressure, but it’s also the hours, and it’s… you know, it’s hard work,” she laughs again.
“Sometimes that would get to me but mostly I would say it’s just nerves and visioning yourself. I feel like confidence is a real make or break with acting, and sometimes you’ve got all the talent under you but if you’re too scared to be there, it’s really hard to blossom and flourish.”
“Flourishing” is exactly the word to describe Malone’s career right now, despite her nerves. At the beginning of 2024, Coban’s Fool Me Once was so big that it ended up plastered on billboards across New York’s Times Square, and became the most-watched Netflix show of the year’s first half, with more than 100 million views. Missing You will likely be a similar success.
In addition to imposter syndrome, Malone has previously spoken about being on the receiving end of online, anti-trans bigotry following her Doctor Who appearance. She’s braced for heightened abuse and backlash, considering Missing You’s potential scale, but is more looking towards the opportunities it might bring for the wider trans community.
“Everyone watched Fool Me Once, you know? Everyone loves Harlan Coben, and I just think there’s a really wide reach that this can provide,” the actress says. “I think it’s an opportunity to reach people who maybe haven’t met someone like me. The narrative really does not surround her gender identity, so I think that’s great representation, and accurate representation that we actually are just living our lives.”
There’s also the gleam it will undoubtedly add to her acting résumé. “Having done it, I hope everyone can see this and see that like, I’ve got this,” she beams. “You know, maybe I could be trusted to play bigger roles and allowed to play… maybe cis roles. Maybe more leads. I really hope it can be something to look at and be like, Mary did that.”
Missing You is streaming on Netflix now.
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