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What’s a wedding without a little dancing?

Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson) and Benji Winbury (Billy Howle)’s 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 Meghan Trainor number — fitting for this juicy murder mystery, titled “Criminals.”

“I’m especially excited for people to see the dance sequence that 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 in the end we had such a good time.”

The flash mob dance sequence — crafted by famed choreographer Charm La’Donna — accompanies the opening credits and serves to set the tone of the series. “It puts the show in a very specific space of, ‘This is a slightly heightened reality and as an audience you can allow yourself to have fun and enjoy it,’” director Susanne Bier tells Tudum. “There was something very joyful about everyone doing it.”

Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Netflix

Based on the best-selling novel by Elin Hilderbrand, the series follows Amelia as she prepares to marry Benji at his family’s Nantucket estate. The wedding is an East Coast dream, with oysters and seaside glamour galore—until a dead body suddenly turns up on the beach, upending all of Amelia’s meticulous planning, her future mother-in-law, Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman).

The original idea to feature 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 on her hands. (Who could forget Jenna Ortega’s moves to The Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck” at Nevermore Academy’s annual Rave’N dance party?) “We really liked that, so that was in the back of our minds,” The perfect couple Showrunner Jenna Lamia tells Tudum. “Although this is obviously a very different show, in terms of tone.”

Bier discovered Trainor’s bop during filming. She was given a few suggestions for songs for a planned dance sequence, but fell in love with Trainor’s “Criminals,” with its repeated lyric “Call us criminals, criminals,” which makes the audience ask along with the characters, “Who’s guilty? Who’s not guilty?”

Originally, the dance was supposed to take place at a completely different point in the series, as part of a nightmarish dream sequence at the beginning of Episode 5. However, it proved difficult for the production to film for practical reasons, so they changed course.

“Susanne had this really brilliant idea that if we used a dance like that as the opening credits, it would immediately tell people 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 says. “It’s really important, I think, that people realize that the tone of the show is not The undoor something Susanne has done before; this is a fun murder mystery. Sure, someone dies, but you also laugh.”

The cast learned the dance sequence, in which Bier advised La’Donna to Saturday night fever vibe, in a couple of days, max. “I learned it in 10 minutes,” Mia Isaac, who plays Chloe Carter, the teenage daughter of the police chief, told Netflix. “It’s a really easy dance. It’s kind of like the Macarena, so we got it down after a couple of takes.”

Ishaan Khatter, who plays the groom’s best friend and best man Shooter Dival, was thrilled to show off his dancing skills. “Where I come from in the Indian film industry, music is such a big part of our storytelling and our storytelling, and so it made me feel warm and comfortable in a way,” 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 feel like it had to be a TikTok-style dance right away, even though the cast and crew referred to it as that on set. “I was afraid that if it was a TikTok dance, it would be 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 time to perform the choreography, the director knew the cast was nervous and they kept telling her, “I don’t dance. I’m not dancing. I’ll be watching.” That resolution didn’t last long when Bier reminded them, “‘It’s not about perfection. It’s about having fun. Let’s just go for it!'” she says. “They all really threw themselves into it.”

Not to be missed, Bier also jumped into the flash mob with the cast — you can see that footage at the very end of Episode 6, after the credits. “I felt like I forced them to do this, (so) I’m going to expose myself and be really embarrassing and they can get their ‘nice revenge,'” Bier says, laughing. She wanted them to feel like, “‘OK, I’m so bad at this and you’re so good at this, and you can all laugh at me.'”

The opening credits are deliberately unusual — and Lamia absolutely loves them. “Doesn’t it make you happy to get up and learn the moves?” she says. “I can’t sit still when I watch them.”

Additional reporting by Keely Flaherty.

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