Brooke Shields: Amateur sleuths clash, collaborate on 'Killing Me'

NEW YORK, May 25 (UPI) --Suddenly Susan and Lipstick Jungle alum Brooke Shields says the age difference between the two main characters in You're Killing Me offers as much insight as it does humor.

Airing on Acorn TV Mondays, the new series follows Shields' mystery writer Allie as she teams up with a 20-something-year-old, true-crime podcaster Andi (Amalia Williamson) to figure out who killed another author during a book convention in a small New England town.

"The generational gap between these two is something that I thought was really important to highlight. It can be very comedic. It gives you a lot to work with, but, also, my character Allie, doesn't have a daughter. She has a son," Shields, 60, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"So, this is the first sort of female/maternal relationship that she's had and she doesn't want to project onto Andi, but she also wants to be able to share with her. She wants to help her. So, that's so layered in their relationship, which I think is just very touching and interesting. That's the heart, 'the feels' as they call this."

The comedy comes naturally from having people with little in common forced to collaborate, according to Shields.

"They don't agree. They have different skill sets. Allie's much more interested in story and motive and looking at where a character is in their life and why they would do something, why they would act that way," Shields explained.

"Whereas, Andi is saying, 'Well, there's a scuff on the carpet, that's consistent with this...' So, the combination of those two sensibilities makes for a good detective team. So, they're thrown together. They don't really like each other and then that kind of tension just lends itself towards, 'Together, we can be stronger than apart.'"

Allie is also in a bit of a rut when she meets Andi.

For example, Allie's book editor wants her to take a break from her writing stories about one popular character and try something new.

"My character also needs to learn from a younger generation female who can help her let go of some stuff. Don't take herself so seriously," Shields said.

"Maybe she can have some fun. My character is also there to say: 'Hey, stay focused on what can create longevity for you," she added.

"Don't be so having fun and frivolous that your brain can carry you further, but you've got to access it and use it and, so, there's this really interesting kind of female dynamic. We make fun of each other all the time, but it's done with respect. That's the character part that you keep going back to."

Allie might seem like a television archetype, but Shields is fine with that because this type of character has been beloved for decades.

"There's the crime solving," she said. "It's Only Murders in the Building or Murder She Wrote -- all those characters that we can laugh with, be entertained by and still go to sleep at night [after watching]."

Tom Cavanagh plays Jack, the local police detective with whom Allie and Andi keep crossing paths.

"He actually grounds us, as much as we fight him," Shields said.

"We don't ask for permission. We even barely ask for forgiveness. He's by the rule book, so we're always kind of ruining his investigation, but then, in turn, solving it," she added.

"So, he's got this sort of push-pull with us and there's an attraction between the Jack character and my character Allie and, so, there's a lot going on and, yet, there's a murder every week and somehow the combined effort of all of us is able to kind of get this going."

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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 10:48 PM.