Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545302
pple TV's Margo's Got Money Troubles is a comedic fami- ly drama that follows recent college dropout and aspiring writer Margo (Elle Fanning), the daughter of an ex-Hooters waitress (Michelle Pfeiffer) and ex-pro wrestler (Nick Offerman), as she's forced to make her way with a new baby and a mounting pile of bills. The series also stars Marcia Gay Harden, Greg Kinnear, Michael Angarano, Rico Nasty and Lindsey Normington. The show is based on Rufi Thorpe's best-selling novel of the same name. Margo's Got Money Troubles premiered on April 15th with three epi- sodes, and new episodes followed every Wednesday through May 20th. Ciara Elwis is an Emmy-winning music supervisor and recently oversaw mu- sic for the show. Known for her work on HBO's I May Destroy You, which earned her the 2021 Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Supervision, Ciara recently shared insight into her work on the eight-episode series. Ciara, what were the music needs for Margo's Got Money Troubles? "One of the most exciting creative challenges of this series was finding a musical language that could hold all its contradictions at once: intimate and anarchic, deeply rooted in family and wildly contemporary, poignant and defiantly alive. Rather than approaching the soundtrack as a collection of needle drops, we approached it as a family tree. "I built three playlists from the outset, Margo's world (Elle Fanning), Shyanne's world (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Jinx's world (Nick Offerman), mapping not just character taste, but character DNA. The connective tissue between Juice Newton and King Princess, between Sheena Easton and Clairo, is not just tonal but thematic. At their core, these songs are about desire, resilience and the refusal to apologize for who you are. The through- line is Margo. "The music also needed to reflect a specific storytelling device from the novel that the series continues: the shift between first and third person. Some tracks play from deep inside Margo's subjective experience. Others observe her from the outside, the way the world sees her or the way she sometimes sees herself. Rico Nasty's 'iPhone' and Princess Nokia's 'Drop Dead Gorgeous' are emphatically third-person tracks, the Margo she is performing for the world. CMAT's 'Take a Sexy Picture of Me' and St. Vincent's 'Big Time Nothing' are first person, capturing the vulnera- bility and private questioning beneath the persona. The music holds both versions of her simultaneously." How many music cues did the series require? "The series features over 80 needle drops across the eight episodes, span- ning an extraordinarily broad musical range — from Dire Straits and Motley Crue to CMAT and Princess Nokia. Beyond the needle drops, the series also features a significant number of diegetic cast performances, including Michelle Pfeiffer covering Elvis's 'I Can't Help Falling In Love With You,' Elle Fanning performing Reba McEntire's 'Is There Life Out There?,' Michelle Pfeiffer and Elle Fanning delivering an incredible rendition of 'Angel of the Morning,' Greg Kinnear and Michelle Pfeiffer duetting on 'Let It Be Me,' and an Elvis impersonator rendi- tion of 'Burning Love.' "The density of music across the series reflects a very deliberate creative choice. Needle drops are woven into the fabric of every episode as a narrative and char- acter device, tracking Margo's emotional journey, seeding the influence of her parents' worlds and bridging the multi- generational story with the very online contemporary world she discovers." How did budget come into play? "Budget is always part of the creative conversation, and this series was no exception. The most direct example is 'Rebel Yell.' The track that was originally scripted ended up being more expen- sive than we'd anticipated, and whilst an excellent song, we knew that, given the scale of our music aspirations for the series, we needed to make smart choic- es to ensure the budget worked for us. I pitched 'Rebel Yell' as an alternative, and I'm so glad that's where we landed. "'Rebel Yell' has something the origi- nal song did not — a deep undercurrent of yearning and the sense of a soul wanting to be set free, which works so perfectly for this moment of unity between Shyanne and Margo. It is bold, jagged and real — just like them. It is a good reminder that sometimes hav- ing to stop and re-think can take you somewhere even better than where you started." Can you talk about some of the tracks that helped shape certain scenes? "Two of the music choices in Episode 5 were essential in mirroring the highs and lows of the episode. 'Angel of the Morning' by Juice Newton was transfor- mative for the opening drive to Vegas at the start of Episode 5. We explored sev- eral options and versions of the song, but Juice Newton's recording kept asserting itself as the version that felt most true to Shyanne — the one she would have loved and known by heart. "We shot the performance live on the day, which was a big creative risk, but one that paid off completely thanks to Michelle and Elle's incredible perfor- mances. The song works so perfectly for this scene because of what it says about the women at the heart of this series. MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLES CIARA ELWIS SHARES THE THOUGHT PROCESS BEHIND THE MUSIC FOR THIS NEW APPLE TV SERIES A SOUNDTRACK www.postmagazine.com 30 POST MAY/JUNE 2026 Music supervisor Ciara Elwis