By George & Josh Bate
The first (and thankfully not last) season of Apple TV’s acclaimed dramedy series Margo’s Got Money Troubles just concluded with the release of its eighth episode. The season finale capped off a rare piece of topical modern media that examines the empowerment, exposure, judgment, morality, and art associated with being an OnlyFans model in rousing fashion as Margo (Elle Fanning) faced off against the father of her child (Michael Angarano) in court.
For those unfamiliar, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a quirky and heartwarming family dramedy starring Elle Fanning as Margo Millet, a university freshman whose life is turned upside down when an affair with her English professor Mark (Michael Angarano) leaves her pregnant. Struggling to make ends meet and navigating a tumultuous relationship with her mother and former Hooters waitress Shyanne (Michelle Pfeiffer), Margo unexpectedly reconnects with her estranged father and former wrestler Jinx (Nick Offerman) after he gets out of rehab. With wisdom from her father, Margo turns to OnlyFans to support herself, a decision that reaps enormous rewards and dire consequences.
The HoloFiles recently had the opportunity to speak with Margo’s Got Money Troubles star Michael Angarano about his “universally disliked” character, whether Mark is redeemed by the end of the season, the high-stakes finale, what to expect from Season 2, and more. Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Showrunner David E. Kelley’s series has received rave reviews from critics and fans alike, with us recently naming it our favorite new show of 2026 to date. Angarano reflected on why the series about a young mother creating OnlyFans content to support her child is resonating so strongly with so many. “It is a great show, and I feel really lucky to be involved, even though Mark is pretty universally disliked,” Angarano said. “I think the show itself really presents these flawed characters in a pretty blunt and also optimistic light. It shows dysfunction in a way that doesn’t judge…You can’t help but root for these people, even though they’re in dire circumstances and make questionable decisions.”
Angarano is right. Everyone in Margo’s Got Money Troubles makes mistakes or says things they probably shouldn’t, and yet one can’t help but care for them every step of the way. Elle Fanning’s titular character’s creation of an OnlyFans account proves to be a fateful decision as everyone in her life, to varying degrees, expresses judgment toward her. “I feel like Margo is a character who also is very dignified and holds a pretty direct moral compass with what she feels, and yet she has a lot of empathy,” Angarano remarked. “And you can see it through her relationship with her father and her relationship with her mom, even her roommates. I feel like Margo as a character is a window to the audience, where she’s not judging people, because she knows she makes these decisions herself.”
While Margo errs in the eyes of some by posting risque videos and pictures of her alter ego HungryGhost online, Angarano’s Mark behaves in a manner few can justify. After Margo discovers that she is pregnant in the first episode, she informs Mark, who immediately jumps to the assumption that Margo intends to have an abortion. Mark then ghosts Margo, only for his former student to confront him in a shopping mall parking lot while he’s with his family. Further developments in the series see Mark’s overbearing mother Elizabeth step in and eventually instigate a custody battle for Mark and Margo’s baby, which culminates in Season 1’s explosive finale.
Angarano discussed how Mark, initially introduced as a well put together English professor, deevolves over the course of the season. “I feel like what you see in Mark in the beginning of the season is his presentation of who he is,” Angarano stated. “He’s a professor, he’s smart, he has money, he has a family. He’s presenting as this together guy and then, over course of the show, a lot of it happens off-screen for Mark, but it’s really the de-evolution of a guy or the deconstruction of a guy.”
Angarano continued, “It was always the plan to make Mark the furthest version of himself by episodes 7 and 8, for better or for worse. What you see in the beginning is not exactly the person he is by the end, because, by the end, he’s stripped of a lot of things….He’s without those pillars that he had to stand on – his job, his position, his mom, his family, all of those things are taken away from him. You get more of a sense, and he gets more of a sense, of who he really is.”
Mark’s true form comes to light as his mother, played superbly by Marcia Gay Harden, steps into the family drama and shows just how domineering she is over her son’s life. “I didn’t meet [Harden] until later in the season, and I was not intimidated, but I revere her so much as an actor from all of her work that I was so excited to work with her,” Angarano said. “She’s just one of the great actors, and her insights are always so spot-on and her instincts are always so spot-on. I just learned a lot from hearing her and watching her and acting with her.”
Elizabeth and Mark’s mother-son relationship may not reach Norma and Norman Bates’ level of toxicity, but it’s clearly “weird and complicated,” as Angarano describes. “She clearly loves him, and she’s clearly disappointed by him, and he clearly relies on her, and yet he clearly hates her in moments too.”
The seemingly contradictory disdain and love Elizabeth has for her son Mark juxtaposes Margo’s relationships with her parents, played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Nick Offerman, which is certainly tumultuous at times but overwhelmingly comes back to unwavering care and love. “It is an interesting comparison,” Angarano explored, “Because she loves Mark, but there is this contempt to him that she feels about him, and I feel like that contempt is not present in Margo’s relationship with her family, and maybe that’s just to do with money. Maybe it’s because Marcia Gay Harden’s character has money, Elizabeth Gable has money, and she’s just giving him this privilege and foot to stand on. He’s a professor at Fullerton College, which you don’t really hear Mark’s side of the story on if he’s happy with where he’s at or if he also wanted more and just sees himself as a failure.”
Angarano continued to compare Margo and Mark’s parents. “Both sides hold judgment, but I think there’s the way in which they’re holding each other in disregard,” he said. “Cheyenne will love Margo no matter what, and she’ll fight the fight, but she’ll love Margo no matter what, and she’ll support her no matter what, and I feel like Mark also gets that support, but he still will always be a pussy, and that’s the difference, you know?”
For being the “pussy,” as Angarano describes him as, Mark ultimately makes peace with Margo, agreeing to give Margo primary custody and revealing that he never reported her to Child Protective Series. Angarano reflected on whether Mark’s ending in Season 1 constitutes a redemption for the character. “It’s complicated, because, for Mark, his only version of redemption is doing what he thinks is right,” Angarano stated. “And I think there are various paths for him, but, in his mind, and I think this is what makes good drama ultimately, is that he believes what he’s doing is right. I think there comes a point where Mark, around episode 7 or 8, is not exactly doing the bidding of his mom as much as he’s doing the bidding of his own. Doing what he feels like is the right thing. And, as infuriating as that is, because everything he’s done up until that point is the exact opposite of what he’s doing at that juncture, I think Mark looks at his actions in the later episodes as the only really dignified way out of it, even if he didn’t choose it.”
With the custody agreement in place, Mark and Margo head into the recently announced Season 2 of Margo’s Got Money Troubles with shared parenting duties to tackle. Angarano explained that he is unsure of what will transpire in Season 2, although he expects it to explore Mark and Margo’s co-parenting of baby Bodhi. “I don’t know much,” Angarano remarked. “I only know, basically, what the audience knows, is that they’re, spoiler alert, at the end of season one, there’s the opportunity to explore the Mark and Margo version of co-parenting together and all that will entail, so I don’t know. I really don’t know much, and I’m really excited to learn and continue to explore.”
Fans of Season 1 will also be eager to explore the continuation of a story so rich in heartwarming and hilarious family dynamics. As for Mark, we’ll have to wait and see if Angarano’s character is able to emerge from the clutches of his authoritarian mother and be the father Margo wants him to be.
Check out the full interview with Margo’s Got Money Troubles star Michael Angarano below.
