IR Interview: Sam Means & Robert Carlock (Showrunners) For "Mulligan" [Netflix-S2] - Part II - video Dailymotion

The Inside Reel

Showrunners Sam Means & Robert Carlock talk to The Inside Reel about expectations, voices, challenges and evolution of the concept in regards to the 2nd season of their animated series: "Mulligan" on Netflix.

Transcript

00:00So take it from our face, we know you're gonna like this place.

00:24But you get the essence of satire, that's the thing is that with Holly, like Holly Hunter

00:28playing that one character, really, because you would bring in everything from Raising

00:32Arizona and broadcast news, and all those things and sort of, but then put her in as

00:36sort of a cruise director, per se.

00:39It's awesome.

00:40You know, it just is it is it writing to that?

00:43And is it seeing how that works versus the actual situation you're putting them in?

00:48Well, I think, you know, we have to be aware of all those expectations coming to a character.

00:53And I think that's, you know, where the fun starts is, how do we expand and play with

00:58and let them play with who they are and who they want to be in this.

01:03And, you know, Daniel Radcliffe on the show plays a, you know, an English off party boy,

01:11which is not him at all, but he's enjoying playing with those those expectations.

01:15And then we also on the cruise ship, we, we leaned into the fact that he's a he's a smoker,

01:22and let that rasp come out as he plays, you know, just a Florida dirt bag.

01:28And so yeah, like, who they are and who they could be as a yeah, and I think that level

01:33that you're identifying Tim is also part of what you're you asked about so eloquently

01:37before of like, this is a show about human nature and about our expectations for each

01:41other and that there is an almost meta level at which the the actors inform our experience

01:48of that.

01:49I almost died today.

01:50I almost died today.

01:52I mean, what would America even do without its president?

01:55It'd be like when my little league coach got a DUI on the way to a game.

01:59It was chaos.

02:00Everyone played shortstop.

02:01Well, the Constitution dictates a clear line of succession.

02:04We've been over this.

02:05Do you not listen to me at all?

02:06Just push ups mostly.

02:07Thanks for noticing.

02:08Remember, Maddie, if the president dies, the vice president takes over.

02:12Then if he dies, his vice president takes over and so on and so forth.

02:17Wait, if you die, Mr. Lamar takes over.

02:21So why hasn't he killed you yet?

02:22No one would ever kill the president.

02:24He's like America's favorite guy.

02:26What?

02:27Why are you all looking at me like that, Maddie?

02:31Even I know that a bunch of presidents have been shot.

02:33Isn't JFK your hero?

02:35JFK didn't get shot in Boston Public Schools.

02:37We learned that he just went to live on a farm in Vermont with his brother.

02:40Right.

02:41Right.

02:43But it also has to do with, and just to ask you, because both of you as creative forces

02:47and doing everything you have, it's also looking at your expectation of what you want to do

02:52using this medium to do so, but then taking everything that you've learned and applying

02:58it in this sort of scenario.

02:59Can you talk about that?

03:01Because that's always the thing, because you can't second guess yourself, but your instinct

03:06at this point is refined.

03:08Could you talk about that?

03:09Both of you.

03:10Interesting.

03:11Your last question.

03:12The one person we didn't have any expectations about was Iowa Debrie, because she was just

03:16a writer.

03:17A really funny writer.

03:18Yeah.

03:19So we gave her the voice of Jason, the teenage boy pretending to be a middle-aged general.

03:25But there was no baggage there.

03:26She was just being funny.

03:28And now, of course, people expect different things from her.

03:31Well, she's going to hire us.

03:32It's going to work out great.

03:34No, but I'm talking also in terms of the bigger idea of the show, considering where you guys

03:39have come from.

03:40Yeah.

03:41I'm going to let you go.

03:42I'm sorry.

03:43No, no.

03:44That's okay.

03:45It's just you're asking very good and probing questions.

03:47Indeed.

03:48Well, you know, as we've thought about it, we have been writing animated shows in one

03:55way or another.

03:56In terms of tempo.

03:57Yeah.

03:58Our whole career.

03:59Huh?

04:00Oh.

04:01Farts.

04:02I thought you'd all left.

04:03Everyone else did, but you'll never catch me on some stupid boat.

04:05Ugh.

04:06Non-yacht boats are horrid.

04:07Sure.

04:08They're great when you're trying to send your convicts to an island full of spiders, but

04:11then sometimes people come back from Australia.

04:14They're gone.

04:15All our citizens.

04:16What am I going to fill our prisons with?

04:19If it's any comfort, we English know what it's like to have America turn its back on

04:23you.

04:24And for what?

04:25Delaware?

04:26How did they beat us?

04:27They're too drunk to hit a toilet, but they somehow built a dad-gum utopia.

04:32Was I wrong about everything?

04:34Who cares?

04:35I don't want to be president of a mug.

04:37Don't bother taking down the flag, your highness.

04:40America survived a civil war, two Catholic presidents, and an alien invasion.

04:44But now it's over.

04:46Y'all can have it back.

04:47Oh, capital.

04:48And now that this is England, the official sport is football.

04:52Real football.

04:53Play for me.

04:54Yes.

04:55Oh, wonderful.

04:56You know, in some ways, this was a natural next step.

05:04It was to take, okay, the shows we've written, that pace, that joke density, that tone in

05:11some ways of people butting heads with different perspectives, and how can you expand that?

05:16How does actually getting to draw it instead of being constrained by the sets you can build

05:22or the puppets you can make in certain situations hold you back?

05:26And I think in many ways, we've stayed true to the kind of show we write.

05:34If on 30 Rock, they weren't putting on a variety show, they were trying to rewrite the Constitution

05:40and rebuild human government from scratch.

05:44It's the same sort of dynamics at play, just in a much bigger world.

05:50And playing with the life or death stakes of that, and hopefully getting viewers to

05:55care in the way that, gosh, to pick the most successful show of all time,

05:59but The Simpsons makes you care about those cartoon characters, which is an amazing

06:04accomplishment and a different set of challenges for us, because you got to draw it.

06:25Wow.

06:34How much can you let, we're talking about The Simpsons, we're talking about this, how

06:37much can you let your actors rip?

06:39You know, I've met Dana, I know what Dana can do, and I know what a lot of these people

06:42can do.

06:43How much is the adherence to the word when you're doing animation in this sense versus

06:49getting those nuggets of joy that you would get on 30 Rock or places like that?

06:54Yeah, it's a balance.

06:55I mean, look, we get it on paper the way we think we want it.

06:59And we want to make sure we get two takes of that.

07:02If people have other ideas, or if there are serendipitous mistakes or things, or something

07:06has changed since we put it on paper, you know, just in the real world.

07:10I mean, we had some jokes about, a couple of jokes about Will Smith being weird, and

07:15then he got weirder as we leaned into that even more.

07:21That it's always a balance.

07:23You have more room to play in a recording booth, but you still are paying by the hour.

07:28And you know, you can't make the whole thing, you know, silly make them ups.

07:32But there, you know, you let people if something isn't right in someone's mouth, they're

07:36stumbling like, fine, round it off, say it how you want to say it.

07:39And let's see if it's still funny.

07:41Right.

07:41You don't have to strike the set and relight for 30 minutes every time you might even take.

07:46Right.

07:46Just try it again.

07:47And yeah, you know, fortunately, we were able to write everything, at least, you know,

07:52season one, season two, before we started drawing them.

07:57We weren't, so we could draw to what we think we wanted.

07:59We were very diligent about getting our audio edits to where we thought we wanted it to

08:03be so that we weren't, we were, we were taking as good advantage as we could of the artist's

08:10time.

08:10Because what you don't want to be doing is saying, oh, that's all wrong.

08:14We screwed up on the page, you know, or we don't, we don't have the performance.

08:20And, you know, so working ahead is the best you can do.

08:25And I think, you know, that's a hard thing to stay on top of.

08:28We hope you realize we're really neato guys.

08:34We know you'll understand how great it is on land.

08:41The feral kids are nice, but they will give you lies.

IR Interview: Sam Means & Robert Carlock (Showrunners) For "Mulligan" [Netflix-S2] - Part II

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