Betsy Beers, Shondaland Co-Producer, Discusses Netflix Comedy 'The Residence'

Parade

Parade caught up with Betsy Beers, the creator of 'The Residence', and discussed what we can expect from the new ‪Netflix‬ comedy. She also details the casting process, the creation process, and being a Shondaland co-producer.

Transcript

00:00Well, you know what? I think that we were very, very lucky.

00:03Shonda and I have walked with this writer, Paul Davies,

00:06on a show called For the People a few years ago at ABC.

00:10And we're lucky enough to get to work with him again.

00:14And he came up with this incredible concept for this show

00:20that I believe his brain figured out a way

00:25to combine all the elements that you were discussing.

00:28I think for us at Shondaland,

00:31we both feel like it's important for all of our shows

00:35to have a certain level of kind of each of those qualities.

00:38And Paul absolutely has found a way to balance

00:44the humor, the deeper characterizations,

00:48moments of actual real drama,

00:52and the really twisty, turny stuff that you need

00:56to put together a murder mystery.

00:59Oh, it was such a fun casting process.

01:01We worked with Meredith Tucker,

01:03who's an incredible casting director,

01:06and she's an absolute delight,

01:09and she has so many different people that she knows

01:13and presented so many different people.

01:15And Paul Davies, and we worked very, very closely,

01:20and it was one of those funny things

01:24where a name would come up, and we'd think,

01:26oh, my gosh, do we think maybe we could get them?

01:28And then, lo and behold, they would read the script

01:31and absolutely love it and be excited to do it,

01:34about which I'm not surprised

01:36because I might be the script's biggest fans.

01:38So the great thing about my job at Shondaland

01:41is because I produce, I can be a fan

01:44and I can actually do my job.

01:46So it was getting Uzo to read the script

01:50and actually having her commit was incredibly exciting.

01:54Susan Kalachi-Watson, who I was a fan of for years.

01:58I mean, obviously, we were thrilled

02:02when she responded to it as well.

02:04Every single buddy, everybody down the line,

02:07Bronson, Jason, Ken Marino, Randall Park, Jane Curtin.

02:11I mean, the list goes on and on,

02:13and I don't want to forget anybody,

02:15but it's such a long cast list

02:17because everybody's amazing.

02:20Okay, it's freaky because I have been in the White House.

02:23And not in some of these rooms, mind you.

02:27I've been in the White House.

02:29But first of all, a bunch of the rooms that,

02:32a few of the rooms that I've been in, it is weird.

02:35You walk in and you're like, oh, my lord,

02:37this is actually pretty close.

02:39And so much of it is it really feels like you're there.

02:46And then you kind of,

02:48after feeling like you're really there in one place,

02:51you'd go up to a bedroom or somewhere else

02:54that you've never been and you still felt like you were there,

02:56which was really odd, the whole experience.

02:59But so much fun to film in and so beautiful.

03:03And, I mean, an incredible experience.

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