Boy on business trip to London meets girl.
Boy has sex with girl.
Boy returns to America and gets word from girl that (oops!)
Credit: Ed Miller/Amazon
Boy moves to London to be with girl.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You two first crossed paths on Twitter.
Can we describe this as a meet-cute?
Ed Miller/Amazon
SHARON HORGAN: Whats that?
ROB DELANEY: I love that you dont know what that is, Sharon.
HORGAN: Oh, thats so gross.
Amazon
It wasnt a meet-cute.
It was a meet-awkward, really, wasnt it?
DELANEY: A little bit.
I never imagined we would make a show together.
Were seeing a few romantic comedies on TV skew darker and more honest.
HORGAN: I dont watch a lot of romantic comedy.
From my perspective it was a continuation of the stuff Ive already done.
I like comedy that involves love and pain and hate.
We didnt want it to be cutesy, or anything like that.
Its pretty reflective of how we operate in our lives.
I dont watch a lot of romantic comedies either.
We enjoy anything where humor comes out of graphic pain.
What do you think the average romantic comedy gets wrong?
you might leave things open and flapping.
Rob and I both are crazy about Richard Linklater and hisBeforetrilogy.
If you were to termBefore Midnight, it would be a romantic comedy.
But that last scene, theyre still together but theres no beautiful happy ending.
You dont know what the f is going to happen to them.
You dont assume that theyre going to be together forever or happily ever after.
Id rather have it be like, Im choosing that shes the one.
Thats a lot more what relationships are really like, so we wanted to capture something like that.
How much are you borrowing from your own life for the show?
Have your spouses told you that anything is off-limits?
Were writing season 2 now, and its hot off the presseswere writing things that happened that day.
Well get into work and be like, Youre never going to believe what happened.
Yeah, its pretty real.
HORGAN: Weve destroyed our partners trust once again.
But they ended up liking it last time, so we kind of went, Ehh, theyre fine!
I dont think theres anything medical in there that didnt happen to one of us.
And he was so polite and British that he almost destroyed us by going through with the transaction.
Luckily, on our show, Rob, whos an American, is like, No, f that.
Im going to go with the little sty one.
How has the show evolved differently than you expected?
And we continue that into season 2.
Hes a bit sort of estranged from his family, but he probably thinks its a good thing.
Which leads us to the question: Which jokes were too filthy to make it into the show?
Dont worry, we can dash them out if need be.
HORGAN: I mean, thats about as foul as you could get.
Maybe youll release it on the DVD?
Theres a bunch of things that could go in the DVD.
Including, like, hours of Carrie Fisher [who plays Robs mother] improvising.
What were the rejected names you came up with for that movie?
HORGAN: [laughs] Oh my god.
[to Delaney] I think that was an amalgamation of something you said and then something I said.
I honestly believe that you just went, TheEmancipationofFlyburtonCrisp!
And I was like, Is that already in development?
And you were like, No, I just thought it up!
Im not even kidding.
That one just came out.
And then have me go, What, just no?
And he goes, Just no.
Season 1 ends on a pretty big cliffhanger in regards to the baby.
What can you tease about season 2?
HORGAN: Unfortunately we cant tell you too much because we have a surprise.
And when people have big arguments when someones very heavily pregnant, that can happen.
DELANEY: It doesnt begin at the end of season 1.
DELANEY: We might get to see Chris wear a lot more leather.
[laughter] All the other people are going to stretch out a lot more.
HORGAN: Were still the center of the mess.
They like watching people going through it.
hey write about it more!
It really gave us carte blanche to keep going down those avenues.
But there is a lot of wackiness in the show, even to point of slapstick.
That was fun to realize.
HORGAN: Thats so true.
Rob really, really hated the idea that he would run and fall over in a scene.
Because he thought, Well, first of all Im not going to be able to do that.
And secondly, no ones going to find that funny.
And its the thing that they use on every trailer.
Anything they use to promote the show is Rob running and falling over and face-planting.
So, yes, I guess that was a surprise that we enjoyed that.
And we see a man judge her for drinking.
What was the backstory there?
HORGAN: The backstory there is pregnant women get a fing hard time.
Everyone tells them what to do from the minute they start showing.
So we only got positive feedback.
[laughs] And I totally supported her in that.
How calculated was that?
Or did that develop organically?
HORGAN: They barely know each other, and they have to fall in love over the series.
The only time that we ever went to say it was in episode 6 when hes cutting her toenails.
In a draft that almost made it, we had them say I love you.
And then we just looked at each other and went, No, they cant!
We dont want the audience to feel comfortable with our situation.
We dont want the audience to think that everythings okay.
That was our I love you.
And her I love you back was Ill have sex with you now.
DELANEY: We didnt have a show bible where we were like, They cant say I love you.
When you do you foresee that happening?
HORGAN: Maybe thats season 3 or 4.
An edited version of this interview ran inEntertainment Weeklyissue #1371-1372, on newsstands now.
