Did this thing really happen?
Was it really Ralphie who was the evil one?
Is Meg the evil one?
Credit: Jordin Althaus/HBO
Its about these really real stakes for these people in a very strange situation.
… And at the end, its kind of like nose rape when you think about it.
We were really looking for, what is that sexual dynamic between the two of them?
Jordin Althaus/HBO
And, again, thats where the word coercion is really important to me.
I very specifically borrowed from the classicChristmas Carolform, which is you get visited by three ghosts.
Its very common, people whove lost someone thats close to them, youcannottell that the dreams not real.
Jordin Althaus/HBO
He calls her hoping she can email it and finds out some life-altering information in the process.
So I called to take a stab at get her to email the document to me.
Dance is strange for people.
Jordin Althaus/HBO
This came from the idea of spying on someone elses stuff and where that might take you.
Voyeurism and empathy have a very interesting relationship.
Nothing like this episode has ever been seen, at least on American television.
Jordin Althaus/HBO
And I think that, as far as I can tell, we have done that.
DUPLASS:I really like the idea of subverting a trope.
I love how they both play the scene.
Jordin Althaus/HBO
Its like the sweetest dual masturbation scene ever [laughs].
Then it turned into this story about a woman who is just kind of stuck in this purgatory.
Im not afraid of planes [laughs].
Jordin Althaus/HBO
Im fascinated by planes.
Theres something so physically visceral about it that makes it kind of consuming.
This story is about the difference between life and death, of our conscious state and our subconscious state.
HBO
Its just a lot of variation in the players and their journeys.
It doesnt always work out.
That made them really human to me.
Jordin Althaus/HBO
They sort of memorized the choreography as if theyre memorizing lines for the scene and just worked it.
I think they were really fighting [laughs].
They were so passionate about it, I think it was more fun for them that way.
Jordin Althaus/HBO
I found her through a friend, and she had recommended her because she met her at a gym.
How the fk do they stay in love and do this for 60, 70 years?
Are they just turning a blind eye toward the negative?
Jordin Althaus/HBO
Are they accepting the negative, transcending it?
Is it a generational thing where theyre just happy they didnt get blown up in WWII?
And we never could understand it.
Jordin Althaus/HBO
It was a wonderful mystery to us.
Most longterm relationships have endured some kind of affair.
And honestly, I just dont see old people being intimate on screen.
I never see it.
And if you do, its a joke.
I wanted to see what it feels like to look at true nuanced love with octogenarians.
And we wanted to be respectful.
MARTA CUNNINGHAM:Mark made me cry [with this script].
Im not a crier.
I read stuff all the time, and Im like, Oh c’mon.
And I read this script, and I was amess.I was a snotty mess [laughs].
I was raised by my grandmother and my mother.
We dont honor our elderly enough, our grandmothers and our grandfathers.
We dont tell real stories about them and make them real people.
We make them butts of jokes.
This doesnt do that.
Its so elegant the way Mark wrote that.
I think marginalized communities are always one-sided events.
Im an African-American woman, so a lot of the storytelling that I grew up watching was one-sided.
You get one punch in of story.
I think sometimes our senior citizens, our people who are over 65, the same thing happens.
Its a one-note story.
Theyre usually the butt of jokes, or theyre someone thats angry all the time about the young.
Whats so amazing about My Love is Iveneverseen this story told before, ever.
We get to tell a story that doesnt get to be told.
