Santa ClaritaDietstarts off as a fairly run-of-the-mill half-hour comedy.
They go off to their jobs as realtors in their cookie-cutter California suburb.
Then Sheila starts uncontrollably throwing up in a house they’re showing.
Credit: Netflix; Frederick M. Brown/Getty
Then she… wakes up, hungry for raw meat and sex.
Oh, and she doesn’t have a heartbeat.
“Both of those were larger-than-life premises, big swings,” Fresco tells EW.
Netflix
If there’s enough love at the core of a relationship, it can survive anything."
What makes it a little different than just a family living in the suburbs dealing with everyday problems?
That’s solid at its core.
Netflix
And then how do you navigate a relationship when something giant has dropped in the relationship’s lap?
The other thing that I was interested in was narcissism.
It just struck me when I started to think about the undead that the undead are the ultimate narcissists.
Generally, that means they eat people.
In this case, her id is activated in all kinds of different ways.
How does she adjust to getting what she wants all the time while staying in a relationship?
Or was one of them thinking about leaving it?
And to me, I guess I’m a romantic.
I guess, in a way, this is a romantic piece.
I like watching relationships like that.
I wanted it to be in a middle-class, working-class suburb, which is really what Santa Clarita is.
I liked seeing them having to do that.
As a footnote, when I first met with Drew, shelovedthe fact that she could play a realtor.
It’s such a funny thing to latch onto.
Drew and Timothy are so good at inhabiting that perky persona.
Drew is killing people.
He does play much more of a badass kind of character than I was originally imaging for this.
And he is also somebody who is a great actor.
Portia de Rossi shows up, which was a fun nod toBetter Off Tedfans.
She’s so delightful and funny and just wonderful to work with.
So thankfully, Portia was up for doing that jot down of character again for us.
It was written for her.
Santa Clarita Dietgets pretty disgusting at some points.
Were you afraid of turning anyone off with that?
Where did you draw the line with it, if you drew a line at all?
Is there enough violence in it?
I’m actually pretty squeamish about that stuff.
I don’t watch a lot of horror; I don’t gravitate toward it.
So my own lines are just like, what would I watch?
How graphic would it be for me to be turned off by it?
And we didn’t cross that line, for me.
She was eating fish for some of it, like raw sushi.
I think that snail was actually chocolate.
So Ben had his big moment.He did!
And he did great.
He just sat there waiting for his close-up.
And then Drew was a good sport.
She never has an issue with it.
I know you probably can’t answer this, but is there a cure?
[Laughs] I can’t answer that.
Well, she’s dead.
And so there’s no cure for death.
She can’t become alive again.
