By: Mariah Thomas
Photo Courtesy of HBO
Q) You both said that having Valerie contend with AI was a big enough idea for you to bring The Comeback back for a third season. What is it about this moment in Hollywood that screamed out to both of you, “We need Valerie?”
LISA KUDROW: Just as reality TV was sort of the almost-extinction event at the time for scripted television, it’s the same feeling about AI.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: It goes a little bit more than just about Hollywood. We felt that the world may have escalated to the point of the desperation that Valerie was in in the first season.
LISA KUDROW: Not because of AI.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Not because of AI, but because of where the world is, and people are desperate to get a job, and keep a job. And as you age, you have to think about ‘How am I coming across?’ ‘Can I get hired?’ And a lot of the characters in this season are clinging and still reaching for job identity and recognition. All of them really.
Q) The end of season two was just perfection. How did you figure out where we would find her in season three after doing that?
LISA KUDROW: Yeah. Well, I mean, that was such perfection that it really had to be an idea like the AI thing. You know, like the ultimate battle for Val—or challenge for—Valerie. But also, like what Michael was saying, there’s nothing—how are we going to shoot it? Because we’ve already established that she can leave the cameras. And now, now more than ever, everyone is sort of curating their own reality show on social media. Cameras are in our homes, so the same set up that reality producers would have put in your bedroom and kitchen, we’re putting ourselves for surveillance.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: And also the end of season two was a risk, because we got to the point where we followed Valerie as far as she could go as a person in a reality show, and then we wanted to take another step to make her a little bit more human or show that side of her. So, when we left all the cameras behind, you know, any big creative thing, you don’t think about like, well, ‘How are we gonna live up to this?’ Once she stepped away from those cameras, because people kind of would [gasps] and that was exciting, and then when we came back to do The Comeback again, we had to think about–we can’t take away the real world for Valerie. We have to find a way to three-card monte or shell game this so that there’s so many different cameras that the audience can get, hopefully, used to going from traditional Comeback coverage, like the dot cams, to the addition of the iPhones, to the edition of the security cams. To the addition of cinematic realness, which is where you see Valerie and Mark (Damian Young) sort of without any awareness of cameras. And that was the risk this season, Valerie without a camera awareness.
Q) For both you because this is not, as we say, your first rodeo. Did you have any hesitation? You’ve been explaining why The Comeback is back—why season two—but I’m assuming when both of you had such a long career, there has to be a key element that makes you wanna go back to work, makes you want to go back to write or act, makes you to come back. Makes you want to get out of the house. [laughter] Is it getting more difficult year after year or you just said, okay, let’s do it? Lisa, let us start with you.
LISA KUDROW: Oh, well. I love acting and I think it would be… It’s fun to be an actor for hire. I don’t have a production company anymore. And so also, I think there’s such a thing as people wanting to have a nice set, you know, and select the group of talent around, you know, ‘How fun is this going to be?’ And so that’s great. And that’s also what I’m looking for. But for this, I mean, no, no. This isn’t part of, well, ‘Am I gonna drag myself out of my house to do The Comeback again?’ No, no. Valerie Cherish is very dear to me and important to me and our work on this show is really, I’m very proud of it. It’s, I think, the best thing I’ve ever done. Well, because writing too.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: You would say “key,” because we didn’t just get out of the house to work. We needed a key to open the risk, because it is a risk. But we wanted, well, what’s the idea that is bigger than the risk? Like that we get so excited that it’s worth risking. And it was the key—Valerie’s cast in the first multi-cam written by AI—that was the red meat enough (sorry if there’s any vegans here!) but that was the red meat that got us to jump over the risk.
Q) Casey Bloys, the HBO Chairman, gave the project a green light very quickly. Did you feel an urgency to tell the story before reality overtook it?
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Yeah.
LISA KUDROW: Yes!
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: When we said to Casey, “Here’s the idea.” Then he said, “Yes. Now.” I mean, it was very much, ‘As fast as you can.’ And all through the writing process, every time something would like, *boop* pick his head up about something else, touching AI, we would panic, like, ‘Are we gonna get there?’
LISA KUDROW: We’ll be old news. Like this is just gonna be old and like, that’s not at all what happened.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: And our goal was to get on the air before a studio admitted they were using AI. Now, I think that’s clear, unless five days from now somebody suddenly admits they’ve secretly written a show.
LISA KUDROW: No, I think that’s a ways off. I think this was the safest.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: So that was our goal. We wanted to be in the still ‘How?’ ‘What?’ phase, rather than the, “Oh, we’re just…”
LISA KUDROW: Yeah. In the “What if” phase.
Q) Robert Michael Morris who played Mickey, the late great Robert Michael Morris. After your show was canceled at the first season, I wrote a pilot and didn’t know him, but I reached out to his agent and said, ‘I just want to see him on TV more.’ And so, the way you handled his passing, I thought it was just going to be the photograph, and then you layered upon layered upon layer it just like everything else on the show has layers. Was that a conscious effort to give Mickey’s, the repercussions of Mickey’s death, so many sort of talking points throughout the season?
LISA KUDROW: Yes.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Like when we were going to talk about coming back after Michael died, Lisa couldn’t even entertain the idea. She just kept saying, “Well, no, that’s done.” And then enough time had gone by. And I feel that his story is a great victory. Because you said, “The late, great Robert Michael Morris,” and I’m sure he’s up in heaven right now going, “That’s right.” I mean, that he went from obscurity to when he died, the Entertainment Weekly headline of the article said, “Television Star Robert Michael Morris Dead.” And so, I like always got this great happiness about the fact that in that moment he was called a television star, which is something he would have loved. So, then we got into that phase, and then when we came up with the idea, that maybe, because it happened off camera, off stage for the audience, maybe it happened, like, Valerie hadn’t dealt with it. And Lisa has a very good understanding of what Valerie does or does not want to deal with. And so that became a story. And the one, the idea is that she can’t find his ashes. But the one thing in the writing room Lisa kept repeating over and over again, which is going to make me cry… Is that Valerie designed the box. So that she had enough of a connection to celebrate him at the end, even though she then immediately put it away.
Q) What would Mickey have said to Valerie about AI? What advice would he have given her?
LISA KUDROW: Oh, it would have been, [Michael] will have to… You’re the voice.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: He would say, ‘Red, can it take away these spots? Because then, yes, I’m in.’
LISA KUDROW: Exactly.
Q) When you approach doing comedy on the subject of AI, is this drawing primarily on the writer’s personal experiences or are you considering the daily discourse of the hellscape we now live in?
LISA KUDROW: The latter, the latter.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Daily hellscape. Like, yeah, because it’s the hellscape that we’re living in is what is it and how much power does it have? We’re living a nightmare of what could possibly happen to all of us. There’s no actual hands-on experience yet of people working with it to do what we do so that we know of, we didn’t. So the reality is, it’s all the hellscape.
LISA KUDROW: That’s for the world, right? But within this industry, I don’t know. I firmly believe an audience will always let you know what it likes and what it doesn’t. And yeah, there might be some AI entertainment that audiences like, but it’s not going to take over everything.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: And the comedy comes from the fear. Of course, when you said the comedy, it’s the fear of the hellscape.
Q) The show has always been so good, obviously, with the cameras and you’re, it’s all about curating real life in the reality show element. There’s some real life that got curated into this season. There are a couple of Friends references and how did you decide to put those in? And that means that Friends exists in the world of Valerie Cherish. How did, how did that decision come about the self-referential stuff?
LISA KUDROW: Couldn’t help it, we were shooting on The Friends Stage. You know, and I don’t know, it just felt like there was an easy joke there that Valerie didn’t even pay—she was only looking at the movies on the plaque—she didn’t even see the TV shows and just, you know, like “We’re gonna be the first hit for stage 24!” [laughter] You know. Right. Friends was a hit. Mike and Molly and whatever else you’d see there.
Q) Was there other stuff from your backgrounds that you wanted to put in as little Easter eggs or self-referential moments from either of your backgrounds?
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: We were mostly interested in how close we could get to Valerie actually saying the word Friends.
LISA KUDROW: Oh, yeah, that.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: That was all we were concerned about.
LISA KUDROW: I can’t believe you kept that in.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: I mean, it was her saying, “Frie-,” and then Abby Jacobson goes, “Too much talking,” just as she’s about to say [Friends]. So that was the third rail we were touching. We were more happy than happy to do that.
Q) The season is incredible, just, and I never thought I’d cry at the end of it like a baby, and so many of us have confessed to each other, ‘I was weeping at the end of it!’ What is it do you think about you that has made you dedicate your lives to making people laugh?
LISA KUDROW: There’s just nothing better, you know making people laugh and what’s better than laughing? It’s so healing. It so cathartic. It’s so, I don’t know. It’s so satisfying in terms of—and it’s funny because the first thing isn’t ego. I mean, the things that make us feel the best are the things we actually do for others, right? Aren’t those the things that make you feel the best? So, it’s something in there. I didn’t analyze it.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: I like the idea that we can take something that’s a little dark and elevate it to something a little bit lighter. It’s like making spirit out of darkness. So, making someone laugh in a situation is a gift to us because we have to, we get rid of it. And then hopefully it’s a gift to the audience because they can laugh. And there’s nothing really more thrilling than being in a room of people laughing or laughing at home or laughing with your friends or now sending memes of stuff that you laughed at, that your friends laugh at. It’s a very important energy. Good question.
LISA KUDROW: That I couldn’t answer.
Q) Since there has quite some time passed between season two and season three, Lisa and Michael Patrick, what did you miss about each other?
LISA KUDROW: About each other? We see each other every day. Not every day… I don’t even see my husband every day, I don’t even look in the mirror every day so… [laughter]
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: We have been lucky enough to start as friends. “Friends” keeps coming up a lot. We started as friends and then through the evolution of the many years of The Comeback, we’ve become melded as co-workers. And what I missed about not doing The Comeback was being in a room with Lisa, watching it sort of unfold and then hammering it out from the technical point of view. But I see Lisa every chance I get because yeah, we’re deeply happy to see each other.
Q) Maybe I should have said, what do you appreciate about each other?
LISA KUDROW: Oh!
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: I appreciate Lisa’s complete grasp of reality, coupled with her complete understanding of spiritualism.
LISA KUDROW: But [to Michael] you too. We share a brain at some point. And in the process of working on this show, we share a brain a lot.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: She’s so grounded. It’s amazing. She’s not what you think of as Valerie. Lisa’s really realistic and grounded and has great perspective. And if you have something that’s bothering you, like I did a week ago, I said to her this, and she’s like, ‘Okay… or, you know, you could think about it a different way.’
Q) There are a couple of shows that depict life in Hollywood, like the inner workings of it. I was wondering, how true to life do you think this one is? And also, is the show a way to, I don’t know, take jabs or protest things you don’t like about the industry? I’m asking because for Seth Rogan, he said ‘it’s very cathartic to make The Studio.’ I’m just wondering if it’s like that way for you, too.
LISA KUDROW: I mean, it certainly was first season. You know, especially since the writers, there was so much information from Michael and the writers in the writers’ room just about the system of it all.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Greg Mottola, who directed an episode of the first season, the one where Valerie goes to the studio late at night with cookies to surprise the writers and see some untoward behavior, very 2004 behavior, in the writing room. He was laughing and he said to me, “This is outrageous.” And I looked at him and said, “This is a documentary.” That’s, really, I’m not taking a jab as much as I’m like, this is what I see.
LISA KUDROW: The writers’ rooms could be really rough, very rough. And it’s also, even in, back in the day, I honestly felt like, yeah, they’ve got to blow off steam. I know Valerie said that, but I honestly, felt that. They’ve got to blow off steam. And I genuinely felt like if they’re doing it behind closed doors and I don’t have to see it or experience it, do whatever you want.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: And I think there’s more of a jab at ego than Hollywood. I think it’s a cautionary tale for me to be careful about chasing a spotlight. Hollywood’s just a great circus arena because so many people want to be in a spotlight that it’s good cautionary tale for us about an ego versus a person.
LISA KUDROW: I feel like Hollywood’s, I don’t know, maybe I don’t know, but just become a little more grounded too. The egos are checked a little bit more now because there’s so much competition for, you know, work is not guaranteed.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: No, nothing’s guaranteed.
LISA KUDROW: To anybody.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: The excesses are going away. We used to be 23 writers in a writing room and 23 episodes, and then in the second 10 years when we did the premium cable, it was down to one writer writing a show for eight episodes, and now we’re at—it just keeps a little bit shrinking. The river’s shrinking so it’s feeling both scary, which makes it funny. As long as we all survive…
Q) I love hearing that Lisa, you’re more self-aware than Valerie it sounds like. But if you could come back as any fictional sitcom character, who would you choose?
LISA KUDROW: Fictional sitcom character, who would I choose? Wait, I know there’s an answer. I know I’ve felt it. It’s a male that I’ve that I would watch like… Frasier.
Q) Do you have a reason for that?
LISA KUDROW: I don’t know. [laughter] I don’t know. Maybe self-aware, but not smart.
Q) For Lisa, what was it like stepping back into Valerie’s shoes after all these years?
LISA KUDROW: Oh, well, I mean, I got to while we were writing, but there’s still, it’s still not exactly stepping into her shoes. And actually, it felt a little tight. I have to say stepping in I had to, you know, let it stretch out. And I think I just didn’t trust myself that I was doing it, which can happen to me. And it’s really stupid. But after a week or two, yeah, it’s fine.
Q) Do you film the episodes in chronological order?
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: No. But the last scene we filmed last, the last thing of The Comeback we filmed on the last day of The Comeback at Stage 24, where Lisa filmed the last episode of Friends too.
LISA KUDROW [muttering]: We didn’t film it on stage 24…
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: You didn’t?
LISA KUDROW: No, we filmed it on a different stage.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: I guess I rewrote it! See what I’m saying? I made it better.
LISA KUDROW: And see what I’m saying? I made it duller. [laughter]
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: That’s the reality.
LISA KUDROW: No story here.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Like somebody’s gonna know.
LISA KUDROW: Well, it’s the truth if “The truth is important!”
Q) Ten years is a long time since the last season. How did Valerie change?
LISA KUDROW: She aged 10 years. But I, I think, I don’t, it’s that—to me, it feels like a natural aging process and it wasn’t just, ‘How did she age?’ You know, she had won an Emmy. So, we filled in with, there were some opportunities for her and a lot of things that didn’t work out, you know, um, but there’s like slightly more confidence. But still the desperation, ‘cause she hadn’t worked. I mean, remember the strike and there was nothing happening. And after the strike, it was like, great, everyone’s going back. ‘What’s happening?’ ‘Where is it?’ There’s nothing, nothing showed up to do. So, you know, she’s, she’s been adrift for a few years when we meet her again. Which is right where we want her.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Exactly!
Q) In some of our past episodes, I sometimes felt like Valerie was self-deprecating but at the same time sort of very innocent or always with a smile, accepting sometimes to be what maybe you or me or whoever would feel as a humiliation or mistreated. But I love how Valerie has that strength. But is that like a real strength or you think that she’s just accepting and what do you take from Valerie in that sense?
LISA KUDROW: I have so many questions for you. Yes, I mean, I do. I think it’s a strength, you know, I mean, when people would say, ‘Oh, my God, how did you play her? That must have been so hard, especially first season that must have been so hard to be her.’ And it wasn’t at all. I mean I never felt terrible. And I was being her. So, what is it? She’s that delusional that she just believes the reality she’s creating? I kept asking myself that, you know? Like, ‘Why doesn’t it hurt me? Why does it hurt everyone so much?’ She’s fine. Yeah, I don’t know. It caused some confusion for me, but look, I admire someone who just, you know, I guess it’s sort of like Phoebe too, just like, here, here’s how I see the world and you don’t have to agree. I don’t know. Now I’m just jibber-jabbering, cause that, yeah, that was good question.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: I mean, that’s an interesting thing, because it factors into season three. The idea of being able to go to a place where you choose how you’re gonna feel about something rather than have it tell you how to feel. Which is funny, because that’s the whole Valerie journey all along. She’s been telling people how it’s going rather than what they’re saying [about] her.
LISA KUDROW: Yeah, and I do believe you create your own reality depending on how you’re perceiving everything.
Q) I wanted to ask about the lovely final scene in the finale. It’s such a beautiful, layered way to end the entire show. And I was wondering if you could speak to the choices that went into ending it the way you did. Like for instance, the transition from black and white to color I thought was so meaningful and really added to the scene.
LISA KUDROW: That was Michael from minute one.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Yeah, I mean, look, we start. The whole entire thing is filmed at Warner Brothers, which is the history of Hollywood right there. And Valerie starts to reference Now, Voyager, which is of course a beautiful black and white film that Mickey loved. And then most writing is just— ‘what else?’ You’ve exhausted that, what else can you do? And then we got the idea that Jane was gonna come back and film Valerie her way with a film camera, which opened the door to film. And then showing a film, an actual film in black and white, felt weirdly like Valerie was Old Hollywood. You know, like we were actually referencing Now, Voyager. But what I love about it, and it was a gamble – another risk at the end of season two, we took a risk where she left the reality cameras behind – here was a risk, all of a sudden, we’re going to black and white. What I love is the color coming in, it comes in right at the point that Valerie’s humanity really starts to make her. And she’s basically saying, “Isn’t that what a person does?” So she jumps from being this faded image or different image, black and white, into literally color. Because people saw Valerie as black and white. Victim, crazy. Loser, winner. There was no gray area. So, we started with a gray film and then brought her into color. And hopefully at the end, it was Lisa’s drumbeat that was so clear that we wanted to make sure people saw Valerie in a different way at the end and could see a little bit of how Valerie sees herself. The last episode is called “Valerie Cherish.” Every other episode is: “Valerie This”, “Valerie That,” Valerie Gets a Win,” “Valerie Loses.” This is just “Valerie Cherish.” And that was a big moment. But yeah, it’s a risk. And I’m glad you think it paid off because it’s kind of something happens.
LISA KUDROW [to journalist]: Did you say it paid off? [laughter]
Q) I said it was beautiful.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: OK. He’s not that much into it.
LISA KUDROW: I don’t know. But that’s why I had trouble answering you.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Remember how you said it was the best thing you’d ever seen? [laughter] Yeah, but yeah, thank you.
Q) I’m curious how you, Lisa, the actress, would react to Valerie’s situation when the news is leaked and sort of the industry is turning against Valerie. How would have you reacted to Valerie choice and the choices she made, do you think?
LISA KUDROW Um… I think the same. [to Michael] What do you, don’t you think?
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: What you would have done?
LISA KUDROW: What is there to do except you take a deep breath, try to regroup?
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: And go to work.
LISA KUDROW: Yeah, I mean, I feel like that to that level, but you know, on Friends, there was this huge backlash. Where everyone hated us, we were overexposed. And we got together and just said, all right, we have to just head down, stop doing press, and just do our work. Let’s just deal with the task at hand, what our actual job is, which is to, you know, say the words and do the show. And so that’s, I don’t know, from that, I think it’s kind of the same. I mean, and at first she’s, you know, I’m not going to the step and repeat. Step and retreat, whatever she’s called it, you know? [laughter] I’m not going to go to that, you know, because it just—it’s panic. But it’s also, it’s just going to bring bad press to the show. And yeah. Good question that I couldn’t answer, but I talked a lot and wasted time.
Q) Lisa, you are so well-educated, and from the perspective of a professor at the USC Annenberg School, how do you think your education helped you deal with all the fame in Hollywood?
LISA KUDROW: My education helped? Yeah. Well, I think having my family around helped. I think, having therapy way before it happened helped, and understanding that you’ve gotta be okay with yourself. I think a lot of people feel like, ‘Oh, once everybody loves me, then I will allow myself to feel loved,’ you know? And then that’s just very disappointing and ends up hurting more. So, I think it was therapy. Thanks for working that out with me. [laughter]
Q) Valerie Cherish became such an iconic character because she reflects both the vulnerability and the absurdity of the entertainment industry. After all these years, what new emotional layers or truths about Valerie were you excited to explore this time around?” I think this is a question for both of you.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: What I love about the additional, the additive stuff for Valerie is the stuff with Mark, her husband, specifically in the laundry room scene, where she sort of says her point of view about when something bad happens, “Be positive.” And her only backup is “Why not be positive?” So I like being able to show that sort of philosophy that Valerie has chosen to live by. That was what was new for me.
LISA KUDROW: Well, I think there was just further steps taking care of herself, even though she set herself up to be in great peril, like she always does. But just, I don’t know, the episode, the last episode, there’s so much in the last episode. Especially I feel like she’s, yeah, I don’t know, I’m too close.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: The other thing that was fun about this season is the first two seasons where Valerie’s desperate to get in the spotlight and she was always pushing away and we put the spotlight on her and what we found out was she knows shit. She knows stuff about her business. She knows about TV. She knows her craft. She becomes number one on the call sheet, but she also becomes kind of the support for all those other actors and she tries to make it work as much as she pushes the title of Executive Producer away. It was fun to show that when push comes to shove, she knows.
LISA KUDROW: Yeah, I also did like that when she does really know stuff and someone’s trying to argue with her, she’s still pretty nice. I liked that.
Q) Each season has moments that really get to the line of like being too acerbic but always falls back into funny. Like that Broadway confrontation is one of those moments where I was like, ‘Where is this gonna go?’ And then it’s still hilarious. Do you guys, did you develop a litmus test for how to, you know, when things get too bitter or you know like skirts the line, how do you decide?
LISA KUDROW: I think we feel it as we’re going.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: It’s interesting because, you know, first season, no clue as to what the reaction would be to Valerie. And people were like, ‘Ow. Ow.’ Second season, people were now sort of like, ‘Oh, we get her.’ So this season, we’re like, how are we gonna give them an “ow” every now and then? Cause they like it. They like; the audience likes that. ‘Oh shit, where’s this going?’ So there’s some things that are in there that are right at the edge, and then Valerie’s always gonna bounce right out of it for people.
LISA KUDROW: But I feel like also, just as time’s gone on, that first season, it’s not as cringe as it was in 2004. You know, thanks, Housewives of Everywhere, you know, just putting yourselves out there. For my show. Well, I feel like the whole, its own Rorschach test. If you’re looking at it like how you perceive the world is going to generate the scale of intolerability or hilarious laughter. Do you know what I mean?
Q) And then just it was touched upon before, but it was kind of coincidental. Seth Rogen was in season two of your show and kind of, I don’t obviously know the schedule of how things worked out, but The Studio blew up as another mirror to the industry and the business through the prism of the studio head, but obviously there’s a lot of actor stuff in that too. So, were there conversations while you were developing the third season or deciding what to do to take into account the like runaway success of “The Studio?”
LISA KUDROW: Yeah, there was a bit. There was where we didn’t want to look like, you know, we’re also on the same lot, you know, so we were mindful of.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: We’re mindful.
LISA KUDROW: Let’s not be running around in golf carts too much, you know.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: And also, we just kept going, okay, that’s amazing, and now Valerie’s life. She doesn’t even know Friends exists; she certainly doesn’t know The Studio does. I mean, we kept going “What is our, what’s Valerie’s world?” And that kind of got us back to focus on just what we’re gonna do. But yeah, that’s amazing that happened. Seth was so amazing to do our show. Oh my god.
Q) In the series, the camera almost never leaves Valerie. What is it like to perform in such an exposed acting space?”
LISA KUDROW: Oh, no, that makes it easy. That makes it easy because you don’t know when the cameras on you so you’ve got to just really be there listening and talking. With the traditional coverage where you’re doing more than one take, you know, and then different setups and stuff, yeah then it was more like traditional stuff but still very grateful for remembering how you really have to be listening and talking and ever-present even if the camera is not on you which I do anyway.
Q) Lisa, you’re funny. So, where that funny talent came from: heritage from parents, grandparents, relatives? Or you suddenly [think], I guess I’m funny [I’ll] develop more craft? Where did the funny things came from?
LISA KUDROW: Okay. My father is really funny and my brother and sister, my whole family is really funny and I’m the youngest so I was just trying to keep up always. Well, it was the coping for our household, also, you know, and I think for my grandparents and everything else. I didn’t realize it then, but no matter what was going on, someone would make a joke. Make a joke at a funeral. It’s just—it was needed. It’s a needed release, you know? So, yeah, I think it’s good coping jokes. I was very sad when they went away. I feel like they’re coming back. What? I can’t say that?
Q) So, when you step back into Valorie’s character, is it more like an instinct for you, or you’re building the character consciously?
LISA KUDROW: Yeah, for better or worse, she’s right here. So yeah, it doesn’t take much, does it?
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: No.
LISA KUDROW: But when we were working, I did find sometimes she was being a little too angry if we were doing something. And it was more me making an argument than her. And then we’d go back.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: I didn’t see any anger, the whole thing was like a party. I mean, and if Valerie’s angry, I, yeah, great. That color would be great too. So it’s very instinctual, what is shocking is you’re in the writing room with Lisa and she’s touching Valerie and we’re talking about Valerie, we’re talkin’ about all the characters. And then when Lisa shows up as Valerie with the hair and the thing and the [grunts] and the smile. It takes your breath away because it’s like a different being entered, so. It’s very instinctual. And then when she’s in front of the camera, it’s… Just, we’re doing it.
Q) When one gets seasoned, one knows stuff and then there’s always innovation and I was wondering for both of you, where do you fall in this balance, debate, whatever? Do you think often, “Actually I know stuff, but let’s go with the new things,” or the other way around? You wanna do lots of new things and let’s forget all I know. You know, talk a little bit about, you know experience versus, let’s call it innovation, not only AI, but…
LISA KUDROW Right, right. No, I mean, it’s easy for me because I don’t produce. I’m not usually in charge. So sure, whatever, you know. And when it comes to social media and stuff, it’s like I’m choosing not to know too much about that anyway. So, yeah, but I think it’s a good question for Michael, because he’s always the one in charge.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Look, we all know stuff, as you said, that’s what I love. And if the stuff you know is all you know, then you’re not going anywhere. You can’t just know what you know. You have to know stuff and then learn stuff to keep knowing stuff or else you’re out of the loop. So, I know stuff that you know everybody knows stuff and then what you do with it and the saving grace is an idea will come and almost beta block what you know so that you can fall into a creative amnesia and it all goes away. And you’re just working moment to moment in this creative playground where you know technique stuff, that’s a delight, but the bigger stuff the knowing stuff about how things are met in the world and whether they’re accepted or rejected kind of goes away until you’re done playing and then it becomes the business. So, I don’t think you can know stuff and ever stop knowing stuff you got to learn new stuff.
LISA KUDROW: That’s so smart.
Q) The ending of season three is so perfect that I don’t know what to root for with this question, but is there a chance of a season four? I know that you said that you know, for example coming back for season three was inspired by an extinction level event.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Possible. Possible extinction level event. But not putting it out there that it’s an extinction.
Q) But there’s always a chance that 10 years from now, there could be another possible extinction level event. I mean, what were the decisions that after 10 years to come back for season two, and after so many years to come for season three, is there a possibility that you will be inspired for season four at some point?
LISA KUDROW But it’s a trilogy. [laugther]
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: We’re not doing it Quadrily.
LISA KUDROW: Yeah.
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: It took us 11 years for the key to show up. So, come on. I mean, Lisa did make a joke earlier. At some point she said, “Sure, Valerie will be digital. She can come back all you want.”
Q) Like the Val Kilmer AI who’s like acting in a movie.
LISA KUDROW: Really?
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: It’s that word, Val. That’s the bridge
Q) Lisa, what was it like to act with your son this season, who makes his acting debut?
LISA KUDROW: Yes. I mean, he’s been in little, short films, but not anything like this. That was heaven. And a little bit of guilt because I forgot that he was my son. He was that there and good. And so was I. [laughter] Because he forgot he was when he said, “I was just talking—I was Evan talking to Valerie.” Like, yes, that’s great. Me too. I didn’t have the heart to say, “Me too, I didn’t care about you.” [laughter] Yeah, it was really thrilling. And also we’re on Stage 24, and I have a picture of him at two years old in the craft service kitchen washing his hands. And then there he is back and acting. Oh my God. And part of this finale. Yeah.
Q) In terms of modern context, lending new possibilities to existing characters, is there a world where Web Therapy could come back in the age of TikTok and Instagram Live? It feels like there’s so much opportunity there for that character.
LISA KUDROW: There would be! Yeah. I mean there… It isn’t a— I don’t know. Yeah. Now I’m thinking.
Q) You talked about this a little bit, but, “to shoot the comeback in Los Angeles and on the Warner Brothers lot during a period where, as the show references many times, nothing is being made in LA?” How did that feel?
MICHAEL PATRICK KING: It felt great. We had two old-fashioned, glorified, beautiful sound stages on the Warner Brothers lot, which is the history. I’ve done a lot of shows here, so it was fun for me. Lisa’s done shows here so it’s fun for her. But it was important, palette-wise, because we deliberately shot at Warner Brothers, and then we deliberately made NuNet the future Gattaca. You know, the idea of the new television is in the Frank Gehry building, which is also right off the Warner Brothers lot. So, we wanted very much to show old and present Hollywood and potentially future Hollywood. Even though that building exists, we didn’t create any AI experience at all. It really exists. So, yeah, it was important to show reality. And we were happy to be here and the crew was beyond happy to come to work and have that gate go up in their hometown and do what those sound stages are made to do, which is create entertainment.
*PRESS CONFERENCE*