Author: Lisa Weidenfeld

November 20, 2015 10:00am PT by Lisa Weidenfeld

 Courtesy of Netflix

Alan Yang talks with THR about subverting expectations in the first season of Netflix’s Aziz Ansari comedy.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from the season one finale of Netflix’s Master of None.]

Although Netflix’s Master of None may start out as the comical adventures of a funny young guy in New York, by the end of the series, it’s clear that creators Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang had something much more profound in mind.

Not content to wrap things up neatly at the end of the half hour, the two explored issues of race in America in 2015, and deeper questions about what it means to try to share your life with someone. By the end of the first season, main character Dev (Ansari) has gotten his big break in acting and then lost it, as well as gotten the girl (Noel Wells) and then felt truly ambivalent about having the girl.

THR caught up with exec producer Yang about some of those bold choices and whether they ended Dev’s story.

You guys did something really adventurous, in that the second-to-last episode takes place over two years. Was that always part of the plan, that you really wanted to just dive in and get through the entire relationship story all in one episode?

That came up because we were discussing episode nine as a Dev and Rachel (Wells) episode and we had some good ideas, but this idea came up and it just seemed so exciting, because what kind of show have you seen that has the freedom to do that? We just hadn’t seen it. It seemed really cinematic in a cool way. It seemed like it would tell a story that you couldn’t convey in an episode that doesn’t span that course of time. And the idea of how things change and how they can improve and sometimes decline in a relationship as a result of the passage of time was really interesting to us. So once we had the idea, we moved with it very quickly. A lot of that episode is very personal to Aziz, and he did a great job plucking moments from his life. Other people contributed, obviously, but a lot of that episode is very personal to Aziz.

You also upend a few romantic comedy tropes. It seems like Dev and Rachel are going to break up when she has a Chicago job opportunity, and then at the very end it seems like he’s flying to Japan to make up with her. Only he’s going to Italy to learn how to make pasta. Were you trying to fake the audience out a little bit that you weren’t going to go in those directions?

Yes. We didn’t want to be predictable. They say the best endings are both surprising and inevitable. And we are conscious of all those romantic comedy tropes. We didn’t want to do something that you’ve seen a million times. We were going to shoot that scene where he has the passenger next to him who’s asking about where he’s going and why he’s going there on the airplane, and Aziz came up with the idea of, “We should make that passenger Asian.” You see an Asian woman next to him, maybe you assume they’re going to Japan. I think it’s just a tiny microcosm of one of the themes of the entire show, which is that appearances don’t always tell the whole story. Just because a person’s Asian doesn’t mean it’s not an American person going to Italy on vacation. Asian Americans go to Italy, too. I went last year! I just thought that was a funny added touch where the lady next to him was Asian.

You also end Dev’s story in a very real way. In sitcoms, usually everything goes back to the status quo. If there is a second season, was that something you were planning for all along? That you were going to round off a story here, that Dev’s going to grow a lot as a person and change a lot in his life, but you still felt you had other stories to tell?

Absolutely. I think the best stories involve change. And yes, there have been many, many great sitcoms in which the end of each episodic story is to bring things back to the status quo and that’s just how things were done for a while. But I think we’re in this exciting time where we can do stories where the protagonists change. One of the ideas for our show was, he’ll change a half of 1 percent each episode, but at the end of “Finale” [the season finale episode title], he changes more than that, and I think it is an important decision. I really like the aspect of subverting the expectations of the guy’s running to the airport and getting on a plane to chase after the girl, but in a real significant way; what Rachel has done in his life is impact him in a different way. She’s motivated him to make a big decision in his own life and stop being so scared and go after something, which is something he hasn’t done for a long time. I love that her trip to Japan motivates him, and he does his own trip that mirrors hers.

Were you always thinking that by the end of this season he might put acting aside for now?

I think there’s room for a lot of possibilities. There’s the possibility that he changes jobs completely or there’s the possibility that he relapses and gets scared again. There are a lot of interesting ways I think we could pursue [the story]. One thing we talked about on Parks and Recreation, which was a show that every year seemed like we weren’t sure if we were going to be renewed or not, was “let’s just write the most interesting thing we can think of and then we’ll deal with it.” We’ll deal with the ramifications, and we’ll work really hard and we’ll figure out a creative and interesting way that the story could continue. We did a similar thing here. The best, most organic, most satisfying, most true to the character ending is this one, so let’s do it and we’ll figure something out, and we definitely have some ideas.

How careful were you about avoiding Tom Haverford (Anzari’s Parks character) moments?

We were pretty conscious of it. There were moments pitched in the writers’ room. There were a couple jokes about Dev’s colognes or something, and it was like, no, those are too close to what Tom Haverford would do. It’s tough, because there’s a point at which Aziz’s personality infused Tom Haverford’s character with life and with an energy that Aziz has as an actor. So in a way, sometimes it’s a little bit inextricable. For instance, when he makes a face that’s excited, how are you going to separate that from when Tom is excited? Aziz has done a great job in his acting of modulating, and the world portrayed in our show is slightly different from Tom’s in Parks and Rec. I honestly think we did a pretty fair job of not reprising that character, which was a character that a lot of people loved. 

What did you think of Master of None? Sound off in the comments below.

Lisa Weidenfeld

THRnews@thr.com

November 18, 2015 9:00am PT by Lisa Weidenfeld

 Courtesy of Netflix

“It was not in my plan of things,” the former ‘Bones’ writer tells THR about her breakout role in the new Netflix comedy.

Lena Waithe didn’t exactly plan to become a comedy star on Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang’s Master of None. She’d been primarily a writer, who’d put in some years writing for Bones and is currently working on a drama pilot for Showtime. But thankfully, she ended up being cast as the (formerly white and straight) Denise, main character Dev’s deadpan best friend, and the role was then rewritten as a black lesbian. Waithe is rolling with the changes, however, and talked to The Hollywood Reporter all about playing a character rarely seen on TV before.

Had acting always been something you wanted to do or was it just this surprising thing that came up?

It was not in my plan of things. I tend to write things down that I want to do. Like, I want to get this accomplished, I want to have dinner with Oprah, I want to have coffee with Sarah Jessica Parker, I want to have my own show, I want to do these things – that wasn’t on the list, but it was a wonderful surprise. An opportunity presented itself. I was such a fan of Aziz. I watched Parks and Rec like every other self-respecting hipster and loved his character so much and just thought he was so interesting. The other thing I like about Aziz, because I follow his standup, is that he is this Indian kid who’s from the South who really knows black culture. Like, he knows it, he appreciates it, he respects it. And that was always so interesting to me, because I was like, how can he do a whole bit about R. Kelly, like about songs on the B-side that people really don’t know. I always kind of loved that about him. He has very interesting cultural references.

Did you act as a fashion consultant at all for Denise?

Some of my clothes actually made it into the show. Aziz really liked my clothes and he liked the way I dressed. We have an awesome costume designer, Dana [Covarrubias], who told me to do a Pinterest of clothes and things I liked and designers, so I did that, and she and I became best buddies. She really had a lot of fun with the character because I don’t know if we’ve seen a sly, harem pants-wearing, cool Topshop sweatshirt-wearing, snapback hat-rocking lesbian on TV.

We’re seeing more and more gay people on TV, but not really anyone like Denise. Is that something that you felt self-conscious about at all, that you felt like you were representing a group that hadn’t been represented before, or were you just like, I’m just so excited that this is happening?

I think it was a combination of all three. I’ve never been a person that has had fear of, like, “Oh, I don’t want to be the poster child for all black lesbian women.” I don’t know. I want to be someone in the public eye that they can be proud of. I don’t feel like, “Oh her character can’t do anything bad.” I just wanted her to feel like a real human being. And that’s what Aziz and Alan and [executive producer] Michael [Schur] wanted. They wanted all the characters to feel that way. So I always felt protected in that way. For me, it’s always about being authentic. Authentic to myself, and really creating this character and making sure we were authentic to her as well. I just really want be proud of the work I’m doing, whether it’s something I’ve written, produced or am starring in. I just want to be proud of it. She could have been quirky, she could have been a nerd, she could have been any of these things. But to me, as long as she was a three-dimensional character, I didn’t mind.

When they decided the character was going to be gay, I was really hyped. One, because that makes my life a little bit easier because I’m like, that’s not a stretch. But two, because I know how many women I see out in the world that are very much like myself. We exist. To me, the visibility of it was what was going to be so important and so exciting.

There’s a scene where Denise and Dev are at this party where she wants to hook up with a straight woman, and you have this very quick, funny discussion of the woman’s skin tone that is not a conversation that we see on TV too often. Was that improvised? Is that a conversation you’ve had with non-black friends before where you explained the terminology?

That actually came out of a real conversation I had with Aziz. I think we were just hanging out on set between takes and I just said it casually: “So-and-so’s a redbones,” and Aziz hadn’t heard that. He was like, “What? What is that? Is that a black thing?” Like, what the heck? We started polling the crew, like, “Do you know what a redbones is, or have you heard of redbones?” There was a black guy on the crew, and he was like, “Yeah, I’ve heard of that before. It means light-skinned or fair-skinned.” Aziz was like, “Oh, so it’s like a black thing.” The writers quickly found that it’s a thing we say in the black community. The Halle Berry thing came up too because I think Aziz asked, “Is Halle Berry a redbones? I was like, “No, no, I don’t consider her a redbones.” We were having a very serious conversation about it, because Aziz and I have those random silly conversations, but I loved that after, he was like, “We have to find a way to put this in the show.”

Did that actress find it funny that that conversation happens right before she’s introduced onscreen?

She did. But she knew what the term was, too! So she was like, “Yeah, I’m redbones, totally. I get it.”

Have you actually seen Failure to Launch?

Yes, I have! I own that. You know what? Because Sarah Jessica Parker is bae. I love Sarah Jessica Parker. What’s not to like? That’s the reason Denise has seen that movie. I thought that was hilarious. I saw that in the script and I’m a lover of Sarah Jessica Parker, I think she’s awesome. I think I probably told Aziz I own that movie. You can’t say anything to him because it’ll work its way into the script. But I own it, I’m not ashamed of it. I’m a lover of rom-coms. That’s one that may not have won any awards, but Sarah Jessica Parker looks great in it. She’s lovely in it. The third act gets a little weird, but it’s not a horrible rom-com. It’s not awful. I’m defending Failure to Launch right now.

Master of None‘s entire first season is streaming now on Netflix.

Lisa Weidenfeld

THRnews@thr.com

November 13, 2015 9:00am PT by Lisa Weidenfeld

 Courtesy of Netflix

Alan Yang talks with THR about working with star/co-creator Aziz Ansari, changing the way Asians are portrayed on the small screen.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from Netflix’s Master of None.]

If anyone was worried that Aziz Ansari wasn’t ready to transition from supporting actor on NBC’s Parks and Recreation to running things on his own show, it’s safe to say that Netflix comedy Master of None has put those fears to rest.

The series, which bowed Nov. 6, follows the life and career of Dev (Ansari) as he navigates modern dating and life as an Indian actor in New York. Ansari, however, isn’t going it alone: Alan Yang, who wrote and exec produced Parks, co-created the show with him. (Parks showrunner Mike Schur also serves as an EP.)

Master of None has been heralded for its take on diversity issues in pop culture, as well as its efforts to portray the lives of people not often seen on TV. The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Yang to discuss how to preach without being preachy as the series takes on such issues as aging, diversity on TV, parents and more.

How did the show change as you developed it?

We thought it might be more of a dating/relationship show. We thought it might just be about that aspect. It became much richer and more interesting once we opened it up to other topics. We just realized we didn’t want to pen ourselves into that. I think the balance is really good. We never want to be preachy or be scolds in the episodes, but I think a show where every episode is a social issue might be a little exhausting and a show where every episode is about relationships might not be quite as unique.

How much is Dev’s friend Brian (Kelvin Yu) based on you?

A lot of it is based on my experience. Certainly his relationship with his dad is very much based on my relationship with my dad. So much of what Peter Chang (Clem Cheung) in the show says is stuff my dad has said. He’s always emailing me links from the Economist that say that the world is going to end, so that’s all real. And he’s a positive, upbeat guy, which is how I am, so there’s definitely aspects of it. Kelvin Yu is a really great writer, too, and he brought his own perspective, and he has a couple details that are kind of lifted from his life. So maybe it’s a composite.

Is the dating side of it true to you as well? Have you ever texted someone a question mark like Dev does?

Yeah, I think I have. [Laughs.] This is going to make me sound bad, but in the “Hot Ticket” [episode] where Brian says to just text a bunch of girls and whoever answers gets to go, there was a period in my life where I was doing that. But I don’t do that anymore! But when you’re young and single and you’ve got a cool event … it’s probably not the most humane thing to do. It’s probably a bad thing. But I have done that before, so we put that in the show. The characters can’t be perfect. They have to do some bad things, too.

Not a lot of shows have an Asian man who’s quite that confident with women. Was that a conscious effort to upend that stereotype?

We were conscious of that. Because growing up as an Asian kid, I never saw Asian men on TV, and if I did, they certainly weren’t going out with any women. I had this conversation in college with my friend who was African-American and he was always complaining about how African-American people needed better representation in pop culture, which I totally agreed with, but at the same time, I said, well, have you ever seen an Asian man kiss someone in a movie? And we just couldn’t think of it at the time. This is a few years ago, but we just couldn’t think of it. Even that movie, Romeo Must Die, where I believe it’s Jet Li starring in it — I think they rewrote the ending so he doesn’t kiss the girl. I think I literally read that. Maybe that’s an urban legend, but I read that happened and I believe it, because there’s a strong history of desexualizing Asian men in TV and movies, and so we just thought it would be good.

The “Indians on TV” episode has gotten a lot of attention. How did you decide how to tell that story in terms of breaking down what was going to happen to Dev [who refuses to do an Indian accent in order to get a role]?

That episode was very difficult to break a story for a number of reasons. The subject matter was fascinating to us, because that’s something that is very personal to us. It comes from personal experiences that Aziz has had, it comes from experiences that I’ve had in the writers’ room. It’s tricky territory because you don’t want to paint the executives in the story as complete racists or clueless, because they’re not. In real life, when you meet these executives, they’re good people. They’re not trying to necessarily be discriminatory for the sake of being discriminatory. They’re trying to run a business. And so we wanted to make sure that the perspective of the executive wasn’t cartoonishly racist, but at the same time, point out that because these networks are so risk averse, they’re not even trying to take a risk in terms of diversity.

How carefully did you guys calibrate that “curry favor” line?

Believe me, we had tons of discussions. The very early versions of the draft didn’t have any racist jokes in it. They just had the person say, “Oh, they’re good, but there can’t be two [Indian actors on one show].” And we thought that even that would be enough, because that is by itself not necessarily super offensive, but as a minority actor, it just kind of sucks to read that. But then we realized to give the episode a little more juice and to put Dev in a little bit of a trickier situation, it would be better if there were something to set him off a little more and motivate him more.

How did you end up picking Busta Rhymes as the more established minority famous person to advise Dev in that episode?

Oh my God, he was so good. We thought it would be funny if it were an established rapper, just him dropping his wisdom on Dev, who clearly is just a commercial actor and doesn’t have the status that this guy has. We were like, “Who would be at a Knicks game? Who’s kind of a New York rapper?” And we hit on Busta’s name and we called him and he was so funny. He came in so well-prepared. I tried to give him his lines for the day when he came in and he said he didn’t need them, he was off book, and he was. He just had everything memorized. He has a great line at the end of the scene, after he says, “Charge it to the race card,” which is a great line that Aziz’s brother Aniz wrote. He says, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go f— with some of that shrimp,” and that was just Busta improvising.

Master of None is now streaming on Netflix.

Lisa Weidenfeld

THRnews@thr.com