Lisa Kudrow

"And as Michael (Patrick King) puts it, the best minefield for that person is to make her an actress around forty on television. That's where you get the most torture, I think."

HBO
What was the genesis of The Comeback ?

Lisa
I had been thinking about doing a show about a woman, an actress who was desperate to be back in the limelight after a ten-year absence. After kicking the idea around with my producing partner, Dan Bucatinsky, I met with Michael Patrick King for lunch. I said, you know, there is one and only one show that I would do. And I did the character for Michael and he not only got it, he shaped it and organized it and fleshed it out and turned it into something more compelling than I was even thinking about. Three hours later we were still laughing, and Michael said, well I think we've outlined the pilot. [LAUGHS]

HBO
What was the inspiration for the main character, Valerie Cherish. Is she based on anyone you've come across in Hollywood?

Lisa
She's not based on any one person in particular, it's more about people who have their goals and their sights on the wrong thing. This is about a woman who has a husband and a nice home and is financially set. She doesn't really need anything, except what she thinks her endlessly needy ego wants is to be in the spotlight. And it's just like anybody we all know, who hasn't done work on themselves and needs permission from the outside to like themselves. So it's that person who is still looking for the rest of the world to tell them they're OK. And as Michael (Patrick King) puts it, the best minefield for that person is to make her an actress around forty on television. That's where you get the most torture, I think.

HBO
So is there a list of things that Valerie Cherish has learned in Hollywood -- like the do's and don'ts of how to handle yourself, how to orchestrate your comeback, your image?

Lisa
I don't know if she's learned how to orchestrate her comeback, because she'd have to first acknowledge that she needs one. But I think she has certain rules that everything's OK, you know what you know, and you have to take care of yourself. You just have to be confident and you might be wrong, but sell it anyway. [LAUGHS]

HBO
One of the comedic highlights of the show is the spoofing of reality TV. How do you feel about the concept of reality shows?

Lisa
I do like reality shows, and I watch some of them because they're high drama. It's also just fun to watch people have honest reactions-I think they're honest reactions-to things going on around them.

We wanted to do a woman on a reality show because that's what's happening right now-it's part of our culture. So it's not spoofing it really, it's just incorporating that next step of what we want to talk about in a television show. There are things in our pilot that we thought we'd have to really explain, and it turns out people know reality shows so well that they get it. Real fast.

We just thought, we all see reality shows, but to see the raw footage of a reality show-the moments where there's absolutely nothing at all happening (and when they're shooting a real reality show that's probably most of the time)-that's where you get some of the real agony and comedy. We wanted to see the moments in between stuff happening, and capture the subject of the show's response to it-the look in their eyes when they're panicking that not enough is happening.

We purposely chose a character who believes she's very in control. She didn't fully realize when she signed up for it that she and the reality show are at cross-purposes, and that she would have little control over her "image" or "persona" in the process. And most of the time she's gonna be caught saying something and then realize, 'Oh, that's right, there's a camera on me.' And then to see her looking at the producers and wonder, 'Did you get that? Well, I'm sure you won't use it!' [LAUGHS] You get to see these things that are so completely out of her control that she feels very in control. For me it's fun to play with that little battle in a person. So we will watch her struggle to appear as dignified as possible while the goal of the reality show is to create as humiliating a picture as possible.

HBO
The show is not just a comedy. There are a lot of sad moments, a lot of layering in the show that makes it interesting.

Lisa
Yeah, there are lots of funny things in this show because it's mostly a comedy, but it's also very uncomfortable. We wanted to get the feel for how intrusive those reality cameras are, and what its really like when those cameras are trained on someone in a very intimate, private, emotional moment. So those moments are sometimes sad - and definitely uncomfortable - but that's what we wanted.

HBO
The show looks improvised but it's fully scripted. Do you improvise at all?

Lisa
The show is completely scripted, so there really isn't a lot of improvising at all. It has to be scripted because there's already too much chaos with the [LAUGHS] reality cameras, the constant movement. So this whole thing has to look spontaneous, and has to be very choreographed and controlled.

HBO
So basically there's a lot of work that goes into making it look like there's no work?

Lisa
Yeah, it takes so much planning. The first instinct of anyone on a scripted show is, 'Oh I know that's coming up.' But we have to make it look spontaneous, reality TV spontaneous. We have to make it look like someone is speaking off-the-cuff, and a reality producer is suddenly thinking, 'Oh yeah, let me catch that!' The camera gets so close that it can read bullsh**. You can see it on every level. So it's tough, but it's really fun figuring out how to make it work. Our camera operators come from a background of documentary filmmaking and news camerawork, which helps give it the reality feel. And luckily Michael Patrick King directed the pilot, so he sort of set the stage for that look. He was just inspired and got it; he was able to not only translate the written part of the script, but also the spontaneity and the dance between Valerie and the cameras. It's really something.

HBO
And what's it like to work with Michael Patrick King?

Lisa
It feels like I've worked with him for ten years, that's what it feels like. We wrote this together, pitched it together, plotted out the pilot and then the first season. It was very exciting for me, to have never written anything before and for Michael Patrick King to let me know-this is great and it's easy, which means it's good and it's working. That was really exciting.

Working with him is like playing the trust game, and you can just fall and he's gonna catch you. And hopefully it works in reverse for him, too. He doesn't just get it, he gets it in 3D. He feels it inside and on every sense, all of his sensory input and output is open, and he knows he can feel and sense when it's working, when it's not working. And you know he's inspired-and inspiring-to work with.

HBO
Any memorable scenes so far that you've really liked?

Lisa
There's a lot. [LAUGHS] The good news is there's a lot. Every scene is always a surprise, because no matter what you envision when you're writing it, there's so much more in there because of all the cameras. You have the reality show cameras, which move in tight, then pull back. Then it shifts over to the "big picture" cameras, which are capturing the reality show cameras. You see the reality show crew and the producers and hear them talking, and then it goes back to what they see in their cameras. It adds so many layers.

HBO
Do people wonder if you are playing yourself in the show?

Lisa
Well, yeah, I mean I'm playing a character named Valerie Cherish, who has long red hair, and the style hasn't changed since about '85, when she first got it cut and colored that way. [LAUGHS] In her mind, a comedic actress has long hair. Blonde is dumb comedy, red hair is smart, sexy comedy. So it's all very precise and calculated. And then the way she speaks, there's a little of that bullsh**ty affectation in there. Um, so very different from me. I have no bullsh**ty affectation. At all. When I speak. No. I'm doing a bit. [LAUGHS]

HBO
One of my favorite things is people who end on a sentence with a question mark - like when we're talking?

Lisa
That's the college freshman affectation. Where, you know? You just came to college and you've learned so much that now you're the smartest person in the world? And you don't want others to feel less than? So you throw a question at the end of everything you're not sure of. But there's, y'know, the Roman Empire? I'm not gonna assume you're familiar with that because if you're not, that's OK? Yeah. Humble. [LAUGHTER]

All of this has nothing to do with the show or my character, but I'm enjoying the conversation.

HBO
OK back to you -

Lisa
Her.

HBO
Her. Now, back to the show, actually. Are you guys planning to have cameos, other people participating in the show?

Lisa
Yeah, we have a couple coming up. We have to stay within the reality of who would be in Valerie Cherish's life so... you know [LAUGHS] I don't know that we have big, flashy cameos, but we do have a couple.

HBO
So where is the show going to take us?

Lisa
Well, in the pilot, it's Valerie's first day on her reality show, and they go with her to an audition and she gets the sitcom. She nails the audition - or she's the last actress standing and by default gets the audition - it's up for interpretation. But now she has two years of TV ahead of her, which she's thrilled about: her reality show and the sitcom. And then we chronicle her trip to the Upfronts, where the networks announce their new fall schedule - and this new sitcom is one of them. Of course, Valerie has expectations of how that's gonna go, because she doesn't have a realistic view of herself or who she is in this business anymore. Then we're there for the first day of rehearsal, because they're gonna start shooting their series, Room and Bored . They have their first photo shoot together as a cast, and the night the show premieres on TV - and again we see her inflated expectations about it all. It follows from there.

HBO
Hollywood is the backdrop of The Comeback . Could the show have been set in another world?

Lisa
It could have been set in another world in that the show is very character-driven. But this particular character's interaction with this particular setting is crucial. This show is set in the universe of network television for a reason. Look, for me personally, I do believe that TV de-sensitizes us to things like violence, sex and now dignity has gone out the window. Watching a person lose their dignity used to be uncomfortable, and now it's an expected part of the program that we're becoming comfortable with. A loss of dignity can be funny if no one notices it going except the audience. When everyone can see it being taken away, or handed over as payment for fame, it's hopefully uncomfortable.