#the writers should hire someone specifically just to read their latest scripts and point out things that don't make sense based on the thin

[mazqueen]

I am so tired of Jane and Petra fighting, and it annoys me how it's always Jane getting mad at Petra and Petra being the one to have to always apologize.

This is gonna be long, you’ve been warned.

I agree about Jane and Petra fighting. It’s incredibly tiring to watch and in my opinion completely unnecessary. On the part where Jane is always mad and Petra always has to apologize, I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. That’s only happened once this season, I think? Truthfully, given their personalities, it actually makes sense if 80% of Jane and Petra’s fights are of Petra doing something that pisses Jane off / similar. Because Petra is… Petra and Jane is judgy. It’s bound to happen. And that’s fine. That makes sense. What doesn’t make sense to me is how they seem to fight/disagree, way too much about every single thing.

I get that people fight. I get that people are going to have disagreements. Especially a pair like Jane and Petra, who are just so different from each other — disagreements are to be expected.  But I think my main problem with them just constantly fighting is that I’ve reached a point where fighting feels like the ONLY thing they ever do anymore. It’s like, the show keeps establishing that they’re friends and family by having Petra and Jane constantly say it out loud, but we never actually see them being one. I get that they can’t just always write Petra and Jane having a nice time during brunch all the time because it doesn’t move the storyline. But I just feel like there should be other ways to get them to interact without getting them into a fight every single time. We always get a few Jetra-heavy episodes every so often, right? And in my head, it’s just… why not have one where there’s an external conflict they have to deal with, instead of giving us yet another conflict between the two.

Jane and Petra don’t have to be best friends, but the way they portray these two lately, just kind of makes me wonder like… what exactly do they do at brunch? Do they just sit, eat and never talk? I get that they probably also interact beyond what we’re shown onscreen because it’s a show, and you can’t put literally everything and squish it into 40 minutes. But when I watch Jane and Petra interact in the scenes that they do show onscreen recently, it always feels like they barely know each other at all. It’s like their closeness is still at the same level as it was in season two, almost. Or actually, I’d argue it’s worse than season two. Which makes absolutely no sense if they’ve really been spending time together every Saturday for about four years now. Plus, they keep calling each other ‘friend’!!! I mean honestly, unless all they ever do is have disagreements over their weekly brunches… a lot of things just really doesn’t make sense to me in terms of their relationship right now.

Think about it. In season two, Jane and Petra’s friendship was kind of new, but Petra went out of her way to subsidize Jane’s rent so she could live in her dream house. Petra went to yell at Angelique Harper with Jane when they thought she stole Jane’s idea. Jane went out of her way to see Magda in prison just to help Petra out of the Milos situation. Jane helped Petra with the baby stuff and postpartum depression. There’s a lot more that I won’t list down. But again, this is SEASON TWO and they were barely friends at the time, but they certainly acted like they were friends. Then we jump to season three/four, where they’re supposedly friends. Supposedly family. Supposedly spend brunches every week on Saturday.

Expectation: Petra calls in a favor for Jeffrey Mullins the first time Jane asked her to (I think it was 4x04?) because Jane is her friend and she just wants to help.Reality: Petra calls him so that they can move past their fight, making it so that Petra was doing it for selfish reasons.Me: Right.. I’m supposed to believe that Petra in s2 would subsidize Jane’s rent and take no credit for it, but she can’t/won’t call in a simple favor from Jeffrey for Jane now? When they’re supposed to be friends/family. I say bullshit. Also Petra forgetting Jane’s a writer is also bullshit.

Expectation: Jane would be concerned that Anezka and Magda are running around the hotel, knowing what those two are capable of.Reality: There isn’t a single scene or even a casual one liner mention of Jane being concerned, in fact she encourages Raf, the only one helping Petra to stop helping Petra for Raf’s safety, neglecting the issue of Petra’s safety.Me: Right… I’m supposed to believe that Jane in s2 cared enough to protect Petra from abusive Milos but now that they’re actually friends/family she doesn’t care that Petra’s abusers are out to get her. Bullshit. I don’t buy it for a second. And mind you, the whole Magda/Anezka stuff (4x02) happened BEFORE they got into their fight (4x04). So Jane wouldn’t have been upset with her yet at the time and yet nothing. Like I said, I don’t believe it.

The thing about Jane and Petra is that season two already shows us how much potential they have as friends. Season three/four has been slowly ruining that by giving us all these situations that frankly half the time feel unrealistic and make no sense to me. And I 100% blame it on the writers. Most (not all) of the things that have been happening between Jane and Petra is kind of weird for me to process, mostly because I genuinely feel like a lot of stuff should be things they’ve already moved from. It’s almost like, they did a three year time jump with the rest of JTV’s storyline, but they forgot to do the time jump part with Jane and Petra’s relationship because it feels a lot like we’re still right where they left off before the time jump?? I really just… don’t get why they refuse to give Jane and Petra’s friendship the progress it should have had by now. Because it’s not just the fights. Like for example, when Jane’s book was released, I don’t really understand why Petra was either not invited, or Petra opted not to attend the book launch. Petra was literally there and happy for her when she got the call about her book getting published at brunch in 3x11, it seemed like such a nice family moment. So why wasn’t she there? Jane not inviting her makes no sense in my head. Jane inviting her and her not going makes no sense in my head. We don’t exactly know which of the two happened but either way, it’s ???

I keep going back to Saturday brunches. Because while spending that together doesn’t necessarily mean they’d become superduperduper close, it would at least make them a little closer?? Plus the way they talk about brunch like it’s sacred and stuff. And yet they don’t seem to be part of each other’s lives anyway? Not to mention on Jane’s first year of mourning, it would’ve been only Petra and Jane there during brunches. Raf was in prison. And that would’ve also been the same time Petra was going to therapy after getting paralyzed. How is it possible that it feels like they still know nothing about each other? 

Like I said. Either they’ve gotten to know each other during those four years worth of brunches and are friends like they say they are, or they don’t ever talk at all during those brunches (or just endlessly disagree on everything) in which case, can the writers stop making them say they’re friends if they’re not actually friends so that we can all stop expecting them to act like it??? Honestly I’m just… legit confused, someone please explain it to me because. I really… I’m just confused.

[brandbaskets]

New Post has been published on https://brandbaskets.in/josh-radnor-aya-cash-on-their-romantic-comedy-social-animals/

Josh Radnor & Aya Cash on Their Romantic Comedy Social Animals

From writer/director Theresa Bennett, the romantic dramedy Social Animals is an honest look at how life doesn’t always turn out the way we want, expect, or hope it will. When Zoe (Noël Wells), who’s facing eviction and dealing with a failing business while being resigned to a life of one-night stands, meets Paul (Josh Radnor), who’s in a marriage (with Jane, played by Aya Cash) that lacks any sort of honest communication, together they realize that while their whole world is unraveling, it might actually lead to a new beginning.  

At the film’s Los Angeles press day, Collider got the opportunity to sit down and chat with co-stars Josh Radnor and Aya Cash about why they wanted to play these characters, what makes this romantic comedy different, telling a story without a villain, shooting at a video store, and working with a female director, both on this film and in general. Radnor also talked about his desire to direct again, and Cash talked about having to say goodbye, as she goes into the last season of her FX series You’re the Worst.  

Image via Vertical Entertainment

Collider:  I have never watched a movie where I’ve hoped a couple broke up, as much as I hoped these two would break up, which was a little emotionally weird. It just felt like that’s what was best for these two. 

AYA CASH:  You can be good people who are bad together. That’s all right.  

JOSH RADNOR:  Good people, bad together. 

CASH:  Yeah, that’s the tagline! 

How long ago did you guys read this and how much did it change, from when you read it to when you actually shot it? 

CASH:  I read it two years before we shot, so I don’t remember how it changed. I thought it just went into the black hole of meetings that happen, when you’re an actor, which is that you go in to meetings and you think you have a great first date, and then you see the movie that you didn’t get. So, I was like, “Wow, she’s so great! We got along. I liked the script,. But I guess she felt differently or hired someone better. But two years later, I got a call and they were like, “Do you want to be in Austin in two weeks?” So, I didn’t see how it changed. I just got to come at it anew. And then on set, the script was pretty set, with a little bit of improv, mainly by Fortune [Feimster], who is a creative comic genius. We stuck fairly close to script, with a little bit of improv. 

RADNOR:  I read the script and just tore through it. I really liked the character and I felt like I had some intuitive sense of how to play him, and I had a great meeting with (writer/director) Teresa [Bennett]. I had never been to Austin, and I loved her taste in music. The whole thing just aligned. I can’t remember how far in advance I got the offer and met her, but it wasn’t like we showed up on set and there was a wildly different script. She wasn’t very precious about it, but we stuck to the script, by and large. If something wasn’t working or we wanted to re-phrase something, she was so open to that. She kept her cool, in the best kind of way, as a first-time director. 

CASH:  She also took seven years to write it, so it changed a lot in those seven years. 

RADNOR:  We didn’t get all the old drafts. We just got the latest draft, which was the shooting draft. 

What was it that you were excited about, with getting the play these characters? Were there things that you felt that you hadn’t gotten to do? 

CASH:  For me, that’s definitely true. I don’t normally play mothers who are responsible business people, so I was excited to do that. Obviously, she is going through something and there’s much more under the surface. Normally, I get cast in the Zoe role, so it was really fun to play the Jane role. When I first met on it, they said, “Think about both characters,” and I said, “I think Jane is more interesting to me right now, just because I’ve been doing the other for awhile.” That was really exciting. We all have different sides to ourselves, and there’s a part of Jane that rings very true to me. It’s not necessarily my best side, but it’s a side, and it’s fun to express that and explore that through a character. 

Image via Vertical Entertainment

RADNOR:  Yeah, I liked this notion of polarity and opposites. I got to be in a romantic comedy, where you’re falling for a woman, and it’s this great romance, but then there’s also this crumbling marriage that’s at the heart of it, that’s kicking him into the arms of this other woman. All romantic comedies are essentially about what’s keeping them apart, and what’s keeping him from just jumping into this thing with Zoe with both feet is that he’s married with children, and he actually loves his kids and his wife. He’s got a moral compass, which I think is a fun internal conflict to play. His heart is drawing him one way, but his sense of basic decency and his marital vows are keeping him in this other place. When you’re an actor and you’re considering roles and seeing how juicy they are, you’re looking for that stuff that’s roiling underneath, and that keeps it from being basic and easy to crack. All of that internal combustion is good fuel, and it’s fun to play. 

I enjoyed how this is really just a simple story about these people who are trying, but it’s just not necessarily working. We’re so used to big, flashy movies nowadays that it’s really nice to see an intimate story where people are trying to work things out.  

CASH:  Yeah. It’s so easy to have a villain or to have someone to blame, so that then you can be like, “Great, I know who to root for.” You’re kicked around in this movie, a little bit, as far as who you’re rooting for and what you’re rooting for, which is interesting to me. 

RADNOR:  A lot of movies sort people into types and say, but anyone who is even half awake in life knows that life is more complicated than that. 

Josh, I loved the fact that your character owns a video store because I have all of these nostalgic memories of being in a video store when I was a kid. It was just was so sad that there was no one in his video store.  

  RADNOR:  I know. That video store was amazing. They actually had both of my movies (Liberal Arts and Happythankyoumoreplease), which I was thrilled about. And in terms of the production design, wherever you pointed the camera, it was so rich with color. 

Aya, you’ve said that you were looking for more female directors to work with, which is something you got from doing this project.  

CASH:  Yeah. 

Was there a specific point where you noticed that you weren’t working with many female directors? 

CASH:  The moment you notice it the most is sex scenes. Doing sex scenes with male directors is a whole different feeling. 

RADNOR:  You should be clear that you mean sex scenes with male directors directing the sex scenes. 

CASH:  Yeah, not in the #MeToo way. It’s just a totally different vibe. And also, the language between men and women around the sex stuff, even if you’re being careful, adds another layer. When you can be franker about what’s going on, and what you’re feeling about a sex scene, about showing your body or not showing your body, and about the reasons why we’re showing sex, a frank conversation can happen when you’re working with women. It’s so interesting, doing a sex scene surrounded by a female crew. Even if there’s a female director, it’s mostly men on the crew. We had a female DP, and all the heads of department were women, so there were a lot more women on set than I’m used to. You don’t notice, until you get the opposite and you’re like, “Oh wait, it can be like this!” That’s not to say that there aren’t great men in this industry. It’s not to say that there isn’t a place for both. It’s not like it’s been so traumatic to work for men. But you don’t even notice that there’s this other option, and there needs to be more of that other option. I’m working on developing a movie, and there is a scene in the shower, where I would be in the shower, and it’s the first time that I’ve considered doing nudity. It’s my own shower scene, and I’m not sure that it’s necessary, but it’s the first time I was really like, “It might be important here, and here’s why . . .” 

Josh, have you noticed whether you were or weren’t working with many female directors, yourself? 

RADNOR:  I’ve actually probably worked with more female directors than male directors. A lot of my feature work has been with women, Pam Fryman directed 200 of the 208 episodes of How I Met Your Mother. I worked with a great director, named Kimberly Senior, on Broadway, in a play called Disgraced. I’ve worked with Jill Soloway (on Afternoon Delight). I’ve worked with a lot of female directors and not had a bad experience. A set is a very delicate ecosystem and, as a director, I always want to create a space that the actors just feel really comfortable and really safe in, so that they can be dangerous in their work. You want them to feel that you see them, and that you’re going to pick their best takes and you’re not out to humiliate them. I think women are particularly good at creating that fertile environment, where great, risky work can happen. 

Are you hoping to direct again soon, yourself? 

RADNOR:  Oh, yeah.  

CASH:  This is where he’s gonna announce his next movie, starring me. I did a reading of his, a long time ago, and he didn’t cast me, and he’s regretted it ever since. He was like, “Don’t worry, I will write you a movie.” Right? 

RADNOR:  Am I supposed to just sign on off this? 

CASH:  No, I’m just putting it in print. I’ll shame you into a job. 

RADNOR:  So now, if I cast you in my next film, people are gonna be like, “Oh, it’s because she shamed him in that interview for Collider. That’s why he did it.”  

CASH:  I don’t care! A job’s a job, baby! 

RADNOR:  You’re such a working actor dame. You’re like the Elaine Stritch of the indie film world. 

CASH:  Just bring it on! 

RADNOR:  Yeah, so, I have a script ready to go that I was gonna do, but other things got in the way. I’m looking to do something ASAP, so the answer is yes. 

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