(heavy percussion music)
- Hi, this is Mariah Gullo from the Hollywood Reporter,
and I'm in studio with Pamela Adlon today.
Hi.
- Hi, Mariah.
- We were talking about Better Things.
- Awesome.
- Very excited for season three to get rollin'.
Are you excited?
- I'm really excited.
I have writers this year and we've mapped out
an entire season and some beautiful stories.
I forget about what we're doing because
I'm in a cocoon and I'm working and I'm writing
and then I'm home and I'm cooking for my kids.
So yesterday I went shopping to get some food for,
my daughter was waiting in the car,
and I walk out and this woman goes, I love your show.
I love your show, thank you for making your show.
And I just was like, oh, I have this show.
- Yeah. - I have this show,
and people have that kind of response so, (hands slapping)
I have a responsibility to keep people passionate about it.
- Yeah.
Are there any plot lines from the last season
that are more of your favorite plot lines,
like things that you still think about today?
- Where Frankie was and how we had our little
thing and the stuff with Phyl, my mom
- Yeah. - on the show
and it's so interesting because, you know, people my age,
we kind of have this kind of nagging thing in the
back of our heads like, are our parents okay?
How much longer do we have right now with this good moment?
You know, people always have kind of a set back
and then all of the sudden it's like nothing happened,
so you just speed along.
I liked the stuff that happened with Henry Thomas,
who played Robin, and seeing Sam go down a road
where she kinda loses control.
And the fun stuff, like with Jeff and,
in the truck and saying no, no, no,
and just (laughter), you know.
My feeling about season two,
which I really wanted to convey and that I feel
happened is it takes a village to raise kids.
And you don't have to have a perfect nuclear family.
It's really about the people that you bring into
your life that, if you give your children to them,
and they give themselves to your children,
it's just the greatest way to raise your family.
- Yeah.
Sam Fox's world very much feels like a bohemian world.
Very creative.
Is that something that you think is unique to Los Angeles?
Is that kind of a unique experience
that you've felt growing up here?
- It.
- [Mariah] Or is kind of an ideal in Los Angeles?
- It's kinda just the way my daughters
and I live our lives, you know?
That's just the way, we're growing up in
art and music and food and culture.
Those are the things that keep us
moving forward and keep us inspired.
I just want to share that way we live in my show.
- And how is it going with the, you know,
the relationship you have with the three
actresses that play your daughters?
I know your daughters kind of picked them out.
- Yeah.
- So how is that experience of watching them
get older and working with them and?
- Well, it's so funny because like every once
in awhile I'll text the girls' parents and be like,
how old is Olivia now?
Send me a picture of Hannah's hair.
- [Mariah] Right.
- Did Mikey turn 18?
It's been incredible seeing how
they've grown as people and actors.
It's just an incredible kind of way to
look at different kids who aren't your kids.
I have a huge responsibility to all of them.
All, everybody.
- You have six daughters now.
- Yes.
(laughter)
- Do you recognize what you don't want out of a sitcom?
- You know, for me, authenticity is everything.
I want things to look and feel a certain way
and I want it to sound a certain way.
I'm very particular.
I'm a voice over actor, as well,
so I've always said that my talent isn't as much
as the voices that I do, it's my ear.
So for me, my show is about my vision and my
ear and being able to kind of procure an
authentic experience for people and keep it
funny and raw and hard and uncomfortable,
and sometimes dirty, and always just with
a heart and just an uplifting feeling.
- Yeah.
- That's a lot.
(laughter)
- Super woman.
Is there anything that you want to start moving
away from as far as plot lines or...
- I don't know.
- [Mariah] Yeah.
- I don't know.
I'm kind of introducing new things in season three,
but yeah, I certainly don't want to keep
clanging the same bell on everything.
Like, oh she's a single mom and she's doing it alone,
I mean, your life takes you in different directions.
And my own real life daughters are all older now
and we get pleasure from each other in ways
that we were never able to do before because
it was a lot of managing and taking care of them.
Now they can take care of themselves a lot more.
But, I always make sure that I'm there for them
because even when they get older,
they still need you, if you're lucky.
And they still want you.
- Yeah.
Last question to you.
Your last episode of season two had a musical number in it.
Can you tell me that day, the dance sequence,
what that day of filming was like.
- Oh, it was amazing.
I kept it a secret from Mikey the entire
time we were in prep and production.
I would do secret choreography
on the weekends with Kat Burns.
I would take Celia with me.
I wouldn't let anybody play the song,
talk about the song, I wanted to keep it so under wraps.
It was an incredible experience.
I had a techno crane and I had
hundreds of people on my crew.
I think after the third take I slipped my disc.
- Oh no.
- Which to this day is my mark, my badge of honor.
You could see me kind of barely being
able to move once the dance starts,
but that song for me, my friend Heather
had played me the video, because we were kind of,
she was doing my hair and we were showing each
other our inspirations and I was like,
you gotta check this out.
And then she was like, I'm obsessed with her,
you gotta check this out.
And then that song rolled over and over in my head.
And then, I watched the video a bunch of times.
And I knew (hands slapping) that I wanted to
recreate the video in my show with my girls.
And it was just one of the
greatest experiences we all ever had.
- Amazing.
So, I know I said that was the last question,
but if season two was community, what's season three?
- Getting older.
Pamela, thank you so much for being here.
- Thank you so much.
- Better Things on the FX channel.
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