Simon Blackwell and Chris Addison interview: ‘Breeders’ creators
“There’s no more important job that gets done in life then bringing children into the world, and yet every single person doing it is an amateur,” admits “Breeders” co-creator Chris Addison. He was joined in our recent webchat with co-creator Simon Blackwell, who adds, “I mean you’re vetted more when you get a rescue dog then when you have a child. There’s various visits that have to happen before you’re allowed to have the puppy. And with the kid it’s your job to keep that human being alive for the next 18 years.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
“Breeders” is the family comedy currently airing its third season on FX, starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard, who play a couple struggling with parenthood. Freeman also created the show with Blackwell and Addison. Blackwell serves as writer on the show and Addison as director.
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The third season begins with Freeman’s character living out of home as his presence is causing their adolescent son anxiety. Addison explains, “All families are fundamentally flawed structures. We wanted to be quite truthful about how hard it is, and how hard you are on yourself just being a parent. It was a thing we felt we hadn’t seen in many family dynamics, certainly in sitcoms, between parents and children. We wanted to show a world where there was a loving family that was by no means perfect. The stresses and strains feel like they struck a chord with the people who are viewing.”
On finding comedy in dark places, Blackwell says, “We all trust that tonally we’re speaking the same language. It’s difficult sometimes, it can get a bit drama-ama and we are a sitcom. We still found a way to get some comedy in there and still have some laughs. It’s a fine line and you just have to rely on everyone else to to know when you’ve gone too far, one way or the other.” Addison continues, “There are moments that are right on the edge.”
Blackwell and Addison won Emmys for their work on the political comedy “Veep” in 2015. Addison jokes, “We’re largely doing this sitcom to spend more time away from politics, and it’s the exact opposite.” Blackwell reveals, “We’ve done political comedy before, and there’s a saying that all political careers end in failure. And all parental careers do as well. You are going to fail. There’s not going to be a point where your kids are grown up they go, ‘everything was perfect.’ It’s about trying to mitigate that those failures. We were trying to take some pressure off people with this show.”
