The Duplass Brothers Together For “Togetherness”
Mark and Jay Duplass have been collaborating all their lives as brothers. Now the two are working together on the new comedy series “Togetherness” on HBO. Mark and Jay talked about how hey were able to click as a team. Jay said, “Mark and I spent a ton of time in our 20s trying to be very referential, trying to be the Coen brothers and failing miserably at that. Then we lucked into this experience where we started making fun of ourselves on screen. The first movie we ever made that was really any good was a seven-minute short film about a guy trying to perfect the personal greeting of his answering machine and failing to do so, and having a nervous breakdown, which actually happened to one of us in real life.”
Jay Duplass said, “The show is about being in your late 30s, living on the East Side of LA, having kids and trying to be a family person, and trying to also make your own dreams come true. That’s really just the stuff of our lives and the conflict of our lives. In terms of drawing inspiration, we just talk about our own lives and the lives of our best friends and our family, and all the material comes from there.”
Mark stars as Brett who is working on his marriage with his wife Michelle and trying to restart the romance, only to have it derailed when Brett’s best friend, and Michelle’s sister both move in with them setting off a whole new group dynamic in the house.
“Every project is a little different in terms of how we approach it,” Mark said, “but this is the most intensely collaborative project we’ve done, because it’s bigger in scope. We’re functioning in a lot of roles and we’re preparing a bit more on this show than we normally do. There are just natural lines that get divided, where Jay and I talk about who is going to take the lead at this one given moment.” He added, “We’ve never had an issue with crazy ego stuff about letting one person take the lead, which is important because you can’t have two people sitting in the driver’s seat at all times trying to push the pedal and fight with each other. It’s a great comfort to know that if I’m feeling grumpy and uninspired, Jay will push a little bit harder and get things done.”
“Togetherness” premieres Sunday, January 11th at 10 pm et on HBO.
