Director Jonathan Levine breaks down the finale and more.
But the most glaring change is, well, the drugs.
Is there anything you knew, immediately, that you wanted to change?
Alyla Browne and Nicole Kidman in ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’.Vince Valitutti/Hulu
JONATHAN LEVINE:Well, I was worried about the part where she locked them all in a room.
I’m guessing you scrapped the retreat’s silent scenes right away?
I did say we should do a completely silent episode, because I loved that in the book.
Luke Evans, Regina Hall, Melvin Gregg, Samara Weaving, Bobby Cannavale, and Melissa McCarthy in ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’.Vince Valitutti/Hulu
It didn’t work.
What were those goals?
I kind of use a grab bag of different influences, and subconsciously it creates a final tone.
To me, it became a pop confection that explored very serious things, but in a candy-coated way.
How has your approach to shooting this kind of material changed?
Obviously in the past those scenes have played more toward comedic effect.
A reason why Seth is so incredible at what he does is that he’s funny and grounded.
He was like, “This is hard, man.”
One big difference between Seth Rogen’s trip scenes and those inNine Perfect Strangersis the visuals.
I think now I’ve got my 10,000 hours of tripping footage.
Maybe this could be my niche.
Do you have a favorite episode?
Was Michael’s singing written into the script, or was that improvised?
It was written in.
I loved that people would sing at the end of every episode.
Not to mention that we have a miniBen Falcone, and that’s like the dancing baby.
Did you want to give the show a “happy” conclusion?
I think it’s happy for most of these people, right?
I was rooting for most of them to come out the other side of this experience and be okay.
I don’t think it’s a happy ending for Masha, though.
But for our other characters, I did really want them to be happy.
Speaking of the other characters, I have to ask about Carmel [Regina Hall].
Oh yes, it was really Carmel.
