The rituals of pitching, the magic of casting and the joy of working with mature actors were among the subjects tackled in a panel session featuring five showrunners who steer high-wattage series for Netflix.
Mara Brock Akil (“Forever”), Mindy Kaling (“Running Point”), Molly Smith Metzler (“Sirens”), Eric Newman (“American Primeval,” “Zero Day”) and Michael Schur (“A Man on the Inside”) gathered May 20 at Netflix’s Tudum Theater in Hollywood to talk shop and compare notes. The session was moderated by Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s head of scripted series for the U.S. and Canada.
The event came on a momentous day for Akil, as it fell on her birthday, and at a heady time for Schur, who celebrated the unveiling of his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week.
“I did not, in all honesty, know that writers were eligible. So when I got that call, I assumed it was a prank of some kind,” Schur confessed. “I was incredibly honored by it. I am very glad that writers are eligible. I think more writers ought to be part of the landscape of the town. Also this the first event that I personally attended where I was like, Oh this is what your funeral is like. All your old friends are there, and they’re saying nice things about you.”
The “FYSEE” session focused on shedding light on the pitching and development process. Friedlander pressed the group for details of any personal rituals that they engage in for good luck on the day of a pitch meeting.
“After I vomit?” Akil said, acknowledging that she does not enjoy the showmanship that comes with selling shows to buyers for networks or streamers.
“I just want to write. I just want to get to the script,” Akil said. “One ritual I do is [listen to] music. The playlist actually helps me write. It also helps me get the tone, get the vibe, get the texture and then just really relax me before going in and having to talk about it.”
For Kaling, it’s the opposite. Pitching her wares as a writer and producer can be an outlet for her as an actor. The multihyphenate who became a star on NBC’s “The Office” and Fox’s “The Mindy Project” has taken a break from being on camera since she became a mother of three (her oldest is 7).
“I haven’t acted since I’ve had children. For me, even when it’s this grim pitch over a Zoom and there’s just like tiny smiling boxes. I enjoy the performance of it,” Kaling said. “You get to be funny and tell a rehearsed story to six on smiling faces, passing a show. As a performer, It just feels like it lets me act a little bit.”
Netflix’s Peter Friedlander and Mindy Kaling onstage at “FYSEE: The Pitch with Peter Friedlander” at (Photo by Natasha Campos/Getty Images for Netflix)
Getty Images for Netflix
Smith Metzler goes minimalist when she’s trying to make a sale.
“I don’t know if I recommend this, but I have one little ritual, which is that I bring nothing with me, because if it’s in front of me, then I end up reading it. So my way of preparing is to do a lot of prep and then bring nothing.”
Schur has a full-time, in-house consultant who provides invaluable feedback before he saddles up and takes his ideas to top buyers. His wife, fellow writer-producer J.J. Philbin, is a tough audience.
“She has a terrible poker face,” he said. “When she’s bored, she just is immediately, visibly bored. She doesn’t know she’s doing it, but her writer brain is saying ‘No, this is bad.’ And it’s wonderful. Because then I’m like, OK well, this part of the pitch stinks, and I should cut it or improve it or change it or whatever. And then I get to the end, and she’s like, ‘It’s so good,’ and I’m like, ‘You physically hated it. You hated parts of it. I saw you.’”
Newman has been a pillar of Netflix since its earliest days in original programming with series such as “Hemlock Grove” and “Narcos” and its iterations. Drawing on his experience as a film producer in addition fielding multiple TV series in recent years, he reflected on the circumstances that make a buyer say yea or nay.
“Every executive that you’re going to pitch to wants to say ‘No’ because it’s safe to say no,” Newman said. “There are a variety of reasons for someone to say ‘No,’ and again, you don’t get fired for saying no, unless you said no to ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Twilight’ or something like that. You get fired for saying yes to something insane. And so I feel it’s my job always to go in and say, ‘Here are the reasons why it’s safe to say yes to this.’ Because I do believe that as much as it’s safer to say no, there’s nothing that feels better than for someone like Peter to sit opposite any of us and get excited about an idea that we’re excited about it and safely say ‘I believe in this.’ “
Friedlander shared a general practice that he feels is important for people in his position in the era of Zoom pitch meetings.
“I’m very conscious of how people typing into their computers” during video calls, Friedlander told the panel. “I have this thing where if I’m on the other side of a pitch, both of my hands will always be in the frame. … I try to show that you have my undivided attention. I’m not shopping.”
Akil and others thanked Netflix for the support they’ve received to execute their creative visions (read: generous budgets). Akil’s location-heavy adaptation of Blume’s beloved coming-of-age novel “Forever” transports the story to 2018 Los Angeles and revolves around the sexual awakening of two Black teenagers from different backgrounds. “The challenges of falling in love, above the 10 and below the 10,” she said. “It’s anchored by the beauty of Los Angeles every day. We’re telling an epic and intimate love story within a love letter to Los Angeles.”
Among other highlights:
Newman thanked Friedlander for buying “every show I’ve pitched” and for having never “made me feel bad when one hasn’t worked.”
Schur urged his fellow showrunners to seek out seasoned actors over the age of 75 for their shows. He’s done so for “A Man on the Inside,” starring Ted Danson and adapted from a Chilean documentary about an investigator who goes undercover in a retirement community.
“It was just very lovely and heartwarming to see how many legitimately great, funny people there are who are 82 years old and love to work,” Schur said. “If you want to have a messy, semi-bad read-through of a pilot, hire a bunch of young people. If you want the most metronomically crisp, perfect read-through you’ve ever had in your life, hire a bunch of 80-year-olds. Those sons of bitches were all lines memorized, timing perfect and had clearly worked it all out beforehand. They were just on it. From beginning to end, it was a total joy to watch a large group of 75-plus actors kill it every day.”
Akil emphasized how she sought to stay true to the spirit of Blume’s novel even as she adjusted many aspects of the story. No corners were cut because “Forever” is part of Netflix’s YA content slate.
“One of the things I love about Judy Blume was that she didn’t talk down to the reader. She treated the young person as a full human being,” Akil said. “She took their issues, their concerns very seriously. And one of the things off the bat I knew is that this seriousness had to anchor this YA show.”
(Pictured top: Eric Newman, Michael Schur, Molly Smith Metzler, Peter Friedlander, Mara Brock Akil and Mindy Kaling)
