I would get to the set and literally ask Jeff Schaffer, the head writer, and I would say, “Hey, man, so what’s going on?” And I would find out what happens late in the moment, and then I would say, “Okay. I see what’s going on here.” I just found that to be an easier way to have a natural reaction to the show. I think that’s what makes Curb so fun. When people find that out, that it’s unscripted and there is no dialogue, I think that even fascinates people even more.
Knowing that though, you watch the show with a different eye. You see Larry [David] smirking a little bit, like he’s heard it for the first time. But even then, in blocking and laying a shot out, we don’t do any lines. We just say, Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because Larry doesn’t want to hear anything that you might say. He wants to have a natural reaction to whatever you say. Larry just has this smile, man. And being a stand-up, I think when you get him on his heels, you know you got him on his heels.
So, sometimes, and this is the best part of Curb, just when it is pushing the boundaries, saying things that are making you so uncomfortable. Has there ever been anything that you’re like, “Whoa, now this is risky”?
Oh, man. As funny as Curb is, it’s probably the smartest show to me, on TV. They find a way to be relevant. As they say, Curb is as funny as it is cringeworthy. So, it’s one of those shows that you got to love it. I think the Trump stuff was very, very edgy to go toward the Make America Great Again hats. I think that really was really a fun episode, but at the same time, I know Larry got a lot of letters, just because how divided the country is.
But also, the second season, the Michael Richards stuff was really different and kind of…Larry had to approach it a certain way, and he had to, I think you have to find some way to make it funny, but find some way to take just a little layer of sting off of it. But I think most people that I know, they like to have a show’s take, or a comedian’s take on something, because I think that’s an easier pill to swallow than the real news and what’s really going on in the world. And I think we need a balance of that otherwise we become stagnant in our thinking, our brains don’t function the right way, there’s no growth to your thoughts, to your opinions. I think you have to have that. If you don’t have that, you become blank, you become hollow inside, and I think we need to have something to fill that voice. And I think that’s what humor does, and I think that’s what keeps Curb and any other show that takes chances like that going. I think we need that.
MERRITT WEVER
Vanity Fair: I don’t know what kind of feedback you get on your work, or on Run specifically, but I do think the value of escapism is so big right now, and things that people can watch in their houses, there is a kind of a value in that.
Merritt Wever: I think that’s completely true and completely valid, and I get that, and I actually envy people who can escape right now. I’ve been having a hard time getting lost, having a hard time reading, and I’ve been having a hard time watching things. I think getting lost in narrative has been difficult for me, which kind of reminded, it feels like it’s a very distant cousin of something that happens to me when I go to work, which is when I’m working on a job, I seem to be unable to enter any other narrative. I can’t read something, I can’t really watch something. I think it’s because there’s always this other story engine that’s running whenever I’m working, whether I think it is or not, and something that is much more traumatic. I think something is happening right now where there’s another constant engine running, and I can’t seem to lose myself in story the way I would like to, because I could use an escape. I think everybody could.