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The transcript below has been edited and condensed.
We asked you guys to appear together, even though youve never officially worked together on a project.
Damon Lindelof: What is this!?
MS: This is me trying to explain what happened to my soul when I watched your TV show.
It was like an arranged date.
DL: And then we went to Jinkys and had waffles.
and Were gonna play a game called Is this anything?
where I tell you an idea for a TV show and you tell me whether its anything.
And thats what we did.
Damon Lindelof saying, This is something is the reason that show exists.
So thank him, if you like it.
Did you knowthe twist?DL: In the very first meeting.
MS: But, but, but.
Heres whats gonna happen, heres how to avoid it.
So that was a huge part of how I operated going forward.
Theres aLeftoversEaster egg in the pilot, correct?MS: Theres a few.
Have people figured them out?MS: I dont know.
The date on the picture, the date of his guess, is October 14, 1972.
Teaneck is Damons hometown.
DL: And I, of course, am a jacked idiot.
MS: We said, Get me a Lindelof key in.
After the finale of season two airs, Ill put it online or something.
Its just such a deep cut, its insane.
Like, if you dont watchThe Good Place,Watchmenis gonna make no sense to you.
You said in the tweet that you might have heard the rumors.
The biggest problem is the weird, creepy, disgusting, illegal, awful behavior.
I mean, if you think that everybody knew about Louis … everyone knew about Kevin Spacey.
Hes hitting on the young men in the talent department.
Its the most open secret thats ever existed.
I didnt know the extent to which the behavior was predatory certainly, but no one didnt know.
Anyone who had ever worked with that guy knew that.
came on the show.
Im complicit just like anyone else is.
But honestly, the larger issue was and continues to be that we just dont talk about this stuff.
That women and men to whom the behavior is being done, to whom its affecting, are scared.
They feel that they cant talk about it, they dont know who to talk to.
In many cases when they did something, nothing happened.
And that, going forward, is obviously something that has to change.
So, what can you do?
Each one of your shows is a business.
You guys are the CEOs on your sets, even if youre not always on set.
What do you do to ensure that everyone on your staff is safe?
Im one of the good ones.
Im not a part of the problem, Im part of the solution.
But it starts with a deep dive in yourself and an analysis of your past behavior.
If youre running a writers room, a lot of our shows have sexually explicit content on them.
When are you making people uncomfortable?
I think that theres a self-censoring that is completely and totally required.
Start with the premise that you are part of the problem because we are in this culture.
Dont have a writers room thats dominated by white dudes.
Empower other executive producers.
OnThe Leftovers, it was Mimi Leder who had a tremendous amount of autonomy.
I can still be much better at it, but its a work in progress.
We have to start with ourselves, though.
You guys are both die-hard TV fans.
One of the thrilling things about the first season was that I sort of knew what was ahead.
I was experiencing the show for the first time, so there was a lot of discovery there.
And are you doing it for the finale of season one?
He was like, Oh, no, were doing it.
But now in season two, Im completely and totally blind.
[Audience laughs.]
[Audience laughs.]
Hes not watching the show very closely.
DL:What if they were alive the whole time?
MS: [Laughs.]
I used to do it withMad Men.
It was like homework.
There was an episode …
This is a story about the late Harris Wittels.
And it was the episode where Don had a toothache.
I was like, Goddamnit, every episode, its painful.
It feels like youre running a marathon.
Like, Don has a toothache.
And I was like, Did you enjoy the show?
And hes like, Yeah, I loved it.
Guy had a toothache.
That my phone is pranking me.
He also is, like … talk about a guy with nothing to prove, right?
It feels like youre on a prank show.
And it just crackled with electricity.
It dealt with the psychological realism in the superhero genre that I had fallen in love with.
Itwastoo mature for me, but not, I think, completely and totally inappropriately.
MS:How old were you?
DL: I was 12.
And thats terrifying for us because we cant regulate whats on there.
If you hide your face, you are up to no good.
I think thats an interesting thematic ideology.
But it is more timely now in 2018, 2019 whenever this show actually airs, if it airs.
And for a superhero junkie, Ive never done a superhero movie or a superhero TV show.
Damon, youve described this wonderful idyllic life you have off of Twitter.
I shifted gears recently and have one predominant thought now about the president, which is, Its embarrassing.
I feel embarrassed for us, for the people of America, because the administration is so deeply stupid.
Hes a very stupid person and all of the people who work for him are very stupid.
You know what I mean?
I feel like its a purge of anger and frustration and fear.
I think occasionally, as feudal as it seems, it can actually have some effect.
Were now living in a post-nuclear age and we cant put the genie back in the bottle.
And a lot of people say I am addicted to Twitter.
MS: Technically, he was telling the woman thatshewas addicted to love.
DL: Oh, okay.
MS: So he may have been trying to intervene!
He may have been on your side.
