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The film also raises interesting ethical questions, which Watkins was game to discuss during a recent phone conversation.
Marc and I had done Joe Swanbergs showEasy, where we did a lot of improv.
So when Joe said, Who do you want to doEasywith?
he said, Michaela would be fun.
Lynn was like, What?
Then she was like, Im going to have you do something completely different anyway.
We were in a completely different dynamic.
In both of them my character was very angry at him.
But one was suspicious without reason, and the other was suspicious with reason.
Casualis so well-written and Jason Reitman was like, Were not straying from the script.
I know you do improv; were not doing improv in this.
Were trusting [creator] Zander [Lehmann]s words.
And you do, you trust them implicitly.
This was a 26-page document, or maybe a 30-page document, of beats, basically.
They go to the house and find that they inherited a sword.
They thought they were getting the house.
They got the sword.
Thats all it would say for that scene, you know?
The Realtor gives them the sword because thats all they demanded.
[Shelton] had written out what was in that letter [from the grandfather].
Which was just so crazy.
Jillian and I sat in our hotel room trying to make heads or tails of it for so long.
We thought we were dumb.
And then we realized that was on purpose.
It would have saved some time if they had just told you the letter didnt make sense beforehand.Yeah.
Lynns really her antenna is so tuned to some kind of station that only she can hear.
Its a very slapstick almost movie, which is not her general vibe, usually.
It had moments of that but then other moments where she wanted to completely ground it.
Youd think,Lets keep this going.
Shes the fastest director in town.
She gets it all.
She gets all the coverage.
Ive worked with her on scripted and then somewhat sort of loose scripted she just knows.
Shell say, Michaela, stop.
And Im like, What?
Shes like, Stop.
Just get on the same page?
I think all those things are helpful.
And she said, I really love that idea.
We overlapped a tiny bit.
But we come from the same background.
We speak that same language.
Groundlings is so character-based, so it was really important not just to have clever things to say.
Because people have voice power on the platforms now.
So its really easy to think,Oh my gosh, this is a real thing thats happening.
So while Im completely aware of the conspiracy theories, I dont deep dive into them.
So your first reaction is, No way.
We need the money.
And these are people who are in financial straits.
They thought they were inheriting a house.
They anticipated all this and [the sword sale] would solve a few problems.
Im sure theres a way to rationalize.
We do it all the time.
Maybe its okay to eat these chicken McNuggets even though there are child-labor infringements.
And thats the choice theyve made.
Is it the choice I would necessarily make?
As long as it doesnt hurt anybody.
I think you get down to,How much is this going to hurt anybody?
Whether its hurting anybody I think thats a relevant question.
If they are just collectors, then maybe not.
Thats what I mean.
Like the anti-vaxx stuff.
People learn information that may not be true.
But when they take action based on that information, what are the ramifications of that?
This movie kind of touches on that.
I dont know if Lynn intended to do that when she wrote it.I think she wanted to highlight it.
Or we really want to have a child.
Whos this gonna hurt?
Thats not how theyre made, but I like how Lynn soft-pedals it out there.
I think thats also happening in households all over the country.
How can we have such opposing values and different views?
Because theyre like, I dont know how to talk to my caregivers right now.
I would do anything with Lynn forever, always, to the end of time.
We actually sold a script to Hulu theyre not making it, but she was attached to that.
I just want to go wherever she goes and whatever she does, anytime.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
