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Timothy Greenberg is the man responsible for cloning Paul Rudd.
Note: There is a spoiler in this interview about the ending ofLiving With Yourself.
Another warning will appear before that section of the interview for those who havent watched in full.
What inspired this particular idea for a TV show?Honestly, it was a lot of things.
Id had variations of this idea over the years in a lot of different forms.
Like anyone, I struggle with life.Sometimes Im the best version of myself.
What if you met the worst version of yourself?
What would that be like, you know?
I think thats fascinating.
Look, it came from a million things.
It came from arguments my wife and I used to have.
I need a job!
It came from a lot.
You mentioned sci-fi and I was curious about whether certain films or projects inspired the show.
I mean, very specifically, he had somewhat of a role in this coming about.
But Id already had this idea a week earlier of doing a TV show.
But I mean, theres no point in trying to rip off Charlie because hes too brilliant.
And his worldview, his view of humanity, is definitely a bit darker than mine.
]That was a cool thing for me to experience, us talking about that on that level.
The opening of the series really grabs your attention, with Miles emerging from the ground wrapped in cellophane.
How did you come up with that idea, that the clones would be buried?
And not that deeply, by the way.
Oh, really?It was deep.
But this scared the shit out of me.
Like, it was really disturbing.
Thats behind the scenes.
So, this is not like all of their clients.
I thought wed get one, but he did it four times.
He was such a trooper.
But yeah, I mean, it just feels wrong.
It was just horribly creepy, I think for him and for us, and terrifying.
Pretty much right out of the gate I was like, Whod be great for this?
And he was the top of the list.
Then it was a long process of us taking it around town to sell.
When we were there, we couldnt afford him.
We didnt even bother calling him, because IFCs budget just limited us.
It eventually died there due to circumstances beyond, I think, even IFCs control.
It couldnt have worked out better.
Thats one technique to use, to move the camera around and still have people moving in the frame.
Whats much more interesting to me is how Paul would do it from a performance perspective.
But I thought it was really interesting, the way that he built the scene like that.
And also, he could switch back and forth.
Wed turn around fast, so hed really be switching characters very quickly.
That was both great and fascinating to see, and saved our production schedule a lot.
We didnt do anything to him!
But you know which character it is.
He could manage that kind of 3-D chess of all those performances.
I couldnt figure out how he was doing it.
It was really his performance.
Stand straight, Ive learned from Paul Rudd, and youll be a better version of yourself.
[Note: Here come some spoilers about the conclusion ofLiving With Yourself.]
I wanted to ask you aboutthe ending of the season.
[Laughs] after you grab family together, you guys are together.
Certainly, arguably, it doesnt matter.
But to a different degree it does matter that they cant know and they cant ever know.
Whenever that idea did come up, I immediately liked it.
We did have to scooch around the potential timing of it.
Like, just when could she have gotten pregnant and how long and when was the earliest?
Okay, no, we need more time.
How do we build in more time?
That was something we were doing right up in the edit even.
That teases the things that could be explored in future seasons.
Have you thought about what a second season might look like?Ive thought about it a lot.
But Ive got all kinds of great ideas.
Theres a lot of backstory thats only hinted at in this season that would be revealed in the future.
One of the reasons we ended it the way we did is it could go either way.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
