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They have stolen a lizard, ended up drunk in a pawn shop and cruised around Los Angeles on electric scooters. So far, so Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne. Well, on screen, anyway. In real life, not so much.
“We’re just both very mellow people,” says Rogen, while Byrne nods next to him. “There were some scenes where we’re watching television and eating chips and those scenes maybe are more reflective of what we’re like in real life.”
Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen bring combustible humour and giddy camaraderie to Platonic.Credit: Paul Sarkis
The pair are talking about Platonic, their new 10-episode comedy in which they play friends in their 40s, Will and Sylvia, who reconnect after a marriage break-up (him) and a yearning for something more than school pick-ups and lunches (her).
In each other, they rediscover the freedom of youth, even though the second time around that friendship is tempered by work, family and the realisation crawling into bed at 3am in your 40s is not the same as it once was in your 20s. Think Superbad but with a mortgage.
“It’s dysfunctional at times,” says Rogen of the pair’s friendship. “And they reflect one another’s best and worst traits but, as the show goes on, it’s less and less about the fact that I am a man and she is a woman, it’s more about people ageing differently, people growing up faster than they would like, and people not growing up as fast as they should and how honest you are with your friends, and how forgiving you are of your friends.”
What makes Platonic stand out from the current crop of comedies is that it goes straight for the gag. It doesn’t lean too heavily on the feel-good side of the fence, like Ted Lasso or Somebody Somewhere, nor does it coat the laughs in bleak humour, like Barry and The Rehearsal.
Which is why you’ll find Byrne giving a masterclass in physical comedy, as she stumbles through a convenience store while Sylvia is high on ketamine, knocking over bottles and slipping in the spilled wine that’s covering the floor.
“There was so much great footage online of people on the drug,” says Byrne, laughing. “It’s very specific what happens to the neurological pathways, and how to move your body. I was just glued to the phone all day, all night [looking at videos] just trying to emulate it.”
This is the third time Rogen and Byrne have worked together – they starred in the 2014 film Neighbours and its sequel – and they each asked for the other to be involved in Platonic. What do they get out of working with each other?
“I feel in very safe hands,” says Byrne. “He always intuitively just knows where to go for the joke. And then he’s also great as the straight man because with those things, you’ve got to tip the volleyball a little bit back and forth.
“It’s really hard to make a half hour comedy and try to get joke, joke, joke, joke, which is what we’re really striving for. So to have us as a starting point, it gave me confidence that we could do it.”
Rogen, not surprisingly, agrees.“You have to find someone who has the same tone in mind and the same style and the same parameters for what they think is funny. And they have to trust that they can try a bunch of different things and we won’t use the bad stuff, we will use the good stuff. And it’s fun when you find people that you work with like that.”
And while the show is called Platonic – “a love or friendship that is intimate and affectionate but not sexual” – and it’s true there is no hint of a sexual affair between Will and Sylvia, it sometimes feels like their relationship borders on “emotional affair” territory.
Even Sylvie’s husband, Charlie (played by Luke Macfarlane), says, “I don’t like feeling like the second most important man in your life”. However, it’s not a view Byrne agrees with.
“They’re definitely meeting at a time when they’re both having these crises,” she says. “And her husband feels insecure at one point, and she feels sort of weird about [Will’s] girlfriend, but just because she thinks he can do better. So, there’s definitely a possessive quality that she has, over his decisions and stuff. But it’s less about an emotional affair and more like [setting a] high standard for one another.”
Do Byrne or Rogen ever think it’s a good idea to go back and re-create your youth?
“I know people who have a couple of kids and party,” says Byrne, laughing. “Which, you know, god bless them.”
Adds Rogen: “If you can, go for it. Why not?”
Byrne: “But it’s not for me. I’m in bed by 10pm.”
Platonic is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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