“Alice and Steve,” played by Nicola Walker (“The Split”) and Jemaine Clement (“What We Do in the Shadows”), are best friends. And then they aren’t, because Steve sleeps with Alice’s twentysomething daughter Izzy and starts dating her.
“I love describing this premise,” laughs Clement of the “Alice and Steve,” which has just swept Canneseries at Tuesday night’s prize cerremonie, walking off with best series, a Special Interpretation Award for its ensemble cast and a Student Award.
“I was worried that Yali Topol Margalith, who plays Izzy, would be creeped out. I was very concerned about that. But am I concerned that my character will come across as creepy to the audience? No, because it’s interesting.”
“People go a bit silent,” notes Walker.
“It seems like a great crime, but it’s a show about love. It’s also about revenge, betrayal and bad behavior.”
A Disney+ series, “Alice and Steve” was produced by Clerkenwell Films and world premiered at Canneseries.
As their feud intensifies, nobody comes out of it unscathed. That includes the audience.
“What’s remarkable about the series is that you start by assuming that you could never side with Steve or Izzy. But then you swap allegiances. These people are falling in love, they are sort of perfect for each other, and then Alice becomes the problem. They all end up really, really hurting each other, which seems very much like real life to me,” Walker tells Variety.
“You know, I often don’t believe the way mothers, husband, wives or friends are portrayed on TV. But I read this and went: ‘I understand these people’.”
Is there more tolerance towards relationships with a big age gap?
“Some people find it controversial and others don’t. Unlike sleeping with your best friend’s daughter, though. That’s controversial to everyone,” notes Clement.
According to the show’s creator, Sophie Goodhart, people are still quick to judge. But that’s precisely why she wanted to explore it.
“Is it always unpleasant? Are there any exceptions to the rule? Currently, we’re OK with older women going out with younger men. My husband is much younger, and I get loads of high fives. But if I were a man, people would say: ‘What is she doing’?!”
She adds: “I love comedy that makes you squirm a little. It’s definitely my sweet spot. There are going to be people who don’t like Alice. There are going to be people who don’t like Steve. But if they stick with the show, they might realize their judgment was maybe too quick.”
Steve and Alice could always depend on each other. That’s why their falling out is so painful – they know exactly where to push each other’s buttons.
“Alice can be her worst self in front of Steve. They were in love once, and now it’s a different kind of love. But yeah, things happen. I had a friend who wouldn’t talk to me for years. I’d try to contact him, but he wouldn’t answer because he didn’t like some things I said about Trump,” recalls Clement.
Walker adds: “If something went wrong with my two best friends, who I’ve known them since we were 19, I would feel completely adrift. Your best friends carry your total history: births, deaths, failures, successes. They are always in your corner, even when you’re being irrational. They know everything and forgive a lot of bad behavior, because they know where it comes from.”
Platonic break-ups can be “horrendous,” agrees Goodhart. But “Steve and Alice” is still “surprisingly joyful.”
“I love writing about things that make you feel a lot, just like in ‘Sex Education,’ and I love that Steve and Alice still love each other. They forget about it, but I remember.”
“I just want love stories with a slight edge to them. Do you remember ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’? It was so fucking brilliant, and so complicated. Because that’s how love is! It grows, shifts and ebbs. It’s fluid. I just wanted it to be a show about acceptance. Does that sound like bullshit?”
Goodhart is all about complicated characters too, like those written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge or recently seen in “DTF St. Louis” – “I shouldn’t be plugging another show, but it’s so fucking good.”
“I don’t believe that some people are bad and some people are good. I just don’t. We’re all victims of circumstance. Everyone’s arc shifts so much throughout the series that you might hate a character in Episode 2 and adore them in Episode 4. My dream would be for people to come away from the show being less judgmental. That would be nice,” she says.
“And it would be awfully nice to get another season.”
