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[This story contains spoilers from the finale of season two of Wolf Like Me.]
Like the common werewolf trope in many sci-fi/horror films, the idea for Wolf Like Me came to Australian writer, director and executive producer Abe Forsythe after witnessing a full moon. The creator of the Peacock series that is now in its second season was newly dating a woman as a single father when both a question he thought up and the resulting answer became the premise for the show.
“Everything that this person presented, seemingly, was what I was looking for and one of the times that we were together, it was a full moon and then the next day when I was driving around, coincidentally in L.A., I was thinking about this experience and I was like, ‘What would I do if this person was a werewolf?’” Forsythe tells The Hollywood Reporter. “In my head, I was like, ‘Well, you would just make it work because they seem really right for you, and they seem really right for your child.’”
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Such is the reality Gary (Josh Gad) grapples with in Wolf Like Me when a car accident leads to a romantic collision with a woman named Mary (Isla Fisher), who turns into a werewolf every full moon and constantly battles fears of her secret identity hurting Gary or his daughter Emma (Ariel Donoghue), whom he’s raising on his own.
The timing of Forsythe’s lightbulb idea couldn’t have been better. Having already had some meetings set up with production companies in L.A. when he first pondered the aforementioned question, during those conversations, he began test pitching the idea to gauge people’s reaction.
“After like the second meeting, my agent called me up and was like, ‘What are you doing? Are you pitching something?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I just had this idea.’ He said, ‘We’ve already had two calls from people saying they want to make this show with you.’”
Season one of Wolf Like Me, which is produced by Stan in association with NBCUniversal and Peacock, premiered on both streaming platforms on Jan. 13, 2022, and was renewed for a second season just three months later. The pacing of the series is equally fast, as in season two, which debuted in full on Oct. 19, Gary and Mary are no longer hiding their true selves from one another, but rather figuring out how to navigate the reality of their decision to be together as they anxiously await the birth of their child, whose identity as either a human or wolf is unknown.
Below, Forsythe talks to THR about season two’s finale, the three-season story arc he has planned, and how music and the backdrop of Australia move the series’ narrative forward.
Let’s start from the beginning with how the idea for Wolf Like Me came about and why a werewolf specifically?
It was kind of unusual. I was at a time in my life where I’d recently started dating again. I’m a single parent and I was confronted with something I’d never experienced before. When you’re dating again and you have a child, I found I was not only looking for someone that was right for me, but I was startled to find that I was viewing everyone through the lens of, how would this person be for my child? So, it created a lot of obstacles for me, suddenly finding myself in this position. And I’d had an experience with someone where I thought, “Oh, maybe this person is someone that would be good for my child.” Everything that this person presented, seemingly, was what I was looking for, and one of the times that we were together, it was a full moon and then the next day when I was driving around, coincidentally in L.A., I was thinking about this experience and I was like, “Well, what would I do if this person was a werewolf?” And in my head, I was like, “Well, you would just make it work because they seem really right for you, and they seem really right for your child.” So that was sort of the beginning point of where all these characters appeared.
There’s a lot of me in both of the lead characters in the show in various ways, and then the metaphor of the werewolf just ended up being a great thing to explore. What are the things that you’re keeping secret? What are the fears that you have? What are you afraid of presenting to someone that you’re starting a relationship with? Or from the reverse, what kind of danger am I bringing into my child’s life? Is it worth it? I’ve been fortunate that this werewolf metaphor has continued through both seasons in different ways and continually brings up really fun things to explore that hopefully we all have some experience with in one way or another.
How did you decide where you wanted to take the story in season two?
I actually always had a three-season arc worked out for this story. Season one was always meant to end in a way that, if we never got a second season, it could still be satisfying enough for the audience to imagine where this character’s story goes from there. I didn’t intend season two to end quite in the way that season two ended. It’s not the same ending as season one, obviously, it’s almost kind of demanding that it gets a third season.
Season one was always about bringing these characters together and all the things that I talked about earlier on that I was working through. Season two is about, how do you prepare for a baby when you don’t know what the baby’s going to be and you’re worried about how you’re going to hurt the baby, potentially, and what kind of mother or father you’re going to be?
There’s something planned for season three which continues that along, but to be honest, it wasn’t until we were in post-production on season one that I actually had the idea for Edgar Ramirez’s character Anton. And particularly, what happens at the end of episode four, that idea came to me and then that was the thing that I was like, “Oh, I really need to make a season two, because I haven’t seen that before. And if I saw that and I didn’t know it was coming, I would fucking lose my mind.” So, then it was like, I’m going to build everything outwards from that into season two.
Were you torn when it came to deciding what the identity of Gary and Mary’s baby would be?
I always wanted to show the baby inside Mary’s stomach before we saw it as a wolf. We do know at the end that it’s going to be like her. It’s going to be human for most of the month and then a wolf for the full moon. But it was also really important for me to have it be a wolf at the birth, because it was much more profound for me to see Mary as the wolf, at her most vulnerable after giving birth, allow Gary to actually come down the stairs and bring the baby to her. For me, it was like, if she’s able to recognize him at that point, then it’s going to be much more profound, and also more profound for Gary to see his baby as the wolf as well and take it to her.
And that’s also why it was really important that we built that puppet. The little wolf puppet is a full prosthetic animatronic puppet. We really wanted it to be real and feel real. And that was for the audience as much as it was for us making and shooting that scene too, because it was a really tricky scene to navigate technically. The puppet was so amazing that we were all able to feel like it was really happening in front of us.
Being that there’s so much of you in Gary and Mary, what made Josh Gad and Isla Fisher the right actors to play these characters?
It certainly wasn’t a combo that when I was writing it that I thought we would get to. But it was something very interesting about seeing the two of them together. I’ve worked with Josh, and I had the advantage of knowing what kind of actor he was. Obviously, comedically, he’s fantastic and is very known for that, but dramatically he’s really, really, really great as an actor; very present in scenes and capable of such vulnerability as well. When I met Isla before we did season one, there was just something fascinating about Isla’s energy which seemed so right for Mary. She’s a very energetic, fucking hilarious woman. But there was something about taking that energy and bottling it up and then not letting it come out until it does come out, and when it does come out, it just explodes as opposed to kind of gently coming out.
In season two, having worked with both of them, I was able to really play to their strengths. Certainly, with where Isla goes in season two, the last episode in particular is so tough, and she really put a lot of herself into representing that in a truthful way. I was really just there to hold her hand and keep her on track, but I was so proud of the work that both of them did in this season. I like that people have responded to seeing them together as a couple, because it’s not your normal kind of couple that you would see in a television show like this. So, I feel like it’s a much more refreshing way of exploring these sorts of things.
There are quite a few musical references both in Mary’s dialogue and narration and in the general score for the series. Can you talk about infusing that element into the episodes?
The music is an interesting one because that definitely evolved from season one. In season one, around the time that I was figuring out this story is when I discovered Queens of the Stone Age and listened to that song that informed season one. The lyrics to “Fortress” in season one is the perfect triangle of those three characters saying what each needs to hear. Then so much of season one and the way we used music was pushed a lot further in season two. Andrew Kotatko, our music supervisor, managed to clear a crazy amount of really difficult tracks. I’m still shocked at some of the ones that we got.
We really needed to get approval from all these artists that either had the rights to these songs or recorded the songs themselves, like George Harrison, Nina Simone, Queens of the Stone Age, Nirvana, Paul McCartney. It’s like a murderer’s row of just really difficult tracks that were integral to the way the story progressed. And much more so than in season one, the music is either directly informing the characters through the playlist that Emma makes for Mary, or there’s songs or things playing that the characters can’t hear, which are really guiding the audience.
There’s a lot of Easter eggs within the songs, if people listen closely, that they’ll be able to get a lot of other meaning from the show. If we didn’t get Queens of the Stone Age in season one, I don’t know if I would have been able to have made this show, and even more so in season two. That’s how I feel about it, because I really rely on music to inform the story and connect with the audience.
A lot of car accidents happen in this series as well. Is there a significance to that at all?
I think it just came from season one, the idea of the constant crashing together and that relationships are messy and destructive and there was just something fun about bringing that to life in the way that we did. Breaking things allows the light to come in, and there were a lot of really subtle things that we could explore through that very non-subtle kind of way of visualizing.
The episodes are very succinct and simplistic — in a good way — which is very much a contrast to the overly complicated story plots that dominate a lot of television today. Is that intentional?
Yeah, that grew out of a frustration from me, to be honest, watching a lot of things where I’d be like, “Okay, we’re four episodes in, why has the show not started yet?” Or when people say, “Oh, you’ve got to get to episode blah, blah, blah for it to get good.” Look, I get there’s a certain amount of setting things up that you have to do. But it was important for me to not have any episode outstay it’s welcome, and in both seasons there’s a beginning and a middle and an end to each of the six episodes in season one and the seven episodes in season two. I would rather something leaves the audience wanting more than outstay its welcome.
American audiences don’t often see shows set in Australia. What does that specific location add to this story, besides the running joke about nobody there having a basement?
Nobody has a basement in Australia, which is true. When I started writing it, I did set it in L.A., but it was actually a suggestion from one of our producing partners of like, why wouldn’t you set this in Australia? And for the reason that you said, it’s actually more interesting for an American audience to get insight into another country. And then it sparked the idea that it was actually more interesting that Mary, running from her past, has gone to one of the most isolated, unknown places in the world, which is Adelaide in Australia. Adelaide’s a great city, it’s an amazing city, but it’s an unusual city as well, too. So it seemed like the right setting for her. And then similarly, Gary ended up there too. So, these two Americans finding themselves in such a strange, sort of out of the way place, fit into the whole thing about the universe bringing the two of them together. And it works for me as well, too, because I don’t like traveling. I’d rather stay home if I’m making something, and I was fortunate to be able to make both seasons here in my hometown.
You wear a lot of hats for this series as the creator, writer, director, and executive producer. How does filling so many roles impact your creative process?
I’ve been very fortunate to be surrounded with a team of people who are so supportive for the process that we all go through making the show. I didn’t have a writers room in season one, but I had a writers room in season two, which was really great for just being able to throw a lot of ideas around and explore things. But process-wise, it really helps me to write all of the episodes myself, because through writing it, it teaches me how to direct it. If I actually sit down and write every line of dialogue and every stage direction, it really informs my approach then to take that to the crew and the cast and navigate the shooting process. I’ve never directed anything that I haven’t written before, and there’s a couple of things that are potentially in the pipeline that I haven’t written that I’m very connected to, but it does come from me needing to understand 100 percent of the intention behind the story and the material. It’s not me just trying to be possessive or anything like that, it’s literally just the best thing.
The one trick that I’ve learned about directing and writing is — and I’ve learned this through fucking this up — if I’ve written something, and I get to the end of writing a scene, and I’m not excited about going to set and shooting that scene, there’s a big problem with that scene. It’s happened in the past, where it’s like, you arrive one day and you’re looking at what you’ve got to shoot and you’re like: Fuck, how do I make it work? And if you haven’t figured out how to make it work, then you’re setting yourself up for a massive problem. So, me doing it this way process-wise just ensures that every day when I have to get out of the car at 5 o’clock in the morning and I’m tired, and I actually hate directing on set, like I fucking hate it. It’s the worst part of the process for me because there’s so much pressure involved, but it’s like at least every day when I get out of the car, I’m like, oh cool, we get to do this thing today. This will be fun.
Acceptance seems to be a big theme throughout the series with this idea that one person’s baggage is no greater than another’s. Is that the takeaway?
Yeah, it’s exactly what you said: Baggage is baggage. It’s not Mary’s fault that she has that baggage, but it’s giving her the safe space so she can deal with that and at the same time give everything that she’s able to give to Gary and Emma. Gary and Emma wouldn’t be in the place that they’re in, particularly Emma wouldn’t be in the place that she’s in, without Mary coming into her life. And the storyline of Mary and Emma in season two was really important to me to show how much Emma had grown through meeting Mary and now how much Emma is giving Mary in return and also reflecting to Mary that Mary is scared of being a mother, but her realization that she already is a mother through what she’s brought to Emma.
I’ve now been in a relationship for the last couple of years with the first person that’s met my son, and it’s been an amazing thing to see how much this woman’s dynamic now brings to him and how safe that she’s made him feel and how he interacts with the world differently through her coming into our lives. It was a really important thing for me to portray that in a way that was sensitive and truthful.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
Wolf Like Me seasons one and two are now streaming on Peacock.
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