From show creatorDavid Cross, the comedy seriesBliss(available at BritBox) follows Andrew (Stephen Mangan), a successful travel writer who, as a result of extenuating circumstances, finds himself living a double life between two families. The two sets of wives (Heather GrahamandJo Hartley) and children don’t know about each other, which keeps Andrew in a constant state of moral crisis, balancing his time between two worlds that he’s finding it ever-harder to contain.
While at the BritBox portion of the Television Critics Association Press Tour, Collider got the opportunity to chat 1-on-1 with actress Heather Graham about whyBlissappealed to her, what she loves about David Cross’ comedy, exploring such a disturbing concept, what she enjoys about playing her character, why she’d be interested in doing future seasons, how she’s changed since she started in this business, and what motivates her for her own projects.
Collider: Thanks for chatting with me again! We last spoke forHalf Magic, the film you wrote, directed and starred in.
HEATHER GRAHAM: Yeah, I remember talking to you. You were super cool and wrote a great piece. Thank you!
I really enjoyed that film and am definitely looking forward to whatever you do next, as a director.
GRAHAM: Yeah, knock on wood, I’m working on two things that I wrote, and hopefully, I’ll turn one into a TV show. I’ve also optioned a book that I’d like to turn into a TV show.
Do you find it easier to write with source material? Is it scarier to write something completely original?
GRAHAM: Writing your own, you’re like, “I don’t need to worry about whether the book writer will feel good about this.” The book option thing might be a different writer. Maybe I’ll just produce that and possibly act in it.
How didBlisscome about?
GRAHAM: Basically, they offered it to me, which is so cool ‘cause I’m a huge fan of David Cross from watchingArrested Developmentand I like his stand-up. I just think he’s a really smart, funny person. When I heard the premise, I thought it was disturbing ‘cause I consider myself a feminist. I was like, “This seems sexist.” But then, when I read it, I just think his writing is really good and I thought the character was really interesting. I thought [Stephen Mangan’s] character was interesting, in the way that you feel bad for him, even though he’s doing this terrible thing. You just feel like he’s this people-pleaser who can’t hurt anyone’s feelings. And I thought the way that David writes the women, they were cool.
Yeah, I have to admit that I want these two women to just team up and go out on their own.
GRAHAM: I know! I really want that to happen. At first, they were like, “We don’t think you should meet Jo [Hartley] ‘cause we wanna keep it that you guys never meet each other.” But by the end, I was like, “Screw it, I wanna meet her.” She’s so cool! We started hanging out, and I thought it would be fun if they teamed up and decided to torture him, or something. That would be cool.
What do you like about David Cross’ comedy?
GRAHAM: He manages to be smart and silly, at the same time. If you can be intellectual, but your humor is also super absurd and ridiculous and silly, that’s a cool mixture.
Obviously, the concept of this series is something that people are initially going to be a little bit weirded out about.
GRAHAM: It’s disturbing. Sadly, it does happen. You can do research. There are some pretty famous situations where people have done it. It’s so gross. That would be horrible.
Do you feel like, if you ended up in a situation like this, you would get clued in that something weird was going on a lot sooner than these people seem to?
GRAHAM: I hope so, yeah. You wouldn’t expect a person to be that deceptive, and maybe when you have a kid , you’re just distracted by taking care of them. I guess both of the women have their own issues. Jo’s character is in AA, and my character has social anxiety.
What do you enjoy about playing Kim?
GRAHAM: David had interesting journeys planned, for both my character and Jo’s character. Basically, Kim starts off really scared of the outside world and really afraid, especially of public speaking. And then, she gets really into local politics. She’s really bothered by the potholes and wants to fix the roads, so she starts speaking out about it, and then gets really empowered by it. And Jo has been this person who’s a confident, strong woman, but through his neglect, she starts losing her confidence. And then, she has this flirtation with the construction guy in later episodes, which is fun. I like that the women are cool. It’s not about, does he like one better than the other? It’s more about this guy being seriously screwed up.
How did he get in this whole situation, to begin with?
GRAHAM: In later episodes, you find out that Jo’s character gets pregnant, and then breaks up with him ‘cause she doesn’t wanna tell him that she’s pregnant. She thinks she’s gonna get an abortion. And then, he starts dating my character and she immediately gets pregnant. And then, Jo’s character tells him, “By the way, I’m pregnant,” so then he has two pregnant women and he’s just like, “I gotta be there for these kids.” He just starts doing it. There’s a part of me that can relate to sometimes being a people pleaser, or trying to not hurt other people’s feelings, but this is to the ridiculous extreme.
Initially, Kim doesn’t seem to even be able to make a decision for herself. Will she become stronger, in that regard?
GRAHAM: Yes, she gets stronger and she starts to put herself out into the world more. When she becomes a strong part of her local politics, that really freaks him out ‘cause he doesn’t want these women to be out in the world, in any big way, so that they don’t find out about each other. He keeps trying to undermine but character, but is also supportive, at the same time. In future seasons, I think David is gonna take it into her getting even more and more confident from starting off being really insecure.
How do you think Kim and Denise would feel about each other? If they weren’t unknowingly sharing the same man, would these two women be friends?
GRAHAM: I think they would. Jo is so cool. I’ve become friends with her. She’s great. She’s just a really cool person, and Andrew and Denise have a totally different relationship than Andrew and Kim. I don’t know what’s in David’s mind, if there are future seasons, but I do want them to team up and just kick him to the curb. That would be fun. I wanna see that version of the show.
Is there anything you’ve gotten to do with this character that you haven’t really gotten to do with a character before?
GRAHAM: Yeah. David was like, “I don’t want you to seem glamorous. I want you to just be real. And you’re insecure and not able to interact. You don’t feel confident about dating men. I just really want you to be a woman that has no confidence, and I want you to dress more like a real woman.” It was fun to get to do something different and to get to work with somebody that I’m a fan of.
You’ve done a lot of work in comedy and drama, and you seem to be comfortable with both. What do you enjoy about comedy and just getting to have fun?
GRAHAM: I think if you really look at life too seriously, it can be so depressing. I feel like having a sense of humor about life just makes life better. That’s why I love watching comedy. If you can have a sense of humor about yourself, or about different situations that could potentially be disturbing or depressing, then it almost feels like you’re winning.
How did you find writing comedy?
GRAHAM: It’s really fun. I would just try to crack myself up by a situation ‘cause I feel like humor comes from something real and honest, even if it’s slightly exaggerated. They always say that tragedy plus time equals comedy. So, to take a situation that was, maybe at the time, really depressing, like a breakup that I had with somebody, what I write in my movie, after dating a guy who was doing a lot of drugs, and then we broke up, I can look back and see all the humor in it, now that all this time has passed.
Is this a character that you would like to explore more if there are future seasons?
GRAHAM: I would love to work more with David. That would be cool. I’m not sure totally what their plan is, but it’s fun. I like doing comedy, and I think Stephen is really hilarious. He’s got that British, witty sense of humor. He’s really fun to be around, and he’s always finding new, different, funny things in scenes.
How do you feel you’ve changed since you started all of this?
GRAHAM: It’s interesting because I went to this event that was about Shakespeare, and they were celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday. To be honest, I guess I’ve become a little more jaded because I think about how many stories are told by men. We grow up in school and Shakespeare and all of these storytellers are brilliant, but where are the female writers that are writing about the story from our point of view? I just feel pissed off. I feel like there should be more stories told by women about our point of view, so I’m a more angry feminist now.
Which I’m sure motivates you, in doing your own projects.
GRAHAM: Yeah. Actually, ‘cause my friend is friends with her, I heard that Tiffany Haddish is working on a movie about how Shakespeare had a black Jewish girlfriend, and she was part of writing some of his stuff. It’sShakespeare’s Dark Lady. It sounds interesting. It’s telling history from a different point of view. Let’s see it from the point of view of the women, or from the villain. My friend is writing a book about Medusa that’s like, what if Medusa was the hero of the story? It’s like the idea behindWicked. We’re told that this character is wrong, but what if we see the whole story from their perspective, it’s different.
