Amy Schumer and Michael Cera Explain How Relatable Life & Beth Gets in Season 2
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The post Amy Schumer and Michael Cera Explain How Relatable Life & Beth Gets in Season 2 appeared first on Consequence.
When it comes to character names, Amy Schumer likes to keep things simple. Or, here’s how she puts it to Consequence: “This is one of those moments where you realize how lazy I actually am.”
In Life & Beth, the Hulu series inspired in part by Schumer’s life, the name of her character’s love interest, John, is the middle name of Schumer’s real-life husband Chris Fischer. When Schumer explains that, her co-star Michael Cera chuckles. “And what’s your middle name?” he teases.
The answer is Beth, though as Schumer notes, “I make my name Amy on a lot of things, so this is a step in the right direction.”
The character names reflect just how deeply personal Life & Beth is — not just for Schumer, but for everyone involved with the production. Season 1 of the dramedy began with Beth (Schumer) coping with the unexpected death of her mother and family secrets emerging (Schumer’s mother is alive, but the family secrets were based on real events).
Season 1 also introduced John as an offbeat Long Island farmer who Beth ends up falling for; in Season 2, their relationship gets even deeper. Part of that journey involves John being diagnosed, as an adult, with Autism Spectrum Disorder — something that once again mimics Schumer’s real life, as her own husband also learned about his own diagnosis as an adult.
According to Schumer, exploring this narrative wasn’t the immediate intention when the writers went into the writers’ room. “Going into Season 2,” she says, “we didn’t have any idea of exactly the stories that we wanted to tell, but it felt like right on time for John to make that discovery about himself. It was a really important part for all of us — all of the writers in our beautiful writers’ room have a connection to ASD, and we were lucky enough to consult with experts. So yeah, it felt like like the right time, and I feel like we did it with dignity and Michael’s performance of John is just so epic and empathetic and beautiful.”
For Cera, what he loves is that the revelation “is born out of the relationship that John has with Beth, because it comes about because they’re having difficulties in communication that neither of them quite understand. And that’s been true for me in my relationship, that I’ve been fortunate to be in — you learn so much about yourself through challenges that arise with the other person, and through patiently working through them with the other person and the commitment that you’ve made to each other.”
Continues Cera, “So I love that John, through Beth and through his relationship with her, finds that key to himself, which is such a big piece of himself to learn. But it’s not the definition of him as a person. He is not reduced to that or something. It’s just a tool that they both find that helps them understand certain challenges that they’re having.”
Building that relationship together, Schumer says, “is such a satisfying experience, because we have been able to also become close friends over the years. Just having that trust for each other and being really interested in the psychology of these things and real human behavior — it was a pleasure to live out with such an amazing partner.”
John’s diagnosis isn’t the only storyline explored in the series, and Cera says that he loves how “the way that it’s handled in the season — it’s a revelation and it’s learned, but then it’s not the defining thing about [John] for the rest of the season. He’s a very full character. It is not a two-dimensional representation of a disorder or something.”
Schumer agrees, adding that “I don’t think we even mentioned it again.”
“They’re just living,” Cera says.
Life and Beth (Hulu)
When discussing the show with Cera and Schumer, what’s fascinating is that while the series is based primarily on Schumer’s life, Cera’s the one to bring up the concept of catharsis. “It’s very relatable material,” he says, “It’s very well-written, and it feels very true to me, the way it’s written. So I think it’s kind of universal stuff, and that makes it kind of cathartic, in a way, to act out.”
Says Schumer, “I think people are taken aback with how much they can relate to the show. And I’m specifically thinking about a scene where [our characters] have a pretty big argument, [where] you can feel so far away from someone and then, and then a second later it’s… You’re just back. Like, I don’t know. I think people will see themselves in this season.”
Cera agrees. “There’s a million things about what they’re going through that are relatable just as a human being, and it’s always good, I think, to know that other people are going through similar struggles to the ones that you have. I feel like there’s something that makes you feel like sane, when you realize that you’re not the only one having that problem.”
Life and Beth Season 2 is streaming now on Hulu. New subscribers of Hulu can get a 30-day trial by signing up here.
Amy Schumer and Michael Cera Explain How Relatable Life & Beth Gets in Season 2
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