In Peacock’s new comedy “Laid,” the term “body count” suddenly becomes all too literal. When Ruby (Stephanie Hsu) finds out that her exes and former hook ups are dying one by one, she’s tasked with figuring out what could possibly be causing such a cursed affair. To do so, she recruits her roommate and BFF AJ (Zosia Mamet) whose penchant for all things true crime — and Staples — comes in handy. AJ draws up “Ruby’s Sex Timeline,” a whiteboard full of photos, Post-its and yarn that tracks Ruby’s literal body count: every man she’s ever slept with, who now risk dying if the two friends can’t solve the mystery sooner rather than later.
As high-concept a comedy as it gets, “Laid” still plays with traditional rom-com tropes within a decidedly modern (and sex-positive) sensibility. This is a tale where gruesome deaths (from sepsis to car crashes) exist alongside running gags about Amanda Knox, wedding kimonos and a Saint Bernard named Ruby Hot Sauce. While it is Ruby’s sexual exploits and romantic entanglements that drive the show, her relationship with AJ anchors this increasingly hilarious (and oft-dangerous) trip down memory lane.
The Peacock series, developed by Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna, centers on Ruby, a woman whose exes are mysteriously dying one by one.
A few days ahead of the show’s premiere (all eight episodes are now streaming on Peacock), Hsu and Mamet sat down with The Times on a sunny afternoon at Suá Superette on Larchmont to dish on all things Ruby and AJ. Giddy around one another and often sending each other into fits of laughter as they reminisced on the show’s quick-paced eight-week shoot, the two actors shared why this high-wire conceit feels so grounded, which guest stars risked making them break on set, and why audiences may be ready for a “twisted, f— up, dark rom-com.”
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
I wanted to hear about your first impression when you heard the premise of the show.
Stephanie Hsu: I always answer this one first. I want to hear you talk about it.
Zosia Mamet: I mean, I knew it was you when I read it, and I think I probably would have felt differently about it if I didn’t know that information. Just because I think this is a tough show to stick the landing on. It’s very high concept. But I knew Stephanie’s work, so I was like, “Oh, she will be able to land this plane with a grounded, amazing quality.” I just loved so much that it was something that I had never come across before and so rare in our industry where we’re so obsessed with remakes and prequels and sequels. That was the most exciting part.
Hsu: That’s very kind of you to say. Because I feel like when you were officially attached, I was like, “OK, we’re gonna land this plane.”
“I’ve always had a predilection for the strange and the perverse,” the “Everything Everywhere” actor says. “The script actually made a lot of sense to me.”
You’re both getting at how wild this premise is and how tricky of a tone the show has. So much of it rests on your shoulders, Stephanie. How did you find a way to thread that fine line of finding an in on a character like Ruby who feels like a walking, talking ‘Am I the A—?’ post?
Hsu: Well, there’s definitely a vulnerability to playing someone like Ruby because she is your antihero hero. But it’s funny. People always ask, “What is it like to play such an imperfect woman?” And I’m like, somebody tell me who is perfect? I feel really excited about these types of characters. It’s fun to be chaotic. But then I feel like with Ruby, her fundamental want is to find love. The question she’s asking is actually a very innocent, earnest question that I think a lot of people ask, which is: How the f— do you find love in this day and age?
[A server arrives with Hsu’s drink, “Ruby’s Love Buzz Matcha.”]
Hsu: Oh my gosh. They made a special drink for the premiere. I’ll describe it. There’s hot sauce and matcha and a phallic stick of maraschino cherries, which is actually very funny. The worst acting I have ever done is in Episode 2 of this show. It was day one of filming. One of our props guys was like, “What do you think Ruby’s drink is?” And I’m like, “Wait, isn’t this scene taking place at 10 in the morning?” So it’s a morning scene, but we were at a bar because, I guess AJ is a bartender?
Mamet: Yeah, which I also found out that day when I had to physically bartend, which I’ve never done in my life. So that was the worst acting I’ve ever done.
Hsu: And I thought it would be funny if she was drinking a vodka soda with maraschino cherries for breakfast. But that doesn’t really read in the episode.
Mamet: Didn’t you make yourself sick because you ate so many maraschino cherries?
Hsu: Yeah. [Laughter] Anyways, the point being: you can’t watch an a— for a long time. You have to find a way to love her. And I do love her. I feel like I know so many people who are single, who are literally living a version of Ruby’s life.
Part of the joy of watching Ruby is her relationship with AJ, and just seeing you two interact, it’s clear there’s actual chemistry here. Was that immediate?
Mamet: We just got lucky. It was really very organic. We Zoomed for the first time with [creators and executive producers] Nahnatchka [Khan] and Sally [Bradford McKenna], who were our chaperones. It was very funny, like Mom and Mom making sure everything went OK. Stephanie was wearing overalls and a bandanna. She came on the screen, and I was like, I love you. Immediately. I think we work in very similar ways. We’re very big-hearted people. We wear that outwardly. It made it very easy.
Hsu: I came late to the Zoom. That’s a weird habit of mine. Time is a construct. Anyway, sometimes you go on to these things, and people are talking about, you know, the biz. But Zosia, immediately, most definitely was talking about her horse. And I was like, “OK, yeah. She gets it. Cool.”
Mamet: We talked a lot about animals in that Zoom.
Hsu: I really feel like Z is that scene partner you always wish for in acting school. Like, the amount of depth and soul she brings. AJ could have totally been a best friend trope. She made her so dimensional, so full of heart and flawed. We had no choice but to just launch headfirst into this project together.
Mamet: I always felt, standing across from you, like there were no wrong answers. No matter what, we were going to figure it out.
Ruby is a mess — chaos, really — whereas AJ is a bit more straitlaced, and there’s a stiff physicality to her. Zosia, how did you find that?
Mamet: I want to answer that in some amazing actorly way, but I’m just a very physical person by nature. Oftentimes, I don’t even really realize that I’m doing it. That’s probably just my work into characters. They find their way into themselves through my body … which I guess does sound very actorly, actually. But now that I think about it, it has a lot to do with the rhythm and pace of how they speak. This was a very dialog-heavy show, at a very fast clip. That probably had a lot to do with how that came out.
Hsu: It could also be the short skirts.
Mamet: Those skirts! [Laughter] I had this sneaking suspicion they were making them shorter and shorter. But, yeah, totally. Costume is everything. It informs how you move when you can’t entirely sit down. But it was fun. Short, short skirt. Big boots.
That and an iPad with a stylus, and there’s AJ.
Hsu: Oh, and the sex board!
Right! Can we talk about the sex board? What was it like seeing it on set for the first time?
Hsu: When they pitched me the season, I went into the writers room and they had the timeline up there already. They didn’t have the yarn at that point — we hadn’t budgeted for yarn, yet. And actually, the timeline is exactly how it was, including John Early as himself, which was amazing. Seeing the reveal of how the sex timeline looks in person is insane. There were so many moments where you would read the script and it’s so funny. But then when we started actually filming it — seeing, for example, Josh Segarra getting thrown up into the air, and then dying on the windshield, or seeing the sex timeline board live, it was like, OK, so this is the tone of the show. It is totally singular and kind of quirky in its own way.
The persona of John Early can be summarized in one facial expression: a gritted smile under a pair of eyes bulging with rage.
I’m so glad you brought up John Early because that’s one of my favorite scenes in the show.
Hsu: I knew the day that John Early was going to be on set, I was going to not be OK. I was not going to be able to hold it together. I’ve known John since college. When they showed me that timeline in the writers room, I asked the writers, “Do you guys know John Early?” They were like, “No, we’re just huge fans.” But I knew John so I went home that night and texted him. They hadn’t written the episode yet. But we were basically like, “If you want to do it, we’ll write you an episode.” And he said yes. I’m just glad I didn’t ruin every take of his because he’s just one of the funniest people.
Mamet: And we had Kate [Berlant].
Hsu: That was a hard day, too. She’s just too funny.
Mamet: In that pantsuit, with her hair in a bun.
Hsu: So many people. Brandon Perea. Simu Liu. All the cameos are incredible. Everyone was very game to let it out.
Mamet: To come play.
Hsu: I do hope people feel that fun, fresh feeling from the show. I hope they feel like they have wind in their hair from it. It’s been really exciting to hear people think about their exes, which is what rom-coms do so well. They make you think about all the loves you had or could have had. If that starts to come up, then that means we did our job right, you know? Because it is ultimately a story about female friendship. And it is a mystery. But we’ve been pitching it as a twisted, f— up, dark rom-com.
Mamet: I think we’re often given these two opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of finding love: the fairy tale version or the fairy tales aren’t real and this is reality version. I feel like our show, hopefully, lives somewhere in the middle. Nobody is perfect individually. No relationship is perfect. This is obviously a very high concept, but I think the subtext is that everyone’s got something. Everyone has an issue. Everyone has a past. Everyone has baggage. It will never be that every day you wake up and the sun is shining and your hair looks perfect and your husband doesn’t fart. Life is life. I really liked thinking about that a lot when we were shooting.
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