DEADLINE: What do you both remember about Hillary Clintons presidential run?
So, no Hillary, no Trump.
But we created a totally fictional world that didnt feel like we were reliving 2016.
‘The Girls on the Bus’Nicole Rivelli / Max
DEADLINE: When did you two start to work on the project and how did Greg Berlanti factor in?
CHOZICK:Warner Brothers initially optioned my book, and then Greg Berlanti became a producer.
And then he thankfully connected me to his old friend, Julie Plec.
Nicole Rivelli/Max
We met around 2018, 2019?
PLEC:Yeah, I think it was 2018, when you and I met.
Then I read the book and was really excited by the world.
DEADLINE: Youre primarily a genre writer, and you have things likeKyle XY,Vampire DiariesandRiverdaleon your resume.
Was there a challenge in coming from fantasy to something more realistic?
So, we got a little bit of magical realism in there.
DEADLINE: Having Hunter S. Thompson as Sadies conscience is a great choice.
The way they bounce off each other is so funny.
How did this idea of having this journalistic spirit guide around her come about?
CHOZICK:I feel like writers often have a loud inner voice.
We conceived many different ghosts, but then it just became Hunter.
And so, it was a great equipment for us to get into Sadies conflicted head.
Hes the devil on her shoulder.
Hes telling her, Go for it.
So, he was a great gadget for us.
DEADLINE: Talk to me about building this cast.
Youve got Melissa Benoist, Carla Gugino, Christina Elmore, Natasha Behnam…
I mean, the list goes on.
How did you find them and get them together for these roles?
PLEC:We started with Melissa.
Because she is Sadie in all those right ways.
Shes so likable, so smart.
She can channel intelligence and awkwardness all at the same time.
Theres not a person on this earth that doesnt love her.
But she was unavailable, so we had to let go.
And she responded almost immediately.
And then the other girls, I mean, we love Christina Elmore fromInsecure.
She brought such depth and intellect.
As soon as we saw her audition for Kimberlyn, we were sold.
She was so funny.
She was so heartfelt.
PLEC:And Carla, well, shes the queen of Hollywood.
Everything shes in, she elevates, and we were incredibly lucky to get her in this.
DEADLINE: My favorite thing about the show is that all these women have distinct backgrounds and personalities.
Sadie is a little messy but earnest.
Kimberlyn is a conservative-leaning Black woman who feels the need to prove herself.
Graces steely personality and tendency to overwork has hurt her relationship with her daughter.
How did you go about creating these women, and who was the toughest one to bring to life?
Also, Amy had a great relationship on the road with Andrea Mitchell.
We cannot just create that vibe for Lola.
CHOZICK:Lola also evolved in real-time.
When Julia and I conceived of Lola, we would have thought about her using a subscription Substack.
But the social media thing is something we added as journalism evolved.
Now, theres so many statistics about young people exclusively getting their news from TikTok.
And Lola became an even more realistic powerhouse as we neared production.
And then, for Kimberlyn, she was super challenging.
We wanted to put extra thought into her.
We had a lot of cool speakers talk to our room.
I had President Obamas faith outreach advisor who talked to us about faith-based Black conservatives.
We wanted to craft a really smart Black conservative.
He owned the Harlem Globetrotters.
And hes not a Trump Republican, but he would be a fiscal conservative.
And the conversations that erupted at her Thanksgiving were often what we would pull to put in Kimberlyns mouth.
But since were in a fictional world, it was a little easier to craft her.
Sadie should have been easy!
And yet, somehow, we would continue to get the note, But what does she want?
What does Sadie want?
What is driving her?
What does she want?
And our response was, She wants to be good at her fucking job.
She wants to leave a mark on this world.
She wants to have something to say and be able to say it.
CHOZICK:The state of journalism has gotten bleaker since we started writing this show, right?
You want to join the bus.
You want to travel the country.
I hope it looks fun.
I hope it inspires people to want to become journalists.
Theyre hoarding turkey sandwiches and sleeping in a different Hilton Garden Inn every night.
This show comes at a time when its feeling pretty bleak out there as a journalist.
So, a big goal of mine was to communicate [hopefulness].
Its a profession thats been done for a long time.
I dont believe that at all.
DEADLINE: How did you delineate leaning into heavier things and adding more levity in certain situations?
This isnt a fully serious political show, its playful too.
This idea served the show in a better way.
CHOZICK:Tonally, we just didnt want any kind of conspiracy.
We wanted everything to have stakes.
I mean, we love broadcast news and we mentionedAlmost Famous.
We wanted to have the show really be about these womens lives.
So it was a fine needle to thread of what conspiracy feels like.
The show doesnt get to be House of Cards dark because then that would be very strange.
We wanted to maintain the kind of delight and joy and idealism and humor while still having stakes.
That is whimsical and ridiculous, and we wanted to see to it that the show captured that.
