‘House of Cards’ Showrunner on making ‘Andor’ a ‘adult story’

Beau Willimon, the showrunner behind “House of Cards” and writer of “Andor”, says he is very proud of the second season of the “Star Wars” franchise episode. During an industry event at Canneseries, the producer said that writing the Disney+ series “is like a session musician on someone’s album”, who praised his creative employee and series -maker Tony Gilroy.

“Tony helped me a few seasons on ‘House of Cards’ as an advisory producer to give me notes about the scripts and became a good friend and mentor,” he remembered. “When he developed ‘Andor’, he asked if I wanted to write a few episodes and I thought he was kidding because I grew up with ‘Star Wars’ of ‘Star Wars’, but I am not a fan. He said,” The less you know, the better I want to tell a human story and an adult story. ”

Despite the fact that he had never written a show that he had not created, Willimon jumped alongside Tony Gilroy’s brother, Dan Gilroy, and broke the entire first season of the show in six days.

“It was so nice,” he added to that time. “I didn’t have to bear any of the burden of what a show runner usually has to do. The only thing I had to do for the first time in my life was a position like a writer who supplied scripts to my friend Tony Gilroy. As long as he liked them, I was good.

Willimon also had his hand this year on another largely successful series, aboard Apple TV +’s Hit Psychological drama “Severance” as an executive producer for season 2. Of the experience, the creative said that the show “is very different from what I normally do”, but the team “needed some extra help”.

“I came in to help the production side of it, with the writers,” Willimon continued. “It was an extraordinary experience because there is nothing like this show. I am really interested in projects where I do not know how to do it. With ‘resignation’ it was this beautifully built world and Toon and I challenged myself to help that team blossom the second season. I was employed by the story like someone else.”

The executive emphasized that he “loves” from producing and finds it a pleasure to “facilitate someone else’s vision”. “Sometimes I have a little distance and perspective that can be useful, or it can facilitate purely at a practical level. I don’t have to bear the burden of this that my baby is, I can just help someone raise this child.”

This creative distance is of course the opposite of the work that Willimon had as the showrunner of the first four seasons of Netflix’s history making political drama ‘House of Cards’. Elsewhere during the conversation, the writer remembered the early days of working on the project and said that he was initially not interested in the idea of ​​doing a political series on the back of his praised political piece, “Farragut North.” Why did Willimon make the leap? Easy: the name of David Fincher.

The opportunity to meet the “SE7EN” director, the playwright had the British show of the same name inspired the Netflix flagship series. “I watched the British series and started to have a lot of ideas about what I had to do with it, and then David and I turned out to turn it off in terms of what we wanted to do with the show.”

Talking about the first sparks of inspiration for Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood, Willimon called the notorious opening scene of the series as an example where the politician kills a dog. “He has this entrance to the movie star, comes down and gives us his first direct address. Not about politics, but about a little more elementary, what his relationship with pain is, and that he is the kind of person who is doing it difficult. Wanging the dog to make it out of his misery can be seen as an act of generosity and an act of generosity, and that contradicting is interesting.

“I don’t think a writer, no matter how good they are, can start in a place of refinement,” he added. “You often start in a place of the everyday. It is explained by organizing and layers of the everyday way in such a way that will hopefully become complex.”

About his relationship that works with high -profile actors in projects such as ‘House of Cards’, Willimon said that it is increasingly common for shows to be packaged with talent, the expectation is that show runners and creatives at a higher level should work together with actors in making important projects for projects. “Talent comes on board earlier [projects] are even sold. Depending on the star value of those actors, they expect a certain level of input and involvement. I like to work with actors and welcome that, so it is usually a pleasant part of the process. ”

A less pleasant part of his profession, perhaps the struggle of those early days is as a writer. The award -winning Showrunner advised budding creatives in the room and said: ” When you start, you have all this energy and a kind of despair, a hunger to share what you have with the world. Try not to waste that energy in a mentality of a career.