‘Too Much’ Stars Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe Unpack That Finale Wink

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.[ThisstorycontainsmajorspoilersfromthefirstseasonofToo Much.]

Lena Dunham Wants to Make One Thing Clear: Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe, The Stars of Her Buzzy New Netflix Romantic Dramemedy Series Too Muchare not Playing Dunham and Her Husband, Musician Luis Felber.

While The Basic Premise Was Pulled from Their Own Lives – Anamerican Woman Moves to England in Search of a Fresh Start and Meets and Falls in Love With A British Too Much Together, Stressed that they used their Own Love Story as A Jumping-Off Point for the Former’s Long-Awaited Return to Television.

“We Feel Really, Really Lucky That We Got To Do this Toghetcher, and Three Course The Actors Come In and The Characters Become Different Because of the Actors Have Taken Over,“ Dunham Told. The Hollywood Reporter at the tribeca film Festival Last Month. “SO while the Germ of It May Be Autobiographical, It’s Gone in Directions and Never Could’ve Dreamed.”

For Stalter, A Stand-Up Comedian Who Became A Go-To Scene Steler On Hacks, Too Much Proved to anxpected Gift from Dunham, Who Wrote the Female Protagonist with Stalter’s Voice in Mind After Discovering Her Videos On Tiktok. “I’ve Always be so interested and wanted to do more dramatic struff, so this was just a dream role. It felt like stepping into. Thr.

In Too MuchStalter Stars as Jessica Salmon, A New Yorker in Her Mid-30s Who, In The Midst of Recovering from A Bad Bad Break-Up, Agrees To Take A Job in London Assisting Filmmakers Working on Commerking on Commercial. While Her Dreams of Falling Into A Romantic British Fantasy à la Jane Auston Novels Are Quickly Upended, Jessica Finds Herself Immediatally Drawn to Felix Remen (Sharpe), A Grunge Musician Performing at A Local Pub One Evening.

Both Parties Come to this New Romance With Their Own Personal Baggage. Jessica’s Last Partner Picked at Her Worscurities and Ten Left Her for A Youner Influencer (Played by Emily Ratajkowski); Felix, A recovering addict with a propses for Falling Back Into Bed with Ex-Partners, Was Neglerated by His Parents and Sexuly abused by a nanny as a child. The 10-Episode First Season Explores Whtcher Jessica and Felix can overcome their respective paste and worst Impleses to make their reactionship work.

Below, Stalter and Sharpe Open Up About How They Worked with Dunham to Develop their onir Onscreen Connection, WHY Their Characters’ Emotion Baggage Ultimatelia Makes Their Relationship Strang. Was not the end of the story for the two lovebirds.

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Given that inspiration for this Series Came from A Really Personal Place, What Kinds of Conversations Did You Each Have Lena Before and After Signing on, And How didda. Characters?

Megan Stalter Since It’s SO INSPIRED BY their RELATIONSHIP BUT IS NOT A DOCUMENTARY, I ACTUALY DID HAVE A LOT OF QUESTIONS OF WHAT Parts She Related to Personally. WHEN I’M DOING A Character, I ALWAYS THINK ABOUT WHAT WAYS I’M SIMILAR OR DIFFERENT, SO I WANTED TO KNOW THAT About Lena and Jessica. We have a Lot of Conversations About that, But It ALSO FELT SO FREE. There was no pressure to do an Impression of them, but it was inspiring to be around them.

Will Sharpe OUR FIRST CONVERSATIONS WERE About the FICTIONALIZED WORLD OF THE SHOW. SO Right from The Start, It Was Like: These Characters Are Nota and Lu. The germ of the idea comes from a personal place, but she’s writing a story and was vary encouraging of US to make the trees Characters Our Own, WHICH they Already Were on the Page. She’s so good at tailoring parts to the actor; She’s So Curious About Everyone.

In my first meting with her, i was noticing things that were similear. She’d Written Felix as mixed-race [like I am]Because lu is half-peruvian. And it just so happned that lu moved to england at 8, WHICH is exactly WHEN I MOVED FROM JAPAN TO England. I was noticing Little Similarities and THEN IT FELT LIKE [she was] TRYING to DIG INTO, “BUT How Wuld You Shape It? What Wuld Interest You? What Wound Be Rewarding For You?”

Slater The Things that i find in jessica are some things that i find in myself and lena, too. We botth related over Falling in love with people who are a are how Different than us. WHEN I MET HER, WE JUST CLICKED AND I FELT LIKE I HAD KNOWN HER Forever. We’re Both Very Emotionally Attached to Our Animals, and so Jesica. There’s A Lot That Three of Us Have In Common.

SO MUCH OF THE SUCCESS OF Any Show – But Especially a Romantic Dramemedy – Lies in the Chemistry Between the Leads. DID YOU TWO DO A Chemistry Read?

Sharpe No. We Both Were Talking to Lena About this from Really Early On. I Think The First Thing I Read Was An Outline for the Show, not Scripts Yet, and then the Scripts Started Being Written. What was helpful was that we didn’t over-rehearse either; We have a day or two of rehearsal. We’d Met Briefly Once in La But by Chance, and THEN MET PROPERLY AT [production company] Working Title on a rehearsal day.

[[To Stalter]But i didn’t know that much about you as a person or what you were like like wested filming. I Felt Like Because The Characters Are Getting to Know Each Other, That Maybe Brough A Helpphul Tension to Those Scenes Where Were Were Were Still Trying To Figure Each Each.

Stalter Lena’s So Good at Casting. She’s So Good at Writing Her Characters and Knowing Them. I Remember WHEN I WAS BEING TOLD THAT YOU [to Sharpe] Were the Dream Person She Wanted, Too.

Sharpe Same.

Stalter SO I THINK She Just KNEW, AND I AM SUCH A FAN OF WILL’S. I trusted lena that we would have chemistry. We Clicked Right Away WHEN WE STARTED FILMING.

Sharpe Tthe show is sort of about them trying to dill Out if there is chemistry.

Stalter Exactly.

Sharpe Also just the fact that i KNEW YOU WEER FUNNY FROM Watching Hacks. HAVING A SENSE OF HUMOR IS SO HELPFUL IN CREATING A SAFE ENVIRONMENT, SO IF There Ever Was Anything that’s Like, “How Are We Going To Figure This Out?” KNOWING THAT WE COURCE ABOUT ABOUT IT WAS ALWAYS REALLY HELPFUL.

Stalter I Feel the Same. I Felt Comfortable to Be Funny, But I Didn’t Know How Crazy I Could Be. And THEN I REALIZED WHEN WE STARTED FILMING THAT YOU LIKE WHEN I’M ACTING STRANGE. (Laughs.)

WHAT DO YOU THINK Jessica and Felix Saw in Each of that Drew Them to Each of Other in the Firmst Place, and Who’s Do they Kep Coming Back Together, in Spite of the Baggage of the Relationship.

Stalter I ALWAYS THINK WHEN PEOPLE SAY, “OPPOSITES ATTACT,” IT’S BECAUSE YOU’RE YOU’RE SEEning Something in that Person That You Want For Yourself. Felix is Cool in A Different Way Than Jessica is. They’re so different. SO we even said who felix is comfortable, he’s talking a Lot. WHEN Jessica’s Uncomfortable, She Talks A Lot. And then whoh she’s comfortable, she’s quierter. They’re kind of opposites; They Balance Each Other. Do you agree?

Sharpe Yeah. I Remember Asking A Similar Question in the First Episode. They’ve have that awkward the moment on the sofa – it was one of the first things we filmed – he’s left the Flat and he’s listening to music. I Remember Asking Lena, “What do you think? Is there a special thing that misses him turn around?” She Was Like, “I Think It’s Just A Feeling, and Maybe there was someting there that is drawing him back.” They have do have banggage and they’re broth trying to start a new chapter in their lives, but maybe there’s just a sort of “humanness Differences. ” Maybe It’s Something to Do With That Vulneracy in The End.

Stalter Ultimately, they accept one Another. Jessica’s Falling for Felix Because She’s Realizing She’s “Too Much,” but he Likes It And Thinks is a good Thing. Jessica’s ex HATED THE DIFFERENCES THATH, AND IT SEMS LIKE FELIX IS Charmed By Them.

Sharpe They’re very accepting of all parts of each Other, not just the things that’re hapy to present. I Found It Really Moving Who She Sings Him A LULLABY IN EPISODE [seven] WHERE YOU START TO REALIZE WHY HIS DEFENSES Are SO High. I Remember US TRYING TO CALIBRATE, “How How Can Felix Push Jess Away?” But Jess Keeps Coming Towards [him]. EVEN WHEN FELIX is like, “get ahead from me. You don’t want to know what this is. I don’t want you to see this. I don’t want you to know the this about me.” Jess Keeps Coming. And the fact that she doesn’t Judge him for it – if anything, all of thoss things about each of the most make them Love Each Other More. I Guess that is how strong relationships are built; It’s Finding Outs that People Frigten of, or Ashamed of, or Whetever It Is.

Felix has a habit of sling with all kinds of women and keeping his imotions Really bottled up, so will, i’d imagine that some of the calibration you were. On the emotional spectrum at any given time. WHAT DO YOU THINK FELIX is Really Looking for? How did you think about the Internal Side of the Character Beyond What He Is Externalizing with His Behavior?

Sharpe I Think He Wants to Feel Safe, But He’s Moved Through Life in A Way and Has Learned To Operate in A Way that He’s Guarded From Reality. SO HE Presents As Cool, But Actualally, His Defenses Are Pretty High. I Remember US Talking About Those Compulsions – The Addiction, All of the Behaviors That Are There to Mask His Deper Feelings and The Feelings He’s Frigenned of. Working with Lena, We Were Like, “We Shold Probable Really Relationship.” I Remember Saying, “However Far You Want to Go With Any of Tese Stories, I’M Down For that. Let’s Make It Hard for the mean. ”

I love that he fucks up a lot and makes mistakes like, “hey, i’m trying to stay Clean and i’m Trying to be a Better Person.” If you just manage that [completely]what’s the story? So All of Those Parts of Both Characters – The Weaknesses, The Flaws and Broken Parts – that’s Ultimately What Made US Feel Protective of Them.

There’s An Episode that Takes Place Througholhout One Late in Jessica’s APARTMENT WITH FELIX, WHERE THERE IS A MIX OF SEX SCENES AND PILLOW TALK. How did you think about deepening the Sense of intimacy between your Characters Over the Course of the Season, and What do you think about

Sharpe IT WAS SUCH A BOLD Script, and Fair Play to Netflix for Going with a Two-Hander Night Interior. I a testament to lena’s writing and directing that it realy resains, and somehow she faculture reality to explain Feeling of whoeeling o Yourself, But Not Too Much. Time Warps, and Suddenly a Whole Night Has Disappeared and You’re Not Quite Sure How. But Like We’ve Been Saying, She Made US Feel Really Secure and Approached Those Scenes with A Tenderness. So we ‘ D RUN IT A FEW TIMES AND GET IT IN OUR BONES, AND LENA WOURT BE MASSAGING AND PLAYING AROUND WITH IT, AND SOMETIMES SHE’D LET US PLAY AROUND WITH IT. SO by the time we have were shorting, it felt like we were were in that Space. Is that fair to say?

Stalter Yeah, It Felt So Realistic, and It’s All in the Writing. Lena’s Such A Confident, Incredible Director and Writer That She Knew It Was Going To Feel Like That. That is what it feels like like you meet someone, and you’re like, “wait, am i going to marry this person person?” (Laughs.) And that you’re like, “wait, i don’t know them!” It’s Just That Long Night Where You Don’T Want to Go To Sleep, But You’re Like, “We Have to Go To Sleep.” The Dialogue is Just So Good and Realistic. They’re Talking About Everything –

Sharpe Everything and nothing. (Laughs.)

A Lot Has Changed Since Girls WHEN IT COMES TO FILMING SEX SCENES; some of Lena’s Former Co-Stars Have Even Spoken about Howable Valuable An Intimacy Coordinator Wuld Have Been Working on the Show a Decade Ago. WHAT DID YOU MAKE OF YOUR Experience of Working with An Intimacy Coordinator On Too Much?

Stalter IT WAS SO HELPFUL. I’ve Never Done Scenes Like That. Our Intimacy Coordinator, Miriam [Lucia]has been somazing. I felt so safe with her and lena and will, and it was so helpful for me to know exactly what kind of was going to happen for exactly how long, and what the scene was.

Sharpe They Made It Very Easy for Us and Just Broke It All Down. Lena’s Knows, “I Only Need this Shot for Seven Seconds, and We Do It Once, Maybe One More Time.” And then the cumulative Impact of Those Shots and How It Feels in the Show Is Different to How It Felt for Us. IT WAS JUST VERY CLINICAL, IN A WAY.

Stalter We Never Overshot Anything. She Knows Exactly What She Needs.

Were You Both Prepared for The Amount of Discourse About the Spit Scene Alone in the Trailer? Whose Idea Was It For Felix to Spit in Jess’ Mouth?

Stalter Well, that was in the script.

Sharpe Yeah, in the script.

Stalter That was not someting i Really Thought About Because i Thought It’s Just Such A Short, Quick Moment, and People Need to Get Over. If they kiss, then there’s spit.[[Sharpe Laughs.]

Sharpe I Only Found Out About This Through You Guys. You Were Like, “Do You Know About This?” And I was waas like, “about what?” (Laughs.)

Stalter THEN THERE’S A HEADLINE, AND HE WAS LIKE, “WAIT, WHAT?” Anyway… if people are kissing, they’re spitting!

Music Is Such A Key Part of Too Muchin part Because of How Central It Was to Lena and Luis’ – and now Jessica and Felix’s – Love Story. WILL, DID YOU HAVE Any SAY IN THE SONGS THAT FELIX SINGS IN THE SHOW? HAD YOU SUNG Onscreen Before?

Sharpe I don’th i’ve sung onscreen before, But I Played in Bands As A Teenager in that Sort of High School Garage Band Way, and Worked Closely with Lu on HIS MUSIC. They’re all his songs, which i Really love and did have a say in. So there were probably about 10 songs that we have were looking at and would try to figure Out, “What are the Ones that I Feel MOST CONFIDENT PLAYING?” Sometimes we would adapt them a – I would Simplify the guitar slightly or play in a slightly differently Different Way – so i knew i could sing it and play at the Same Time. We pushed to do as much of it live as we could, whoh hopephully gives it just a slightly rawer, Messier Kind of Realism than IF IT’S SUPER POLISHED BUT COMPLELY BOGUS.

The Biggest Thing Was The Song in the Final Episode Originally Was A Solo Piece on the Guitar. I PITCHED TO PUT THAT TO THE PIANO, Partly Because i’m Stronger on the Piano, But Also, and Wondired IF It Wuld be Interesting to See Itis Guy with All His Grungy Fronnt Be Super Vulne. We Moved It to A Different Key to Try and Push My Voice Into A Place Where It Was Slightly Less Comfortable, Again for the Same Reasons. But I loved that part of it. Some of It Was Pretty Scary, But Lu Was Very Support and Helpul, and So Was His Producer, Matt. ALSO, WE WOURT HAVE ACTUAL BAND REHEARSALS, AND PRASANNA [Puwanarajah] Learned to Play The Drums in Two Days. It Was Amazing.

What parts of HimSelf is felix able to Access Through Music That H isn’t Necessarily Able to Access in EveryDay Conversations?

Sharpe I love that quest. It Was Really Interesting Playing A Character WHERE CHEME OF WHAT HE’S EXPRESSING IS THROUGH MUSIC, NOT THROUGH DIALOGUE AND WHAT HE’S SAYING. There’s that Scene WHERE HE IS LIKE, “WELL, SOMETIMES I FIND MUSIC QUITE A HELPFUL WAY TO MAKE SENSE OF STUFF.” I dokhrhere’s an expant to kind Jess is so so forthcoming with her feeelings and so expressive with WORDS, and EVEN IN THE BIG FIGHT THAT WE HAVA Know How to Express HimSelf in that Way. Some of What’s Being Held in May Be Coming Out in His Songs, And I Love The Lyrics in His Song in the Final Episode. I THINK THAT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL SONG THAT LU Wrote.

Meg, Lena’s Crowning Achievement, GirlsWas Known for Its Frank and SomeTimes Controversial Department of Young Womanhood, and The Discourse AROUND THAT SHOW WAS VERY MUCHOCOSM OF THE THIS LARGER CULESTATION ABORATION ABORATES and How Likeable Audiences Need or Want Them To Be. Given that Too Much Is a Lena Dunham Show, and You Are Playing A Character Who Could Could Cords ACross As Polarizing to Some Viewers, How Do You Feel About The Fact What Jessica Centen Becet.

Stalter Lena Does Such An Amazing Job Writing Characters That Just Feel Real. That’s how people are in real life. No One’s Just All Likable All The Time, and I Really Am Drawn to Material Like That and Find That Such An Incredible Part of this Story. People have already Done that with me on Hacks. People Say, “OH My God, We’re Obessed with Kayla.” Or, “Oh My God, She’s The MOST ANNOYING Character.”

Sharpe Do you want me to murder them? (Laughs.)

Stalter Will’s Really Angry About That. I don’t ever Really Care about What People Think Online, SO is Just Interesting to Me to Hear. Also, i’ve been a standup for so long. I’ve been in rooms whore nobody’s like my comedy.

Sharpe If no one’s like your comedy, no One’s Liked Mine. (Laughs.) But also, the show is about that, isn’t it? The Show Is About, “DON’T BE AFRAID TO BE YOURSELF. YOU’LL ALWAYS FIND YOUR POPLE THAT YOU CLICK YOU AND THAT YOU CONNECT WITH, AND WHY SHOULD YOU HIDE AWAY?” So, yeah, I feel like the shoin is already dealing with that conversing.

Stalter And Imagine if [on] GirlsAll the Characters Were Really Nice, Sweet People in Every Scene. It’d be so boing. You love to watch shows any you’re kind of angry at the character and that you love them again. I Think It’s So Cool. I mean, it’s what I Want to Watch.

The First Season Ends with Jessica and Felix Getting Married, But That Does Not Necessarily Mean That Will Live Happily Ever After. WHAT Wuld You Both Be Most Looking Forward to Exploring in A Potential Season?

Sharpe I Guess that’s a quest for Lena. I KNOW she’s Thinking about it and have iDeas. I was about to just make some stupid Things up. (Laughs.)

Please Feel Free!

Stalter That would be so funny, if you have a full storyline. Lena’s writing is so surprising. [With] Girlsevery Season Was So Different, and You’re Like, “I Could Have Never Predicted That Happening.” So that’s what I would be excited to see – her ideas and thoUGHTS about WHERE they could be. Because Obviously, It’s Not The End When You Get Married; It’s not all of a suudden like everynessing’s Easy and Perfect Now, and Nothing’s HapPening.

Sharpe There’s a line that [Will’s] Like, “How Long Should We Stay Married?”

Stalter An [Jessica’s] Like, “wait, you’re kidding, ryight?”

Sharpe I Think that’s Because Lena Wanted to Just Wink at the Audence and Slightly Undercut The Kind of Perfect Ending and Just Be Like, “Let’s See How Theis Goes.” SO The Spirit of that Mystery, I Suppese, is There in the Ending.

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Too Much is now streaming on netflix.