The Franchiseis a superhero spoof from the right people. Made by Jon Brown (Succession),Veepcreator Armando Iannucci, andSkyfalland1917director Sam Mendes,The Franchisewas born out of a collective experience that includes big-budget blockbusters and bitingly hilarious comedies. Together, the series’ creators are no doubt able to put together a parody that is informed by the real deal.
Unlike many other shows and films that touch on the subject, thesuperhero satireThe Franchiseexplores the lives of characters at many different stages of its fictional movie’s production. Lolly Adefope (Ghosts) plays Dag, a new employee experiencing this level of film production for the first time, Darren Goldstein (Ozark) plays Pat, a franchise studio producer, and Isaac Powell (American Horror Story) plays Bryson, an assistant to the studio head. Characters like this allowThe Franchiseto find the humor in all levels of film production.
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Screen Rantinterviewed Lolly Adefope, Darren Goldstein, and Isaac Powell about their work onThe Franchise. The idea of making shows andmovies about filmmakingmay not be a new one, but Adefope, Goldstein, and Powell discussed what makesThe Franchiseunique. They also touched on working with the series’ creators and their hopes for how it will resonate with viewers.
Lolly Adefope, Darren Goldstein & Isaac Powell Discuss Their Character’s Personalities In The Franchise
Each Of Their Characters Brings A Different Perspective To The Show
Screen Rant: Lolly, the first question is for you. How does Dag navigate the challenge of choosing the chaos of working in this fictional filmTecto, especially after her experience on the movie set?
Lolly Adefope: I think she is so laser-focused on becoming possibly an exec or even a head of the studio, and she just focuses on that throughout the chaos. That’s kind of her guiding light, and I think she’s quite unflappable. I think things that would knock other people off course just roll off her like water off a duck’s back. I think she’s confident and steadfast in her ambitions and that kind carries her through.
Darren, you play Pat, the studio producer for the franchise. Can you talk a little bit about Pat and some of the challenge he faces from the filmTecto?
Darren Goldstein: He is on a mission to make sure that these two movies, Tecto and Centurios 2 go off without a hitch, and we have to make sure that Centurios 2 gets more of the resources, because that is the tentpole. As the season goes on, we realize that Tecto might just be a little bit of a write-off. It could be a write-off movie.
Isaac, I related to your character the most. you play Bryson, the assistant to the Maximum Studios head, Shane. How does Bryson’s role reflect the often overlooked, but crucial work assistants do in the film industry?
Isaac Powell: Bryson is the linchpin of this entire operation. It is said of Bryson that the contents of his brain are so important that they make him wear a helmet when he goes jogging on the weekends. I don’t think anyone can really overstate the importance of this guy without him. The entire Jenga tower falls down. Is my point coming across?
Lolly Adefope: And Bryson knows more than Shane, because Shane’s not on set. Bryson knows it all.
Lolly Adefope Reflects On Working With Sam Mendes & Jon Brown
It Was “An Incredible Opportunity” For Each Of These Actors To Work With Such Big Names
Bryson knows it’s going to be all his one of these days. He just knows it’s going to happen. Lolly, can you talk about working with Sam and Jon on this show? They are absolutely phenomenal creators. Can you talk about the collaboration process and working with them?
Lolly Adefope: It was amazing. I’d worked with Jon before. I was a huge fan of his, so it was an incredible opportunity to get to work with him again. [It was] obviously slightly overwhelming to work with Sam Mendes, but from the very beginning I felt very safe. In one of the first table reads, he talked through the grand scale and the cinematic edge that the show was going to have, and also the logistics of the fact that we would be filming Tecto, there would be real cameras filming that, and there would be monitors, and everything was just planned to perfection. Given that grand scale that I think it needs and almost takes it out of your average half-hour comedy, I think it balances sitcom and cinema very well.
The Franchise Stars Discuss Bringing To Life (& Relating To) Workplace Chaos
The Show Is “An Office Comedy In The World Of Filmmaking”
Darren, I love the Comic-Con episode that Pat starts prepping for. How do you think Pat’s story inThe Franchiseserves to illuminate the hidden chaos of the behind the scenes of a superhero movie?
Darren Goldstein: I think the stakes are so high and at any moment it’s almost like he explodes with enthusiasm for the expectations of the franchise, and he gets a little bit in over his head.
Isaac, I feel that Bryson is a guy that will say yes to almost anything. How does Bryson handle the pressures and responsibilities of being an assistant to the head of Maximum Studios?
Isaac Powell: He’s on a lot of medication.
For all of you, in what ways do you thinkThe Franchisewill resonate with both movie industry insiders and the general audience?
Darren Goldstein: Hopefully people see it as an office comedy in the world of filmmaking—nice 10-word setup—so they’ll relate to it in that way. Hopefully they’ll be able to see, “Oh, that’s a boss, that’s an underling. That’s someone who doesn’t want to do what they think is… they don’t want to do. [Laughs] I literally felt, in that moment, my brain sizzle out.
Lolly, how does Dag handle the pressures of making everything run smoothly on set amid the unpredictable, unpredictable world of superhero movie-making?
Lolly Adefope: I think she just doesn’t take anything too seriously. I think she knows that this isn’t life or death, even though everyone else is acting like it is, so she kind of throws things off at the end of the day. [She] doesn’t really take her work home with her, doesn’t respect superhero movies particularly, and so is able to completely compartmentalize the drama from her own personal life.
Powell, Goldstein & Adefope On Bringing The Franchise’s Scripts To Life
“So Much Of The Work Was Already Done For Me”
What did you all want to bring to your role that wasn’t on the page?
Isaac Powell: It’s hard to say because there’s so much that’s on the page. So much of the work was already done for me. They gave me such a fun character to play, and they give you these little glimpses of him throughout. They peppered in these little moments that would surprise me and give me a little more understanding of him. I didn’t feel like I had to bring anything that wasn’t there, because there was so much there for me.
Darren Goldstein: I didn’t want to hedge. I wanted to go strong, go hard for what was demanded of me to be truthful to the story and to make sure that the stakes were really high. I didn’t want to soften this guy at all.
Lolly Adefope: I think it’s definitely there on the page, but I wanted people to want Dag to succeed even though she’s not really wanting the film to succeed. I didn’t want her to just be a destructive force within the crew, so I think, hopefully, people are rooting for her just as much as they’re rooting for Tecto to be a success.
More About The Franchise Season 1
The Franchise is a Max original comedy television series that follows a film crew as they document their increasingly chaotic and hectic work on a Superhero film franchise. Acting as a satire on the industry, the show looks to lampoon the process and the sometimes unreasonable expectations of keeping a long-standing franchise alive and kicking.
Check out our otherThe Franchiseinterviews here:
The Franchisepremieres October 6 on HBO at 10pm ET and will be available to stream on Max.
