Parade caught up with Betsy Beers, the creator of 'The Residence', and discussed what we can expect from the new Netflix comedy. She also details the casting process, the creation process, and being a Shondaland co-producer.
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00:00Well, you know what? I think that we were very, very lucky.
00:03Shonda and I have walked with this writer, Paul Davies,
00:06on a show called For the People a few years ago at ABC.
00:10And we're lucky enough to get to work with him again.
00:14And he came up with this incredible concept for this show
00:20that I believe his brain figured out a way
00:25to combine all the elements that you were discussing.
00:28I think for us at Shondaland,
00:31we both feel like it's important for all of our shows
00:35to have a certain level of kind of each of those qualities.
00:38And Paul absolutely has found a way to balance
00:44the humor, the deeper characterizations,
00:48moments of actual real drama,
00:52and the really twisty, turny stuff that you need
00:56to put together a murder mystery.
00:59Oh, it was such a fun casting process.
01:01We worked with Meredith Tucker,
01:03who's an incredible casting director,
01:06and she's an absolute delight,
01:09and she has so many different people that she knows
01:13and presented so many different people.
01:15And Paul Davies, and we worked very, very closely,
01:20and it was one of those funny things
01:24where a name would come up, and we'd think,
01:26oh, my gosh, do we think maybe we could get them?
01:28And then, lo and behold, they would read the script
01:31and absolutely love it and be excited to do it,
01:34about which I'm not surprised
01:36because I might be the script's biggest fans.
01:38So the great thing about my job at Shondaland
01:41is because I produce, I can be a fan
01:44and I can actually do my job.
01:46So it was getting Uzo to read the script
01:50and actually having her commit was incredibly exciting.
01:54Susan Kalachi-Watson, who I was a fan of for years.
01:58I mean, obviously, we were thrilled
02:02when she responded to it as well.
02:04Every single buddy, everybody down the line,
02:07Bronson, Jason, Ken Marino, Randall Park, Jane Curtin.
02:11I mean, the list goes on and on,
02:13and I don't want to forget anybody,
02:15but it's such a long cast list
02:17because everybody's amazing.
02:20Okay, it's freaky because I have been in the White House.
02:23And not in some of these rooms, mind you.
02:27I've been in the White House.
02:29But first of all, a bunch of the rooms that,
02:32a few of the rooms that I've been in, it is weird.
02:35You walk in and you're like, oh, my lord,
02:37this is actually pretty close.
02:39And so much of it is it really feels like you're there.
02:46And then you kind of,
02:48after feeling like you're really there in one place,
02:51you'd go up to a bedroom or somewhere else
02:54that you've never been and you still felt like you were there,
02:56which was really odd, the whole experience.
02:59But so much fun to film in and so beautiful.
03:03And, I mean, an incredible experience.