‘Camping’ Showrunner Jenni Konner And The Cast On What’s Ahead In Season 1, Ideas For Season 2, & More [Interview]

As Jenni Konner and Lena Dunham‘s new HBO show, “Camping,” enters its third week, we dig a little deeper into Konner’s vision for the show and what audiences can expect from the star-studded cast of characters as the series progresses. For those familiar with Julia Davis‘s eponymous British series, the situations in which these characters are immersed only get more cringe-worthy.

READ MORE: Jennifer Garner & David Tennant Talk New HBO Series ‘Camping’ & Why There Won’t Be A Season 2 [Interview]

In episode 3, while Walt (David Tennant) and the boys (Chris Sullivan, Brett Gelman, and Arturo Del Puerto) embark on a fishing trip, Juliette Lewis‘s Jandice and Ione Skye‘s Carleen form an alliance of their own. It’s a pivotal episode filled with laughs and moments of key insight.

Recently, I spoke with Konner and cast members Lewis, Skye, Brett Gelman, and Bridget Everett about “Camping,” their characters, the casting process, working and bonding with each other, “Girls,” and much more.

Jenni, what sparked your interest in adapting the British series “Camping” with Lena? What are the changes you felt you had to make?

Jenni Konner: What I thought was so exciting about the show is that it reminded me a little of “The Big Chill:” this idea that if I had got mad at someone who I’m friends with, I cannot call them for two days or text them. In this scenario, you have all these people and you have the big wide world of the woods, and yet it’s totally claustrophobic. You might think you have your life together. You might think you’re doing fine, and then it all comes out. There’s no way to keep it repressed. I also thought the show Julia made was hilarious. In the original, the character that Bridget took over for was a psychotic murderer. It was a man, and he, we think, murdered his mom. It’s vague, and [he] maybe murdered Miguel. We were trying to ground it a little more.

There’s something that I think that you can do on English television: you cannot explain people or redeem them at all and just let it go [laughter]. But Bridget’s character starts out broad and silly; and then, as we get to know her, it becomes very emotional, which is really exciting because she’s mostly known for comedy. And if you didn’t see “Patti Cake$,” you don’t know so much of what she’s capable of.

Bridget Everett: Yeah, the world [laughter].

Konner: No, but truly, you’ll see as the series progresses, she has this very emotional arc, and it’s really great. We love her so much.

Everett: Thanks for making that [laughter].

Bridget, Harry is a constant in the show. How did you get into Harry’s shoes? How much creative freedom did Jenni and Lena give you?

Everett: A lot of creative freedom, and that’s what makes it wonderful. They’re so generous about letting me figure it out because there’s a way that Harry could have been a caricature, but I don’t have enough talent to play a hardcore character [laughter]. I have to bring Harry to me a little bit.

Konner: That’s the talent, Bridget.

Everett: Oh, is it [laughter]? I think that there’s something special about working with women because you feel cared for and that they’re giving you the opportunity to jump off a ledge and trust in yourself in a way that you might not feel otherwise. I really value the experience of getting to work with them. I also like the literal shoes and the pants that Harry wore; just getting to show up to work in basically what you would wear around the house, no bra or some sort of bra. Like, tickle fest with your gal pals. That’s how it felt being Harry: like a big slumber party without the booze. But, you know, sometimes you gotta show up sober [laughter].

Konner: We worked with Bridget on “Girls.” She came in for one episode, and we wrote two of the lines, and you wrote all the rest of them. So, we truly knew that she had this gift. One of the reasons we were so excited to hire her, besides her talent and all of that, was that we knew this was a specific thing she could do very well, which was improvisation. And it’s very character-based. She’s not doing it for the joke. She’s doing it from Harry.

How scientific is the casting process?

Konner: I think it’s like a writer’s room. You really try to feel the chemistry between people, and we were lucky enough also to get to do rehearsals for a few days. That sort of cemented their relationships; and the cast got along very well. They wouldn’t go back to their trailers. They would sit in a chair and talk to each other. It was a very good, friendly group.