True blue bloods in US
Aussie comedy No Activity has been given an American overhaul after being picked up by Will Ferrell’s production company. With a stellar cast on board, its co-creators Patrick Brammall and Trent O’Donnell tell DANIELLE McGRANE about re-making their show
No Activity is one of those shows, a comedy that feels tight and loose at the same time.
It’s clear its Australian actors, who include Patrick Brammall, had been given free rein to improvise while the shots and plot points seem expertly planned.
It’s the same attitude the show’s creators, Brammall and his co-executive producer Trent O’Donnell, seemed to employ as they decided to pitch their successful Australian show in the US.
The pair, believing their hilarious police procedural could cross the international divide, shopped it around to various US networks.
“Paddy and I sat down for a week or two and we sort of hashed out a version of an American story around No
Activity – we looked at what we could do that was a little bit different to the Australian one and something that was uniquely an American story,” O’ Donnell said.
They came up with a well- rehearsed pitch, garnished with some loose, yet rehearsed, Aussie humour to give them an edge.
“We went and pitched it at maybe 10 places. We told the same jokes in every meeting and then started to get a bit of interest,” O’Donnell said.
After a few offers, the pair went with Ferrell’s Funny or Die production company, with a view to stream it on CBS All Access.
It’s a TV fairytale story, with Ferrell as the Fairy Godmother, but the pair did come armed with two successful seasons of the Australian version tucked under their belt.
No Activity, starring Brammall and a host of Australian comic names including Darren Gilshenan, Genevieve Morris and Rose Byrne, had already hit funny bones Down Under.
“Because there were two existing seasons already, we could show the tone of the show. It’s an anti-procedural if anything, and when you’re moving an idea from one country to another, stuff can absolutely be lost in translation. So while I was trying to tell an American story we also wanted to retain the comic sensibility of the show, that was the key thing,” Brammall said.
The show has been tweaked somewhat, the pair joke about saying “trunk” instead of “boot” and “soda” instead of “drink”, but they have changed some characters and location to make it work in a new environment.
“The story here is set in San Diego and it’s a series of duos, so like the Australian version we’ve got cops, we’ve got dispatch and we’ve got criminals,” Brammall said.
“On the criminal side of it, we’ve got two guys in a warehouse and they’re waiting on a shipment, they’re working for a Mexican cartel. But we’ve got another duo digging a drug tunnel from under the border from Tijuana to pop up in San Diego. So that makes it very much the sort of thing that would only happen in America.”
Brammall plays pretty much the same role he does in the Australian No Activity, but this time with an American accent. His partner is played by Saturday Night Live alumni Tim Meadows, while US comedy actress Amy Sedaris is in dispatch. A host of major US actors have signed up for the other roles, including Oscar winner J. K. Simmons and Bridget Everett. “It’s a pretty great cast. We didn’t anticipate we’d get such a red-hot cast in terms of profile actors,” Brammall said.
As they prepare for the show to go live in the US, Brammall and O’Donnell barely have time to reflect on this transnational journey, but they are, basically, now living out their American dream.
“To work in America is great but to be able to make your own thing in America is greater,” O’Donnell said.