Adlon applies singular vision to Better Things
Pamela Adlon can’t fully process what’s happening.
The second season of her semiautobiographical FX comedy, Better Things, premièred last week — a nerve-inducing situation.
“How did I get here?” she says during a recent sit-down in Beverly Hills. “I’ve been working my whole life as an actor. I never thought I’d get to this place.”
Better Things, which Adlon, 51, co-created with her longtime collaborator Louis C.K., features Adlon as Sam Fox, a working actor and single mother of three daughters. The first season earned acclaim for its refreshing and hilariously honest depiction of someone trying to figure out how to navigate the pothole-filled roads of parenthood and work and a personal life.
Adlon produces, stars, cowrites and, this season, directs every episode.
We spoke with the New York native about her approach to Season 2, her own growing pains as a parent and the reason for all those toilet shots.
Q: Heading into Season 2, what did you know for sure you wanted to explore?
A: I started thinking about everything last October. All these inspirations just started happening, and I talked to Louis about it. There’s a lot of changes happening with her kids and who they are as a family. We’ll see more of Sam’s mom. And we go deeper with characters you maybe wouldn’t have expected. Then there’s Sam’s love life that we wanted to hit a bit harder and make it all as complicated as it really is.
Q: What opportunities did that present, given that Sam is someone who is used to being on her own?
A: She’s used to being in control of her time and her feelings, because things with her kids and her mother are so out of control all the time. It’s like also does she have enough space to date with somebody brand new ... Then at the end of the day, feeling like she screwed it all up, and she doesn’t deserve it. That’s sad.
Q: In terms of the kids, what was the objective this season? We left off with one of Sam’s daughters, Frankie (Hannah Alligood), questioning her gender identity.
A: It was just so fun to be able to go deeper and then to not tie things up neatly about Frankie. She’s so young. You know what I mean? She’s the way I was. … Look at all the TV shows I did in the ’80s. Every single part, I was a boy, or playing a boy, or a girl who wanted to be a boy. One of my daughters … she was, like, a boy for four straight years. Everybody is very like, “You have to get a sponsor; it’s going to be this way.” No, it’s not. We don’t know. And that’s OK.
With all the girls, it’s just so amazing to see how they’ve grown and how much range they show. Their performances are just incredible.
Q: What is it like for Sam to reach this stage where her kids are seeking more independence — and where she’s trying to figure out who she is outside of them?
A: When your kids stop being your excuse or your only focus and you have to start living for yourself — I mean, it’s the only reason I am where I am right now, is because my kids got a little bit older, and they got a foothold, and I had said no to so many things for so many years. And then I finally started really investing time into myself professionally; stuff that I had sacrificed for a long time. That’s what I’m doing now, and that’s why it’s paying off in the way that it is. My daughters understand that. They know how hard I’m working.