A TALE OF LOVE, APPS, AND DIVORCE

TAFFY Brodesser

Akner made a name for herself as an incisive celebrity profiler, but on her odyssey from journalist to TV-show creator, she was startled to realize, “I’m not as good at my job as I thought.”

In 2019, BrodesserAkner published Fleishman Is in Trouble, a seriocomic novel about a newly divorced New York doctor who discovers that he’s a hot commodity on the apps. When FX bought it (the series premieres on Hulu on Nov. 17), she insisted on adapting the book herself.

When she first had dinner with her cast, including Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, Lizzy Caplan, and Adam Brody, “The way they started talking, I was stunned. I was like, ‘Nobody ever spoke to me this way when I profiled them. Nobody told me anything real.’ ”

When she first saw some of the book’s sexual content brought to life, “I was shocked. And then I decided, ‘You did this, sister.

This is the vision of the show.’ ” That’s not to say she’s not nervous about the premiere. “I could say to my mother, ‘It’s not that dirty a book.’ But I cannot say to my children, ‘It’s not that dirty a show.’ My children are going to have to leave the premiere before the screening starts.”