Interview: Dan Bucatinsky on Letting Billy’s Star Shine and the 20-Year Journey of Working with Lisa Kudrow on ‘The Comeback’
The Comeback is a show that returns once a decade – bringing Valerie Cherish and Billy Stanton back to the small screen three times in the past twenty years for its third and final (?) season – and graces us with another era that incisively satirizes the current television landscape.
This year has been no different now that season three has come out, the final season, and has put its lead Valerie Cherish in the center of an AI-written television show. On top of her dealing with everything that comes about because of this, she also has to deal with her agent, Billy (Emmy winner Dan Bucatinsky, Scandal), who is on his way to becoming how Valerie used to be: selfish and only for himself. Billy has found his way in the world this season, making hot lists of creatives, and even staging an apology to Val with a camera crew in tow.
I sat down and spoke to Bucatinsky, who has served as an executive producer since the first season, about the role, coming this far with Billy, what his favorite outfit of the season was, and his friendship with Lisa Kudrow.
Tyler Doster: What does it feel like to get to return to a character like Billy every decade or so?
Dan Bucatinsky: Oh, my god, what a gift. Honestly, talk about not being able to predict what’s going to happen with a character you fall in love with and a show that you fall in love with and for the unexpected to continuously surprise us. The idea of coming back to play Billy in season two was such a gift, and then the notion, 10 years later, to get to become Billy again and examine what’s happened to him after 20 years, and in such a thoughtful way. Michael and Lisa, who wrote all episodes of The Comeback, really spent time thinking about how Billy has evolved from the shoving, impulsive, petulant publicist he was in season one to the kind of petulant, self-hating, I quit kind of baby that he was in season two. And then imagining where is he season three and how does a little opportunity blow him up the way it does in season three?
And it really was so gratifying. Do I respect the way Billy behaved in season three? No. But I think Billy has been looking for his moment for a very long time. And who has his role model been for 20 years? His client, Valerie Cherish. So it kind of is delightful and fun and also kind of touching to see this guy who in a way is having his coming out story in season three, in his 50s, 20 years late where I think ultimately what happens to Billy is he becomes Valerie Cherish from season one. In other words, all that growth that we’ve seen Valerie make, Billy has a long way to go. But I feel like we leave Billy at the end of the series at exactly where we found Valerie in season one. And it’s just kind of a fun, delicious way to play that.
But I also feel like there’s a lot about Billy that’s about why the gay community responds to The Comeback in the first place. This is a person who is attracted to glamour and to somebody who is aching to be heard and seen. And there’s something about the comeback and about Valerie that sort of speaks to that. And I think Billy is the representative of that.
TD: Does that mean that you had more fun playing Billy this season since you got to in a lot of ways become Valerie?
DB: Yes. I mean, it was really fun. I’ll tell you, it’s hard to play someone who’s shirking their responsibility as much as they are. I certainly was a partner of Lisa Kudrow’s and we produced together and we were both executive producers of many shows in 15 years together. And I read all my emails. Whereas Billy is really looking for his opportunity to shine. He’s looking for the parking space and the perks and the money and what this opportunity is going to buy him. He’s not looking to be a good producer and make a good television show. And he’s certainly not a good partner to Valerie when she needs one, but that was fun to play, believe it or not. Not to mention getting to wear those fun skirts. I mean, skirts are breezy. I didn’t realize it.
TD: That is actually something I was going to bring up with you is that Billy’s style this season is fun. It’s hilarious. What was your favorite wardrobe that you got to wear this season?
DB: No question, the most fun was the star Billy on the red carpet. I worked hand in hand with Audrey Fisher, our amazing costume designer and Tom Broker, in coming up with a look for Billy for the red carpet along with Michael Patrick King that was not going to seem like drag but also feel gender bending and also feel like that grows out of his desire to wear these skirts and to have his hair up high. And there’s this butterfly peacock thing happening with Billy that I think was really fun to play. But getting to wear those leather pants and that tutu and the bustier and the tuxedo shirt, all of it seemed of a piece that was both masculine and feminine and really trying to just exude stardom. And that was really fun.
TD: I was hoping that would be your favorite outfit. That was easily my favorite costume that he wore.
DB: I’ll tell you, those seven-inch platform heels were far more comfortable than I thought they were going to be.
TD: How long did it take you to get ready for that? And what I mean by that is how long did it take them to get you into makeup?
DB: The makeup took about 45 minutes, but it took four people to get me buttoned into the corset, the tuxedo jacket, the tutu, the leather leggings, and the shoes because I wasn’t steady on my feet. So the whole thing took about an hour and it took about four different people.
TD: So it was a group effort to get you-
DB: It was a group effort. (laughs) Yeah.
TD: Is Billy someone that you learn more about when you’re not playing him through the decade or when you get back to playing him after when you get back to it?
DB: That’s a great question. I think I’ve come to understand Billy more having just played him thinking about because a lot of what Billy does this season is really unlikable. There’s a lot about Billy that’s unlikable in every season, the way he behaves and how threatened he gets so easily. But with some distance after having played him now for all three seasons, I feel like I have some compassion for him. So in other words, while I’m playing him, I don’t really want to play the ending of who he is. I think he’s feeling all the feelings in the moment and that’s what my job is in the moment.
But now that I’ve done it, I can look back and think, this is a guy who probably didn’t have an easy coming out story and is a guy who has put all of his eggs in the Valerie Cherish basket and has developed a jealousy and a self-confidence issue that the minute he gets a little bit of opportunity and a little bit of money, he sees his opportunity to come out in a whole new way. And I have to have some compassion for that guy.
TD: It seems like over the course of season three, almost every episode, Billy’s ego is getting bigger and bigger and his insecurities are becoming larger. Did you have a way that you wanted to convey that from episode to episode or was it more a natural progression for you?
DB: I feel like I’m going to give a shout-out again to Lisa [Kudrow] and Michael [Patrick King]. They wrote it in the script in a kind of lovely incremental way. Billy shows up in the first episode of season three.
He shows up in the first episode with this incredible news. I have been able to get you, as if he did it, an offer to be the star of a sitcom in the first AI sitcom. And the one little piece of that scene that was cut was that the offer they made was so much money. It was so much more than she’s ever gotten before. There was a little moment that was cut from the episode. You’re hearing it here for the first time where Billy shows Mark on his phone how much they’re willing to pay her. And she’s like, “For the whole thing?” And I go, “No, per episode.” And I think Billy is suddenly realizing, A, this may be my shot. And I think incrementally… And then when she says, “I’m not sure I want to be on the first AI written show.” And Billy almost starts crying.
I mean episode one, he’s got a big win for her. She says that she’s not sure she wants to take the meeting and he’s practically in tears. So he’s in a pretty weak and vulnerable petulant space in episode one that we’re familiar with from earlier seasons. And I think the minute she’s willing to take that meeting, which is happening in episode two and he shows up in that Tom Brown’s power skirt and he’s recognized by the head of the network saying, “Oh, Tom Brown.” He’s like, fuck yeah, I am feeling all the feelings.” I think starting in that moment, Billy is like, “Oh, nothing can stop me.” And I think at that point on, Billy is out for himself because only two episodes later, the next episode he misses the table reef because he didn’t have his own parking spot. So the bad behavior is almost instant.
You give him a little bit of leeway and a title, you give him billing, you give Billy billing and suddenly he is unstoppable and doesn’t care about the work. He cares about his parking spot and he cares about the 50 over 50 in Variety Magazine and he cares about starting his own reality show, which happens in episode six. So pretty quickly from two, three, four, five, six, and then in seven, he’s on the red carpet. They wrote a beautiful progression of that kind of ego hunger that Billy has.
TD: He quickly devolves over those episodes.
DB: It quickly devolves. And the hint I had that he was sort of chasing who Valerie was in season one was when he wants to have therapy with her to talk about the relationship and he uses it as an opportunity to bring his own reality crew to try to sell a couple’s therapy reality show. I was like, “Oh my God, this guy is Val from season one.”
TD: He is. The way he thinks about outer image is extremely reminiscent of Val.
DB: And opportunity. He’s like, “Oh, this could be my chance.” Chance to repair your relationship with Val or chance to be famous? It’s like, oh, it’s the latter.
TD: Yeah. Speaking of bringing up Billy bringing the AI to her, how does it feel to be on a series talking about AI when it’s such a hot button issue right now?
DB: Well, I loved our timing. I mean, I think Michael and Lisa connected over that subject matter right away. They knew that they were talking about something that was relevant and HBO, when we pitched it to them, they were like, “If you’re going to do this, you’ve got to do it right now.” And they were right because it feels very right now. But the thing I’m most proud of in the way that they crafted the season is that it wasn’t immediately… There was no agenda in bringing down AI or bringing down writers or saying that we are pro writers and against AI. It was like, this is what it would probably look like in the real world to make a show that’s purely written by AI.
Will it employ 200 people? Yes. Will there be an efficiency in the writing? Yes. Will there be glitches? Will there be a need for writers? Will there be an obvious lack of soul and humor and conflict that can only come from the human experience? Yes. So I loved the idea that we were able to present a more even-handed realistic look and what are the true challenges of that kind of technology to the creative process and what we are giving up when we say yes to it rather than just coming out of the gate like anti-AI, which is what you’d expect. So I kind of liked that we were giving an even-handed look at the realities of what would really happen and what feels inevitable.
TD: To sidestep subjects just a little bit, how many times did you get coffee thrown on you for episode seven?
DB: I had Michael Patrick King practice the latte in the face a day before we were going to shoot it. So I put on the real suit. We had a double or triple of that suit and we were trying to figure out how big of a cup and how close to me he would have to stand to get that thing. And I posted the practice on Instagram if anybody wants to see it on my Instagram feed. There’s a practice run where Michael throws the whole thing at me. It was freezing cold and oddly delicious. I don’t order those sweet iced latte drinks, so I oddly enjoyed it. And then on the day that we shot it, we only had to do it once.
We practiced it. We told Chris O’Donnell, who was the actor who did it, we told him what angle. We told him not to get Lisa in the face because we didn’t want to reset her wig and he got her on the clothes and he got me on the clothes and it got me in the face and we were able to do it in one. We were prepared to do it in two, but we did it in one.
TD: That’s awesome.
DB: But I had to deal with the practice run the day before, which was oddly delicious.
TD: What has your working relationship with Lisa Kudrow been like? I know you guys work on many things together, but specifically on The Comeback over the past three seasons, working on this show, how has it evolved for you?
DB: Well, we are friends first. We’ve been friends for 30 years. We had a company together for 15 years, so there’s a lot of history there, raised our kids together, have celebrated together, have worked together. So we put our friendship first always. Billy came onto the scene… I was producing The Comeback with her in season one, Billy only came onto the scene as a cast member in episode 10 out of 13. So it was near the end of the season and that was pre-Scandal. So I was a producer with her and we worked together collaboratively and I’m fiercely loyal and extremely impressed and inspired by Lisa’s talents. We’ve always worked really well together, but my job as a producer was very specific back then as her business partner. Season two, I was just on the tail end of an Emmy win for Scandal and I was doing a lot more acting and I came on board and was more of a partner as an EP as well as getting to play Billy in the episodes that Billy was in season two.
And Lisa and I remained partners. We were still business partners and making other shows at the same time. In fact, we made a show together called Web Therapy with my husband, Don Roos, which aired on showtime the same month that we premiered The Comeback season two in 2014. So we remained able very easily to balance our creative collaboration together with our friendship as well as the work on The Comeback.
I’ve always prioritized Lisa’s collaboration with Michael Patrick King. The two of them created this series together. They write the show together and I always understood that my job was in service to that. On camera, acting with Lisa is one of the greatest honors of my life. It really has been unbelievably challenging and inspiring and exciting when she becomes Valerie Cherish. Sometimes I’m in these scenes and I look at her and I know I’m Billy and I’m one of the closest members of her team in terms of who Valerie Cherish is, but sometimes Lisa locks in and I can’t believe how lucky I am to be in a scene with her. So there’s a lot of emotion that goes into that. And season three was just a really sweet… It was hard to play the scenes where we were in so much conflict with one another, but it was also very exciting to go head-to-head with her in these scenes both emotionally when she was angry with me and also emotionally when we were sort of saying goodbye to each other, that breakup.
So it’s a complicated answer because we have such a layered relationship, but I think working on The Comeback because I got to act so much with her, it was an extremely rewarding experience.
Dan Bucatinsky is Emmy-eligible in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for The Comeback.
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