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Hello?
- Hi. - Hi.
What's going on?
What, didn't you call me?
Uh, nope.
- Michael? - Yeah?
Did you call David?
Yes, well, I did try to call, but then I changed my mind.
Why?
Well, it occurred to me if I wanted to endure
a deluge of vacuous crap,
I could just put my head in the toilet.
- He said, er... - Yeah, I heard him, yeah.
He just needs to vent to someone.
Oh, and you can tell him that, if you like,
the toilet thing.
Right.
OK. If you...
could go anywhere in the world,
where would you go?
Oh! Erm...
- Cambodia. - Yes.
- The food, the culture. - Yep.
It's so unfamiliar.
There's a temple in the hills,
and it's the quietest place
I have ever been.
Who are you talking to?
Anna.
Oh! Tell her to tell him he's a twat!
Where would you go?
I think...
I would take a road trip around Europe.
That's intrepid.
I'd start in Austria.
I love Austria.
Then I'd go Czechoslovakia,
then Poland.
Yeah, that's the route the Nazis took.
Right, that... that isn't why I suggested
- those countries. - No.
Maybe I'd go on to Paris.
That's just making it worse.
Did you tell him...
about the... shit in the ears?
- I heard that! - What?!
I heard you!
Have you heard of the Bechdel test?
- No. - Right.
Well, it's the measurement of whether a scene
features at least two women talking to each other
about something other than a man.
Tell Michael
I never want to speak to him ever again
as long as I might live.
Tell David that's the best news that I've heard all day.
_
Can you hear me from over there?
OK.
It's just, I don't know,
it's hard, you're only in the corner of mine,
but maybe it's... maybe I could do something... Anyway.
You want to... you want to read it, read through it?
There's not really any point.- Oh.
They're reworking the Michael character, doing rewrites.
Oh...
Why?
Cos he's a psychopath.
Sorry, are you not kidding?
I can't see your face very well.
Is that a joke? Why do you say he's a psychopath?
Well, have you read the script, Jim?
- Yes, I've read the script. - There you go, then.
- I like this a lot. - Really?
- OK. - OK, see,
I... To me, David,
the character of Michael, it just seems very real.
He's entirely implausible.
Well, no, I mean, like, in a comedy way
he's, like, heightened. It's exaggerated for comedy.
What he is is a fucking arsehole, that's what he is.
- I didn't get that. He's an asshole. - Yeah.
That's so fascinating to me, it's not...
Where...
where do you see the asshole in this?
No, no, he's not an interesting arsehole.
That doesn't make him enigmatic and complicated.
He's an entirely
featureless arsehole.
He's a vanilla arsehole.
He's the most featureless vanilla arsehole
you could ever come across.
I wonder,
could you be more specific,
like, about what's in here that...
that reads asshole to you?
I need a toehold.
Well, he says I look pox-ridden.
OK, pox-ridden. Yeah?
Then he compares me to a Muppet.
Yeah!
Which is the comedy bit...
Yeah, I mean, it's...
I guess it's harsh.
- Asshole. - Says that my eyes tire.
But I think, I mean, it's just kind of fun playing.
We're just kind of... We all put out something that, like, we...
we give something of ourself to the process that we allow
to be made fun of without hurting too much,
and, I mean, your eyes are a little bloodshot.
- Oh, right. - From here.
Are they portals to a barren, parched, arid landscape?
Are they?
What, can you see the scorched earth there?
Have you got that?
No, I don't see...
I think that's definitely something they'll have to add later
in post, in edit.
I mean, you're not even playing the part.
- I don't... - Well, no, of course.
Look, here's what I think it is.
I think what you're responding to in Michael
is the way he's...
- lashing out. - Lashing out?
Yes.
Because his feelings are hurt.
Right.
Jim, have you even read the script?
David, have you?
Cos we're not seeing the same thing at all.
I've read all of my bits.
David lied to him.
Well, only in the show.
Yes, you lied to him in the...
What are we talking about?
Nothing. That's it.
- OK. - Yeah.
So Michael is hurting because he feels disconnected
from his best friend.
Well...
Yes. And it's very sweet to me.
I mean, Michael is defined by David,
and he doesn't have him right now.
And David is defined by Michael.
This symbiotic relationship.
People love this kind of thing.
It's symbiotic, like a warthog and a mongoose.
Which one am I?
I don't know, David.
This didn't go like I thought it would.
You know what? Oh, my God,
I forgot that
my phone... is ringing.
I don't hear your phone.
OK, he's not talking to Michael.
Yeah, and when he doesn't talk to Michael,
he talks to me. At me.
- OK. - Do you like bats, Simon?
- Bats? - Bats.
Yeah, he's a bit like a bat,
just sort of...
spraying out white noise,
echolocating,
triangulating my position
with his inane bollocks.
Do you have a cupboard?
Have you tried hiding?
OK, you need to fix this.
Why do I need to fix this?
- Because you broke it. - How did-I-break it?
Because you left them here.
- Not deliberately! - No?!
- No! - No?
No.
OK, Simon, there is a call that you scheduled today with them.
Yeah? What's it about?
Just notes on the script from the other actors.
OK, so you just need to get them talking.
- Right. - So you need to try being...
bright...
and enthusiastic
and... What are you doing?
I'm writing down "bright and enthusiastic".
OK, Simon,
are you going to able to handle this?
Yes, yes, I can handle this.
David and Michael, they just need...
They have to start talking.
David called me a mollusc.
- You've been called worse. - I've not.
You fucking should have been.
Um, Michael is a sadist.
And David is a soggy paper bag.
I mean...
I think the pressing note was that Michael comes across as...
an impossible character.
Nobody could be that
ludicrously revolting.
But can I... can I just stop you there?
Because what's interesting is, from the people
who were reading with me,
they felt that they wanted to see
the Michael character
be more punishing of the David character,
that if he is going to be that
needy, and whingy,
and moany
that they wanted to see Michael come in harder with him,
like, to really, like, give it to him
because he needs...
he needs to be shaken like a rag doll.
Michael, do you want to shake David?
It's not me. Hey, these are just characters.
Got nothing to do me. I am neutral in this.
Interesting. Cos the people I was reading with
had very much the directly opposite experience.
They were... They found this boorish bully,
this unpleasant... who loved the sound of his own voice.
- OK. - That's the feedback.
I'm just giving you an honest appraisal.
Thank you, David. Thank you.
And, Michael...
Just a vessel, just giving you what was said.
Maybe, Michael, would you like to say thank you to David?
Would you like to thank David for his honesty?
Merci beaucoup to you.
David, would you like to thank Michael for his honesty?
That didn't feel very sincere.
So I don't want to... I don't want to get involved in this.
I think it... I think it trivialises something quite important.
OK, well, there's... there's
a lot to be getting on with.
Time for a lot of that.
But I can...
It's food for thought, isn't it?
Where are you?
I'm... in my house.
You're not in your kitchen.
No.
I'm in my spare room.
The baby's asleep in the kitchen.
Uh, shit.
I sort of need you to be in your kitchen. I prepared it...
I prepared it that way
for you to be doing it in your kitchen,
and I'd be doing it where I feel most comfortable.
Well, I'm so sorry, Josh, but...
our baby didn't sleep at all last night,
and then she just fell asleep in the kitchen.
So if you can work with it being in the spare room
rather than the kitchen, I would be very appreciative.
- All right. - OK.
OK. I can act wherever.
- I don't need that, I guess. - Thank you.
Fine. Let's go. Let's go.
But, you know, I don't think you needed to learn it.
I learn things.
That's what I do.
Look at me.
Yeah. Yeah.
So maybe I held some things back,
but only because I have found
in my time with Michael that....
Fuck's sake, man.
For fuck's sake.
What?
This is serious.
- Yeah, I'm sorry. - This.
I'm being serious, I'm being serious.
- I'm sorry. - Let's go again. Let's go again.
I wanted to avoid any hold-up.
Let's not play the blame game.
Stay with me.
That's it. Stay with me.
You know,
as our time was so limited.
- Let's not start doing that. - Now, let's take it somewhere else.
OK?
Doing what?
Er... Pointing fingers?
That's it. And I throw you the ball.
Sorry, what do you want me to do?
Fucking make it up, OK?
Improvisation,
I believe it's called.
I'm really tired.
Look at me. Look at me.
- I don't want to! - Look at me!
I'm David.
I'm David,
I've called you every name under the sun.
You've taken it,
taken it like a wee big baby.
You've just taken it...
to call you oversensitive.
Do you know what? Do you know what?
You don't know the meaning
of oversensitive.
You're like a fucking walking nerve end...
Everything upsets you.
I mean, I want to be there for you.
But not a day goes by
that something isn't gnawing
at your stupid, stupid brain!
You know, I could cope when it was about the big things, you know,
when your daily existential panic attacks
were about a fucking plague!
But now the summit of your concerns seems to be,
"Oh, I can't use the dining room for my phone call," or,
"Oh, I didn't know there was a family calendar."
And that's fine. You know, that's fine.
But don't get on a video call
with your stupid hangdog eyes
and whine and whine and...!
Look, if it helps you to expunge,
then fucking God bless
and go for it. But I don't work that way!
I want to be there for...
God knows I want to be there for all my friends.
I don't want to be here for them.
I want to be there for them.
Do you know what I'd like?
As if you'd ever fucking ask.
I would like
just to hug someone,
because I'm struggling, too.
And listening to your agony aunt,
spoken-word, self-indulgent,
self-help, shit undergrad, beat poem
is fucking killing me!
That was fucking wild.
I just wondered whether you were ever going to come out.
Am I a warthog or a mongoose?
I don't know. Er...
- I guess you'd be the mongoose. - Oh, fuck you!
All right, fine, be the warthog.
I thought you meant physically.
It's better than being Rafiki.
Which one's Rafiki?
He's the baboon.
Just call the fucking warthog.
I have become needy.
I've stopped listening.
- I just want to get back to normal. - I know.
Can't go out, can't stay in, can't go to work.
It's like every shred of normality
is now smeared in shit.
I feel trapped.
What, in these little digital boxes?
Yes.
I fucking hate them.
Oh, I hate them.
Staring at your face all day.
Well, yes, I have to stare at my face, too,
grinning like a fucking loon.
Like, I grin, like, "Are you funny?
"I find you funny. So fucking funny!"
A smile I don't believe in any more!
You know,
I haven't smiled properly in months.
I'm clamping my jaw so hard,
it's giving me headaches.
My masseter muscles are like fucking walnuts.
How long have we been here?
What, in this hellscape,
- pixel-mirror, time dungeon? - Yes.
A million years.
Really?
Mm.
How do we escape?
I don't know.
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