The Paper is an ensemble cast, but the TTT wouldn’t be the same without its fearless leader, Ned, and its organized compositor, Mare, holding down the fort.
Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Domhnall Gleeson and Chelsea Frei about the upcoming season of the sitcom and their characters.
A central part of The Paper Season 2 is Ned and Mare’s blossoming romance, though it ends up being much more complicated than either of them anticipates.
“From Ned’s point of view, he doesn’t know how to care so much about two different things at the same time,” Gleeson remarked.
“He doesn’t know how to handle the fact that he wants to give 24 hours a day to the newspaper and 24 hours a day, if it was up to him, with this beautiful, brilliant person who he thinks is the best thing that’s ever happened to him.”
From Gleeson’s perspective, the impossible never quite deters Ned, even though he’s “in over his head immediately.”
He views Ned as an optimist and added, “He thinks he can make those two things work. And I think that we find out how difficult he actually finds that as it goes along.”
Frei offered Mare’s perspective on the relationship, saying she is “riding the high” of the awards-night kiss.
“I think as this season goes on, we see quite a dramatic shift from her. I think she’s starting to branch out, even if she doesn’t totally want to, and has to find ways to be a bit more independent,” Frei shared.
Even though Ned and Mare’s relationship is a primary focus of the season, both actors get their time to shine individually.
Ned, in particular, gets some great physical comedy moments, such as fighting a food service robot on his and Mare’s weekend retreat.
When I brought up this topic, Gleeson joked, “I wasn’t trying to do physical comedy. I think I just have a funny-shaped body and every now and again, things happen, and whatever way I react unfortunately turns out funny.”
He referenced a clip from The Pink Panther when Peter Sellers tries to take a pool cue out of a whole rack of pool cues, triggering an onslaught of them falling onto him.
Laughing, Gleeson added, “I can never be that funny. But my dream is one day doing something similarly great. So yes, it’s nice to take a swing at those things.”
For Frei, something that she enjoyed exploring was Mare’s personal life outside of work.
“Mare has kind of lived her life as a lone wolf,” she said. “So I think it’s funny that as a shy person, she also has this doc crew following her around and having to come over to her home.”
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“I don’t think she ever wants anybody in her home. I love that episode. I think it’s a fun kind of window into her life.”
Frei isn’t the only actor on The Paper interested in exploring their character’s personal life.
When I spoke with Sabrina Impacciatore, who portrays Esmeralda Grand, she also mentioned an interest in exploring her character’s life outside of work.
“I love when she interacts with her son because she’s a one-of-a-kind mom,” Impacciatore remarked. “I hope we’ll have more [of that], maybe in a future season.”
The Paper Season 2 also taps into Esmeralda’s emotional side as she loses her high-ranking position at work and has to cope with her new status.
Impacciatore shared her excitement about exploring this part of her character, saying, “I love the possibility to give a depth to a funny character, and I love to see that she’s vulnerable, and she’s somehow aggressive.”
In particular, she felt drawn to exploring “the wounds” of her character, saying she was so shocked when reading the script that she jumped up from her seat.
“It was very interesting to see how someone who is in power suddenly loses it, and tries to hide what’s really going on inside of her,” she added. “For the first time, she tries to do something for other people.”
Despite feeling close to the character, she acknowledged that she and Esmeralda are quite different.
“Esmeralda is very manipulative, and before playing her, I didn’t know anything about manipulation,” she said. “In real life, I’m a very innocent person, and I protected this innocence for my entire life.”
Impacciatore initially struggled to relate to Esmeralda, but she found a point of view that helped her understand the character.
“She feels threatened. She feels that everybody could make her lose what she has in life. I don’t think she is someone obsessed with power. I think she’s a single mom who tries to stay in this country where she loves the life.”
Although Esmeralda largely operates as a lone wolf, Impacciatore said she’d like to see her interact more with the TTT journalists.
She added, “With Ned, I would like to explore that weird competition [with Esmeralda] that is mixed with admiration. It’s a complex feeling when you admire someone, but at the same time, you feel threatened.”
Whether it’s Esmeralda’s struggle for recognition or Ned and Mare’s blossoming relationship, it’s clear the actors are invested in their characters and have ideas for what they’d like to see more of if The Paper gets another season.
The Paper Season 2 is available to stream on Peacock.
Check out our review of The Paper Season 2 here, as well as our interviews with the cast and crew!
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The post The Paper’s Domhnall Gleeson, Chelsea Frei & Sabrina Impacciatore Talk Physical Comedy, Complicated Romances & More appeared first on TV Fanatic.