Liz elaborated, saying, “Back with Dead to Me, with Christina Applegate, I don’t think people had thought of her as a dramatic actress. And she was incredible. I think that was such a positive experience working with somebody who, I think, was seen one way, like from sitcoms, who then was allowed and given the material to really show her range. I was like, I want to keep doing that.
So with Lisa and Ray, it was an incredible experience to get to go to those depths with them. Lydia is much closer to Lisa than a lot of her other characters that she’s played. Lisa’s a brilliant intellect. It takes somebody that intelligent to play somebody like Phoebe [from Friends]. She’s so smart and has so much soul and depth. I didn’t even really quite know how to say it to her, but I was like, ‘I think that there’s a lot of you in this part already. I don’t think this is about reaching for something you need to find.’
And Ray, just immediately related to this guy who is trying to live a normal life. He’s just being put upon and pressurized. Ray has three sons of his own, too. He was just effortless in the way that he approached the work, and yet he worked so incredibly hard. He wrote a whole backstory for his character and shared it with me.”
Liz added, “It’s a real pleasure to be able to give actors material that challenges them, stretches them, but also showcases them for all of their dynamics.
Of course, nothing beats Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond, right? But that’s its own thing. I love sitcoms. I love working in multi-cams, but this is just a different thing. And once you’ve lived long enough and you’ve got some sort of grittier stories to tell, it just feels incredible to be able to tell them with actors who are this good.”
