Mark Duplass, Mel Eslyn and Megan Stott discuss the journey of bringing the drama to life, behind the scenes and into the future [Interview]

For decades Mark Duplass has repeatedly dipped its toe into the water of almost all media, be it on screen (“Creep“”The Morning Show“), as Director (“Cyrus“”Jeff, who lives at home“) or as a producer of the huge number of titles that are in the library Duplass Brothers Productions. Now with a creative partner Mel Eslyn (“biosphere“) the duo has brought a new show to life, “Penelope“, which made an impression at Sundance earlier this year and is now at home Netflix. With star Megan Stott (“Little fires everywhere“) the series follows a teenage girl who escapes society to start a new life. Along the way, she meets a handful of colorful characters and learns so much about herself and what she needs to survive (read our review).

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Brian Farvor of The Playlist sat down with this wonderful trio to discuss the show. Duplass discussed the four-year journey of bringing “Penelope” to life, saying:

“During the pandemic I was isolated and wanted to express some of my tireless creative brain and I sort of stumbled upon this idea of Penelope, not in any intellectual way; I was struck by this vision of a 16-year-old girl running into the woods to start a new life, and I think what I realized now is that it made me wish I had to do all that of us to detach not only from our phones and our addiction to technology, but also from the ability to simply be with ourselves in the spirit of peace, which we have lost.

I was touring as a singer-songwriter and living in my van. This was before cell phones, and I spent two or three days not talking to anyone! I can’t do that anymore because I have my phone as a crutch, and Penelope strangely reflects that. It also came about when I did this little reality show called “Alone“And what I found and discovered is that not only was I fascinated by it, but my children, my parents, my wife were fascinated; We are always struggling with our family and friends to find something to share and watch. So the idea was to make a show that could contribute to that and be a role model for my daughters.

I decided, okay, let’s go ahead and drive this thing around town and start the bidding war for this unique, original show, which didn’t happen; Some people were interested in doing it, but only if we changed it drastically, and some people were very nice and said, “This is beautiful and unique and poetic, and are you crazy?” We can’t do it unless it’s a murder in the first 30 seconds!’ Then our only option was to self-finance, and we just said, ‘Let’s do it,’ and then I actually handed the project over to Mel, who agreed to direct all of these episodes!”

Eslyn: “What Mark first suggested to me really appealed to me because I grew up in the woods in Wisconsin; we never went on vacation; We went camping several times a year. My father, a gardener, raised me, and when I was 17 I went on my first backpacking trip to the Boundary Waters area. So it spoke to a part of me that, unfortunately, I had actually distanced myself from. I live between Seattle and LA, so being in the city, I have these moments where I catch myself feeling my heart hurt. And when I really think about it, it’s because I stayed away from nature, not touching grass or stepping my bare feet on dirt.

There was something very fulfilling about Penelope’s story and I could see what I could bring to it, being a 16-year-old girl myself. And I love the idea of exploring that primalism that we all carry within us, but through the eyes of a teenage girl at the very moment she’s trying to define who she is.”

Stott: “I remember when I was first sent the script and I had never read or seen anything like it. It was something that I just felt so connected to. “Penelope” is very close to my heart because I grew up like the rest of us. I went camping every weekend. My mother taught me blacksmithing. We went camping, hiking, fishing, and literally tried whatever we could do in nature.

When I read the scripts, I immediately said, “This is going to be different.” This will change young people’s perspective on life and hopefully inspire some people. My main thought was, “I want this to be something that young people can look up to and realize that it’s okay to have something different in their life and want something different.”

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As for getting the role:

Stott: “I was so excited about something so new and something so different and to see it where it is now. It literally feels like it was yesterday when we shot it. I couldn’t be more proud of the work we’ve all done.”

In addition to the foraging courses and Stott’s prior knowledge of the skill, on-set preparation and training were crucial:

Eslyn: “I wanted to be knowledgeable so I could point and say, ‘You can eat this.’ I learned how to build my own shelters, and I had a notebook of drawings that I then handed to the production designer and said, “She’s going to build this.” Then literally the day we got the supplies, they left, or the day before in the area where we were filming and gave Megan instructions and she came in and did some of the building. We went away and they built a little more. But it was all the supplies around us, and 50% of it was Megan actually building these things herself.”

Stott: “I didn’t really have Instagram until I was 16, in my first job. I didn’t have YouTube. I didn’t have Vine. I had none of it. So I felt very distant. I always wanted other things, that’s why I’m an actress now. Obviously I wanted completely different things than everyone else. But it was definitely something I really worked on. I spoke to Mel about her thoughts and we exchanged ideas, which was really nice. The further we got, the more everything developed and we were able to have these conversations. So it was really nice.”

On some of her own challenges on set:

Stott: “I was a little cold! I wanted to portray this girl in a beautiful light, but also very emotionally real, as a complicated, curious and naive person. Juggling it all at once was probably the hardest part for me. I had to make sure I represented her properly in her struggles, how she strengthens herself, and how she learns to do certain things.”

After reflecting on the intimidation of filming in the Pacific Northwest and the fun of dealing with wildfires, torrential rains, bears and even a cougar, Duplass took the time to discuss his views on the series’ use of supporting characters:

Duplass: “Personally, I’m a little tired of the way television is structured. We’re just taught by executives that in order to keep the audience’s attention span short, we just have to bring in more and more storylines and bring them in earlier and earlier and make them bigger and bigger. I believe that in doing so we risk destroying any possibility of subtlety and patience.

So for us it was all about keeping these things separate and creating a lot of time in between. In particular, I think our expectations teach us that bad things will happen, for example when a young girl returns to the van of a musician she meets at a club (as seen in Episode 1). But in our world, in Penelope’s world, which is very similar to the world of backpacking, camping and hiking that I know very well, there is a world of kindness and connection. It’s a world where you look people in the eye and there are no phones anywhere, and trust is given and trust is received. And so I think these characters are intentionally meant to represent a little bit of how things could be. And in my experience, in some areas of society they still are.”

When asked about the possibility of a second season, Duplass replied:

“We have a few seasons in mind and we know what we want to do and we know what we want to do. And we hope enough people come to see it so I don’t have to pay out of pocket again next time!”

The Playlist Presents – Mark Duplass, Mel Eslyn and Megan Stott’s Movie/TV/Book/Music Recommendation Playlist:

1.) “How To with John Wilson” (HBO) (Mark’s Choice)
2.) “Painting with John” (HBO) (Mark’s Choice)
3.) “Perfect days” (2023) – Director Wim Wenders (Mark’s choice)
4.) “The fearful generation” (2024) – Written by Jonathan Haidt (Mel’s choice)
5.) “His three daughters” (2023) – Director Azazel Jacobs (Mel’s choice)
6.) “New girl” (Hulu) (Megan’s Choice)
7.) “High potential” (Hulu) (Megan’s Choice)
8.) “Hunting for good will” (1997) – Director Gus Van Sant (Megan’s choice)
9.) “Society of Dead Poets” (1989) – Director Peter Weir (Megan’s choice)
10.) Hozier (Megan’s choice)

This interview has been edited for clarity. “Penelope” is currently streaming on Netflix.

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