LAist Interview: "Weeds" Creator, Jenji Kohan on Season 4

Last season on Showtime's "Weeds" Nancy Botwin poured gas on the furniture and burned her 'little box' down. Now she and her family jumped in their van to head south. On June 16, we will finally get a chance to see where they all end up.

LAist asked "Weeds" creator, Jenji Kohan, about the fresh take on the show, the new cast members, and if Kat will be making an appearance in season 4.

LAist: Albert Brooks is joining the cast. How cool is that?!

Jenji Kohan: How exciting is that?! He's so good. And he's such a good actor. The thing that is amazing is that he sounds just like Albert Brooks when you talk to him. It's just like him, the voice you've been hearing on your screen all these years.

In the New York Times, Albert Brooks said about deciding to do the part on "Weeds", "They called. I like the show, and that's the most important thing. It's really good writing." That's had to make your day.

Oh my god, it's huge. He is such an idol for so many of us. And you are always afraid to meet your heroes, that they will disappoint and he doesn't disappoint.

Can you tell us who else has been added to the cast?

Julie Bowen will be joining us this year. Lee Majors will be making an appearance. We have a wonderful actor playing our Latin American love interest named Demian Bichir, who also plays Castro in the new Soderbergh film.

Who is covering "Little Boxes" this season?

No more "Little Boxes".

What?

She's left her little box. It doesn't apply anymore. It was a remnant. It had to go.

Can you tell us what you are doing for theme music?

We are not having a song. We will have thematic title cards that go with each episode and get right into it.

That's a big change. Is Gwendolyn Sanford in the music credits the same Gwendolyn from the Good Time Gang?

Sure is. Gwendolyn Sanford and Brandon Jay are our composers and have been for three years. They are fantastic.

They write music for "Weeds" during the week and play for little kids on the weekend?

Yes and sometimes we use the little kid songs in really inappropriate places in the show. We have corrupted our kids music. During Silas's sex scene we used "Hey Little Monkey" and we used "Sunny Day" for the porn episode.

Gwendolyn and Brandon are so talented. They are amazing. When we need a song, they whip it up out of thin air. Their cues are always inventive and interesting. We really found them because our kids love their music so much. Gwendolyn and Brandon threw in with a bunch of very established composers and beat them all out. They are the find of the century. We feel really lucky.

Last year at the end of the season Nancy's house and the town of Agrestic burned down. This season your characters move further south. Why did you want to make such a drastic change to the show?

I think a lot of it was my writers' room was getting restless. There was a lot of talk about pilots we wanted to do when the season was over. I got nervous. I didn't want to lose my people. They are so good. We are in such a good place. The notion was to bring all of this creative energy to our show. If it means changing things up then let's change things and keep it fresh for ourselves.

Also it is an election year. Immigration is a huge topic. We want to be in the eye of the storm and get in there and talk about the border, Mexico, free trade, immigration and really be part of the zeitgeist. We took a field trip to the border. It was fascinating. In just the two days we were there, we heard so many stories. Based on what we observed, we really felt we were in the right place.

Last season Nancy started to learn about trafficking. Now that she will be living closer to the boarder, is it time to start really worrying about her?

Sure absolutely. It is the first time she will have to move out of the moral gray areas and maybe be confronted with some things that are just black and white.

Mary Louis Parker is beautiful, but did you anticipate that the evolution of the character of Nancy Botwin would become such so much about her sensuality?

No. In fact the first season she was almost sexless because she was in mourning. There was some sexual need but she wasn't in touch with that part of herself. As she has been healing from one loss, she has been rediscovering parts of herself. Mary Louise is so sexy. It's such a part of who she is, that you want to see her in these situations.

Last season Celia's nosey ways started to get her in more trouble. This season she gets set up as the scapegoat.

Yeah she may take the fall.

Why do you think it is so entertaining to see a bully get punished?

I don't think she is an outright bully. It's more complicated than that. She has always been the one to follow the rules. And it wasn't working for her. Of course when she decided to break them that wasn't working for her either. It's just not her destiny to have it go her way. You feel for her. Despite the fact that she may behave poorly there is still pathos there. There is still a person there. If we are doing our job right, you feel for her.

Will Kat the kookie character played Zooey Deschanel be following Andy down south?

It will depend on Zooey's availability. We'd love to work with her again and if she's free we will figure it out. We have had a lot of Kat jokes in the room of having her sneak through scenes. I don't know if we can get her, but we'll see what happens.

What is done to prepare the younger actors to play some of the extreme situations that their characters are put in?

We are really careful. There is a discussion with the teachers and with the parents. Sometimes when something really sensitive is going on, their stuff will be shot separately. They are only given parts of the script. If the character is looking at something that they shouldn't be looking at the kids playing the character has an alternate item in their hands. We try to be as sensitive as we can be. On the other hand that's the job. They are in this situation with the approval of their parents.

How is the impending SAG strike affecting the planning for the show?

I'm terrified. I have a huge ending and I don't want it ruined by a strike. There will be some sense of satisfaction at the end of eleven episodes, but nowhere near what we had planned at the end of thirteen. If it is a short strike we could come back and do two more, but I am really hoping there is no strike so we can see our season through. We make a plan very early on. I am a planner and I like to stick with what we planned.

Our TV editor wants to know if Nancy will ever have a zero-carbon footprint growing farm with solar panels?

Wow. One can only hope.

Looking back on the days when you thought of the idea for Weeds, are you surprised by its success?

Truthfully I kind of work in a bubble. I don't think in terms of business or success. I think in terms of being able to write what I want. To say what I want and to create characters. I don't go into thinking, 'will this be a big hit?'. I go into thinking will I be able to do my work and feel fulfilled on that end.

When you are not busy working on the show, what would we find you doing on a day off?

Probably with my kids. There are all these things that I mean to do but never get to, like cleaning out the junk in my house or buying underwear. Very mundane things. Reading and watching movies and playing Mahjong. Mostly reentering the mommy world.

Favorite place in LA?

Oh man there are so many. We really take the city by storm every weekend. We eat out a lot.

When we asked Jenji to tell us about some of her favorite places to eat, she sent this list:
101 Noodle Express in San Gabriel - beef roll and dumplings
La Cabanita in Montrose - Mexican
Langers downtown - all about the pastrami
Golden Deli in San Gabriel - best pho
Toasted Bun or Foxy's in Glendale for breakfast
Carousel in Hollywood - Lebanese/Armenian
Hungry Cat in Hollywood - night out with my husband before the Arclight
Guelaguetza - mid-city for Oaxhacan
Taylor's - mid-city Steak
Noshi Sushi - simple sushi midtown

Season 4 of "Weeds" premieres Monday, June 16 at 10PM on Showtime.

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