At the birth of "Master of None," Aziz Ansari was just trying to make a good show. Along the way, episodes packed with cultural topics like race, gender, immigrant parents and relationships stirred up a strong reaction from audiences who through "Master of None" saw relatable characters in their Netflix queue.
"We didn't realize the show would have the reaction it would have," Ansari said. "It was exciting because people were responding to it in such a way, but it was sad because it was like, 'Wow there really is such a dearth of this kind of stuff.'"
Ansari and co-creator Alan Yang set out to create a series that reflected people like them and their friends — millennials looking for love and work while living in the digital age.
Ansari sat down with The Frame to give us a fresh perspective on exactly what he and Yang were doing with "Master of None," and provide a look into what people can expect for Season Two.
Interview highlights:
I just came back from the upfronts in New York, and I'm going to run through some of the CBS shows: "Man with a Plan," Matt LeBlanc; "Pure Genius," Dermot Mulroney; "Kevin Can Wait," Kevin James; "MacGyver: the Early Years," some random white dude. Every one of those shows is led by a white male.
There's a common theme of extreme risk aversion. Look, you list out those CBS shows, and that's exactly why I had to make "Master of None." If I don't do that, what am I going to do? I'm going to be an Indian guy that says something funny to MacGyver and then runs away. The whole point of "Master of None" to me is that everyone has incredible drama and comedy in their life no matter who they are. In Hollywood and in film and television, the stand-in for the every-man is a straight, white guy. But it can be anybody. Anyone can lead one of these stories, but the reason why the slate at CBS looks the way it does is they are so scared.
These are not random decisions about who's going to get hired and who's not. Television has a huge role in shaping culture. And shaping the way that we think as a nation about the people we live next to.
Yes!
We had Reza Aslan on the show. I want to play something for you and then come back and talk about it.
REZA ASLAN: I am desperate for the day when we will have a Muslim "All in the Family," in which we have Middle Eastern characters who are on TV who are being poked fun at because of their culture, because of their identity, and who are poking fun at America because of the way America treats them. I think that's when you see people start to change their minds. That's when you see Middle Easterners become part of the fabric of American culture.
You know what's interesting is I saw a quote from President Obama where he said a similar thing, like "When are we going to see some Muslim characters that are not terrorists?" And I wanted to say, we have seen that. My dad and mom are in the show — they're Muslim characters.
When you read these stories about someone being on a plane and they see a brown guy doing math and then they report the guy — that's a knee-jerk reaction to think that person is being racist. But if every time you've see someone like this, it's only been news reports of terrorists and that's all they've ever seen and so they're scared, it's really just a sad side effect of the way our culture shapes the perception of Middle-Eastern Islamic people. If half the time you saw an older Muslim guy it was a goofball like my dad, I think you would have a different perception of what it means to be an older Muslim man.
You're making a show that's about your life and your struggles — things that happen to anybody your age. Also, it feels like intentionally you're trying to make a show that other people are not making.
When we started making the show, we didn't have these kinds of goals. We were just trying to make a good show. As far as our casting, there are attempts to do diversity that come off as genuine and there are ones that come off as fake. I think ours is genuine. For example, Lena Waithe's part of Denise. We didn't sit down and go, Ooh you know what would be kind of quirky and weird? What if my friend was this queer, lesbian, African-American woman? No. We had a part. It was for a woman who was like my best friend. There was no ethnicity specified. And we met her and she was just so hilarious and we got along so well — we had an instant rapport. And we just said, We should make this woman Denise. And Denise was originally written as a straight character and we were like, no, we're going to make it this woman Lena because she is so funny. Our chemistry is better than anyone else's chemistry that I read with.
Then you have the other version [of diversity in casting] where you have this movie or this TV show where they're like, Man, there's a lot of white people here. It's getting a little uncomfortable. Maybe he has a black friend. Let's just throw a black friend in there. And there's no real attempt at having real diversity.
So what does your writers room look like?
It's very diverse. We have black people, Indian people and only one white guy. Which is probably the least amount of white guys in any major TV writing room. There are some late night shows where it is solely white guys. Which seems so dumb because then you have so few perspectives. It makes the show better when you have people who are coming from different perspectives and backgrounds. We also do a lot of research with the characters that we write. For example, the "Old People" episode. We showed that script to that actor, and she said it was pretty dead on. We spent a lot of time talking to older women in retirement homes and really got to know them and use them to help craft the character. Going that extra mile is what makes your characters richer and more real.
There's a way in which you shoot and a way in which the actors talk to each other. Is there a way of cinematic storytelling that you guys are trying to pursue in this show that is not really modern television specific?
Yes. We were thinking about the look and the feel of the show. The trend in modern single-camera comedies is very fast-paced. You're cutting from single to single, and people are saying joke, joke, joke. They'll even suck the air out of scenes in editing to make the pacing faster. I don't dislike everything that does that, but, for "Master of None" we started talking about '70s films where the dialogue was a little more naturalistic and slower paced. Some of my favorite films are from Linklater's "Before" trilogy. They just felt so real to me and I wanted the show to feel real like that.
When we had Alan Yang on the show, we asked him about Season Two and what you guys were going to do. He basically said you needed to live a lot. Did you live a lot between Season One and Season Two?
When Season One ends, my character moves to Italy. I really did move to Italy for a month and a half to this little town called Modena, where I worked in a pasta shop. I really did do that. If you make a really good movie, people don't see it and then ask you to make a sequel in a few months. You wait. Then, when you have something you're excited about, you write it and then you make it. The impetus should be on making a great thing, not keeping people happy. I'm not worried that people are going to forget about the show.
Season One of "Master of None" can be found on Netflix. Season Two goes into production later this summer.