An Interview with Sally Bradford McKenna, Co-Showrunner of ‘Laid’

LAID -- “Laid AAPI Screening” -- Pictured: (l-r) Sally Bradford McKenna, Nahnatchka Khan at AMC The Grove 14 on December 17, 2024 -- (Photo by: Ringo Chiu/Peacock) LAID -- “Laid AAPI Screening” -- Pictured: (l-r) Sally Bradford McKenna, Nahnatchka Khan at AMC The Grove 14 on December 17, 2024 -- (Photo by: Ringo Chiu/Peacock)

Sally Bradford McKenna is a highly accomplished writer and producer that has worked on many iconic shows such as Will & Grace and Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. Currently serves as the co-showrunner/executive producer of Laid on Peacock, and we had the honor of sitting down with her to discuss this dynamic new series.
 
John Betancourt: Sally, thank you so much for your time today, what a great show you've helped assemble. And I want to start by getting to know what inspired you to help bring this project to life.
 
Sally Bradford McKenna: This was actually based on an Australian format from 2011 this was a show that John Davis, one of our EPS, got the rights to, and he brought it to Nahnatchka Khan, who's incredible writer and showrunner and director. She was instantly on board. She came to me wanting to partner up on this. I think she thought, my guess is, she thought this was something that would be very much up my alley. And she was right. So, she came to me early, early COVID days, going, “Do you want to work on a show?” And I was desperate to leave my son's room where I was teaching him math, so I was thrilled to work on anything, but this especially, not only just because it was not but also the idea of it was just so my sensibility.
 
John Betancourt: Let’s expand on that a little further, because I'm very curious what it is about this concept that has resonated with you since it's so different and so unique.
 
Sally Bradford McKenna: Yeah, it's really, I mean, we try and think of it as it's one cohesive show, but we really have such different tones going on. We have a rom com. The way we even started is it feels like you're watching one show, and then we take some hard turns, even in the pilot, to go, like, “Wait a minute. I thought this was a sweet Anne Hathaway rom com. Why are people dying?” So I was very intrigued by that, not just because it's tricky, but it's, it's two things I love, I feel like, in terms of doing the terms of telling love stories, we still wanted to be hopeful and optimistic, and still kind of, you know, tell those stories that we've grown up on, watching classic rom coms, but also have this dark, effed-up twist that, that I personally love.
 
John Betancourt: I too, love the twist. I thought it was so refreshing and speaking of it, you mentioned a lot of the twists and turns and a lot of the different directions that it takes. What I appreciate the most about it is that there's so many layers to it about romance and modern romance. And I'm very curious what you kind of hope audiences will take away from this season from a deeper perspective when it comes to those concepts like love and dating?
 
Sally Bradford McKenna: Yeah, I think the main thing we're hoping is that the audience is going to be surprised and kind of see how unexpected all the turns are of the show. I don't think we want to say, I don't think we want to, like, deliver any message on love, but I think if there was a takeaway, it is that it's messy, and it's messy in 2011 or 2024, and in Australia, or in America, or queer, straight, it's, it's all messy, and there is no one real answer by having a character like Ruby, who's so you know, focused on finding the one and finding the thing that she thinks is going to complete her, and then having to go on this journey where she realizes “I don't know what it is I'm looking for,” felt very relatable, very universal. And we also just love the metaphor of like, having to tell these stories of, why can't I find love? Is something wrong with me? And the answer is yes, there is this very specific, fucked up thing that's wrong with you.
 
John Betancourt: what are you most excited for audiences to experience when they get a chance to tune in without any spoilers?
 
Sally Bradford McKenna: Yeah, I think the mystery of it, and trying to figure out, trying to have guesses about what it is and always be wrong. I think the other thing is, because we have this kind of, this built in device of the sex timeline, and we have all these great characters that we hope we're gonna meet. We don't know how we're gonna meet them. We don't know who they're gonna be. But it was such an opportunity for such incredible guest cast that we – we got extremely lucky, of like, making a wish list on day one of the writers’ room, and then bringing a lot of those people in. We got very lucky. And it was really fun to have Stephanie also, Stephanie Hsu, who's very, you know, instrumental in all of this, obviously, but even in casting, she was able to kind of attract some, some people we're really thrilled to be working with.
 
John Betancourt: What does it mean you then, to be a part of something that is so refreshing and original?
 
Sally Bradford McKenna: So yeah, it's tricky. It's like two things. It's original, and no one's seen it before. At the same time, we have such, I have such imposter syndrome, like this is based on a different idea, but it's such an idea, I could not have come up with a better concept. It’s one of those concepts – so, I heard of it and it's like, you're jealous of it immediately, like I could have come up with that. So, we love having both of those things. Like, there's already a template here. There's something to work off of, but we can definitely make it our own, and especially from episodes two on. You know, we definitely opened up everything plot wise, character wise. We definitely did our own thing with it. But, yeah, it's really fun.
 
John Betancourt: What are you most proud of when it comes to what you've accomplished in this first season?
 
Sally Bradford McKenna: Oh, boy. I think for me, it was working with Nahnatchka. I love Nahnatchka, and I've worked for her before, and I could not… there's not a person you could learn more from. Or more quickly, from. She is the greatest teacher in terms of just staying level-headed and calm and cool and collected no matter what is thrown at her, and just being so knowledgeable about writing, about directing, about producing. She's an incredible person to watch. So, I had a had an incredible time working with her.
 
John Betancourt:  last question today, what then did you enjoy the most in writing this and assembling this first season?
 
Sally Bradford McKenna: I think the fucked-up tone. I think really, I feel like I love both those tones, but putting them together, it was really, it was ambitious. It's an ambitious show to kind of put together like these two tones that should not go together, but we make them go together. And there are times where it feels like they go together kind of naturally. And then we even have moments in the show where they don't like there's something very comedic happening in one part of the screen, and then something dark and tragic and heavy happening over here. And to be able to feel those two very different things at once. Um, hopefully we did our and it comes across.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.