An Interview with Stephanie Laing, Director, and Co-Executive Producer of ‘Mammals’

Stephanie Laing is one of Hollywood’s top directors and producers and she has worked on a bevy of shows we love, such as Veep or Physical, and recently… she served as the Co-Executive Producer and Director of Mammals on Prime Video and we here at NTG had the distinct honor of being able to sit down with Stephanie to discuss her work on Mammals.
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John Betancourt: What is it that you love about directing?

Stephanie Laing: I love to tell a story. But it's funny that you're asking me that question. Because we were shooting in a school, a school room today. And on the board, there was for kindergarteners, and it was like, “how to tell a story.” And I just thought like, “Oh, that's it.” Like, that's where like it started for me was, you know, I think basically my whole life was just like, “I want to tell stories.” And then as I've grown, you know, I was a producer before director. And I think for me that was about, like really fine tuning the kind of stories I wanted to tell. And I respond to character driven, tricky tones. I like dark humor. I like something that's absurd. And I like things that have something to say and that hopefully make an audience want to talk about it afterwards.

John Betancourt: We are definitely talking about a project that does all of that. Which has me curious, as to whether or not those reasons are why you were attracted to this project, or if there was more to it?

Stephanie Laing: Well, I'm, obviously a big fan of Jez Butterworth’s writing and big fan of James Corden, and big fan of Sally Hawkins. And so, when I was brought on to the project, we hadn't cast Sally yet, but I, you know, was sent the first script. And I could hear James's voice as the character so clearly and just loved the writing. And it surprised me like even reading it. I didn't know where it was going the first time. And I think it's so rare that you read something that's so nuanced, and so, so layered and so complicated, that you don't see it coming as a reader and I thought, “Wow, this, the challenge will be keeping the ball in the air for the viewer.” And that was really exciting to me.

John Betancourt: Now, since you’re both a Co-Executive Producer and Director on the show, how much input did you have on the shaping of this incredibly complex story?

Stephanie Laing: Jez and James and I worked very closely together, I would say, most often, we finish each other's sentences and have very similar sensibility. And so, we were very, the three of us worked very closely, you know, obviously, it is written by Jez, and then basically entrusted to me as a director to go put it on its feet. And I’m, you know, really lucky, because we have, you know, we do have such great cast. But we started with such a great script. And so, I just, I think the three of us were just always in sync. And the same with me with the cast. And, you know, Melia (Kreiling) is someone who's self-taped for us, and we just fell in love with their self-tape. And then we watched a lot of other self-tapes, but she's the only person that we actually tested for the role with James because we knew instantly when we saw her.

John Betancourt: Now this is a series that features some pretty massive twists and turns at the end. How did you as a director, ensure that all the surprises were kept that way? Because there were no clues regarding Jamie and what he has done.

Stephanie Laing: Well, exactly that right? I mean, we never tipped our hat to that. In fact, I think if anything, the identity of Paul, being Jeff, was kind of a red herring because I feel most people didn't see that coming until like, they kind of started to get suspicious maybe around the time that it was revealed. And so, I think if you figure that out, then you're like, then you think you've figured the whole series out, but actually, you haven't. And so, as a director, it's obviously an extremely visual way of telling the story, I worked super close with the DP, but we let things play out, kind of in one frame, telling two stories or two, you know, two expressions from people. We also didn't always cut tight for comedy, like sometimes things are played in a wide intentionally, because we didn't really want the viewer to, to settle on something too long. You know, we never like… only several times we were really tight on Jeff, you know, Colin Morgan. That was… that was intentional. And I think we just, you know, we watched it and edited, we edited a lot to make sure we weren’t giving it away, and sometimes that means getting out of a scene faster, right? Getting on with something else. You may want to linger here. But it's like, well, if I linger, then they're going to start to figure it out. So, let's go. Let's get out.

John Betancourt: As a follow up to that, how much work went into that editing process to maintain to those secrets?

Stephanie Laing: Yeah, I mean, the truth is, we had like a really healthy editing period, you know, Amazon has been wonderful to work with. And so, we were never under like a tight post schedule. You know, we were able to really… we shot it, obviously, we shot over I think 60 days, and then worked on, you know, I worked on my cuts, Jez did his cuts, and then we, just all kind of collaborated on cuts. But we but they gave us the time, you know that we really needed to really get the fine tuning, right. Sometimes I think if you're rushing through a pass on an edit, like, you know, there's things you don't see, or things you can elevate. And I think that's really what also interested me in the project was just like the people that were doing it. And I thought like, “How can I come be part of this group, and also elevate this material? And then who can I bring with me to elevate even further?” So, it was just kind of a constant, like, you know, keep us keeping our eye on the ball, but not letting the audience keep their eye on any ball.

John Betancourt: Another thing that I love about this series, is that it has so much to say on modern love and modern relationships. What are you hoping is the number one message audiences take away from this series?

Stephanie Laing: Well, I mean, I hope that they take away that love… I mean, it sounds corny, but like, like, love is important. And people do love each other. And love is complicated. And I think it’s… love is messy. It's complicated. So is life, I think you can fall in love with someone one day, people outgrow each other for various different reasons. And I think for me, if you can, I think… it's asking the question of, can you ever really know the person you're with? And I don't know the answer to that? And I don't think, I don't think any of us do. Like, if you ask, like maybe tomorrow, I'll say yes, but today, I'm not sure. And I do think that, you know, in a broad sense, it's like, okay, if you're lucky, you get to live 100 years, right? And as a human, and you get to as a mammal, and you get to fall in love with multiple people at different times and hope that you know, also people fall in love with you. So, you’re kind of searching for “The One” or multiple number of ones, not at the same time necessarily. You know, everybody is looking for that. And I think, you know, ultimately is, it is what's important. You know, relationships are important. And I know there's some like Harvard study, that's like the oldest study out there that's like over 70 years where they've studied, like, what, what is the key to happiness, and it's like relationships, platonic or romantic. But that is what keeps us thriving as humans. And so, I also think it's, it's a dissection of marriage, you know, that changes, depending on your partner, you know, on a daily basis. Yeah, I think it's complicated.

John Betancourt: That brings me to my next question. Because I noticed that this series, and other stories in popular media are starting to de-stigmatize and demystify concepts we romanticize and put on a pedestal like love and romance. Why do you, as an artist, think that’s suddenly gaining a lot of traction.

Stephanie Laing: Perhaps because it's like, as a culture, like we're all… craving for acceptance. And to be able to show… to be able to tell stories in an honest way without judgment. I mean, we don't judge. We're not judging Amandine. I mean, I got a lot of text messages from people, you know, who were four episodes in saying they didn't like her. And I just kept saying, “Keep watching, keep watching.” Because I do think in you know, several shots, your opinion of her completely changes very radically. And so, I think what we're saying is, is like, be careful to judge someone, you know, and then a specific case with for males is like, just be careful. Because what you see on the surface is not necessarily what is going on. And that two people can, you know, be telling their truth. And not lying to each other because it's their truth. It’s very complicated. Very complicated, right?

John Betancourt: Oh, and I love that. Because nothing is saccharine anymore. It’s about those complications and it’s challenging the viewer.

Stephanie Laing: Because it's absurd, right? Like, we live in an absurd world most of the time, most of the things around us. Like you watched John Oilver last night, and you're like, “Well, it's been an interesting year.” And it has. It’s been an interesting couple of years. So, I think you're just able to like, at least for me, anyway, we should probably respond to the dark comedy of it all. It’s just, it's too hard. You know, life can just be so depressing and so bleak. And it's like, you know what, we're all human. We all have flaws. Let's tell those stories. Those are the ones I'm interested in.

John Betancourt: What does it mean to you, to be involved in a story that actually accomplishes all of that?

Stephanie Laing: I'm just really proud of it. You know, I think like, like I said, we shot over 60 days, we filmed during COVID. It was not easy, logistically, we filmed in Cambridge, and in Monaco and London. And, you know, it was, it has its own set of like logistical challenges. But at the end of the day, I'm so proud of the story that we'd told and how we all collaborated together. And just, yeah, like I couldn't be more pleased that people are receiving it, the way that they are.

John Betancourt: Speaking of that pride, what are you most proud of when it comes to what this show’s accomplished?

Stephanie Laing: I would say most proud of the performances, and how the writing, Jez’s writing, matches the visuals. Those are the things I'm most proud of.

John Betancourt: Last question I have for you today… how cool was it to work with Tom Jones?

Stephanie Laing: I mean, it’s Tom Jones, right? Which by the way, is like a complete other metaphor for the show, if you think about it, because he's not known to be or isn't known to be monogamous, necessarily for his whole life. I’m sorry, I don't know Tom Jones’ story; I'm not speaking on his behalf there. But when people are like, “Why is he in there?” Like, think a little deeper? And maybe it's not as random as you think. And you know, he's a legend. Yeah, it is incredibly awesome.

John Betancourt: Well, I suppose you cannot go wrong just working with legends. Since James and his comedic skills are renowned and then you throw Tom into the mix.

Stephanie Laing: Like I said, James is… couldn't be a better partner to have, you know, in the show, James and Jez, it's like I said, it's just the collaboration and, you know, the generosity of all of us, like coming together. It was really, we had, you know, now I’m gonna sound really corny, but we had our own version of magic.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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