An Interview with the Writer & Creator of ‘Chloe’, Alice Seabright

Alice Seabright is a talented writer and director that lent her talents to the hit show, Sex Education, on Netflix. Currently, Alice serves as the showrunner/creator of the new Prime Video show, Chloe, where she also wrote and directed several episodes and we here at NTG were lucky enough to sit down with Alice to discuss the genesis of the show and how Alice assembled it.
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John Betancourt: What was it that got you into writing in the first place?

Alice Seabright: Actually, before I wrote screenplays, I was just sort of writing stories and things and then I just got really into film, I guess as a teenager and started making stuff as a late teenager and then at university with friends like shorts for no money and things like that, and then kind of decided to try writing screenplays.

John Betancourt: Now moving forward a bit, you are the showrunner and writer of Chloe, and I’m curious as to what inspired you to bring this story to life.

Alice Seabright: It was a combination… I was really interested in…. it sort of came from the character. And I was really interested in the concept of a character who uses lies as a way to cover you know, some deep kind of insecurities, and uses lying as well as a sort of way to access things that she can't have in her life in some way. Yeah, and I was also at the same time, quite interested in the idea of obsession and the very kind of intense female friendships which can come from obsessive behavior. And yeah, and then it just always seemed like it was kind of swirling around and, and yeah, that sort of premise allows me to explore these different themes that I was very interested in talking about.

John Betancourt: Now this is a wonderfully complex series through and through and I was wondering if you ran into any challenges when assembling scripts that are so nuanced and complex?

Alice Seabright: Oh, thank you very much. I don't know, I have a background in psychology. And I think part of the writer in me, has always been very interested in complicated characters, complicated people. And just super kind of withdrawn people. And then, what makes people tick and why they behave the way they behave? And I think yeah, that was, that's really beyond some twists and turns in the story, that's what interests me and getting into the kind of understanding complex characters and complex behaviors. And it’s the thing that intrigues me and kind of pushes me towards the writing.

And so, it's a layering process, I think, you know, and it's something… we're getting to know these characters when you’re stuck with an idea of them. And then it's always asking questions like, why? Why? What's going on? And what are the layers underneath the presentation of the character? I mean, so it's like, one of the themes of the show, I think, is this sense of… how people present themselves in a way. And actually, a lot of the time, what's really going on underneath, and you peel back the layers of the onion more and more until you get something that feels truthful.

John Betancourt: Now that brings up a deeper point, specifically, what kinds of challenges did you run into in assembling such dark and nuanced characters?

Alice Seabright: Great question. I think behaviors… people should be held accountable for terrible behaviors, and I would normally say that for Becky. But I am very empathetic toward Becky. I love her in lots of ways and find her to be someone I deeply care for, even though obviously most of her behavior is completely not okay.

And, you know, definitely challenging for that reason. And there's no part of me that wants to explain someone's behavior and try and justify it. It's not about justification. It's about actually, for me, I find that if I can relate to something, for me, I find it more compelling if you encounter a character or a person that behaves in certain ways that are highly questionable, or morally not okay, I think the act of relating to them is not a way of justifying their behavior. It's also a way of saying like, what are the gray areas and complications in our own behaviors that we can look at. So, I think that, you know, when there's a character that can be considered a monster, you're putting them over there in a corner and saying, well, I'm letting the good people and the bad people -- and the good people are off the hook and don’t have to question themselves, and it makes the bad sort of questionable behaviors sort of somehow… foreign to us.

And actually, I think human beings are a complicated… you know, people who do, you know, see there's a spectrum of behavior, but I think, yeah, I'm interested in looking at like, what's the commonality here? And even if, maybe, hopefully, most of us, you know, wouldn't do anything like, what Becky and Elliot would do. And I think we can learn from looking at questionable behaviors, and say, what's the instinct? And why is that happening? And, that’s, that's helpful. It's helpful, let’s me to kind of hold a mirror to me, and to all of us. So, it's just a case of kind of empathizing with things and putting yourself in someone’s shoes. I tend to think that there are bad people that are just bad and take bad actions. But I’m looking at like, how, what, what's the reason that most people go about doing things, they find a justification for themselves, and it's actually going, “okay, what is the story that he's telling himself, that allows him to do these things?” And it’s useful to sort of see how, in a way, he’s not holding himself accountable.

John Betancourt: So, it’s a pretty well-known fact that writers find inspiration from real life in some form or fashion. Outside of social media, what other real-world influences went into building your characters and their world?

Alice Seabright: Oh, I borrowed from lots of places, people you've known, experiences you've had. And also, I certainly had my friendships, that were a bit like what Chloe and Becky had when they were teenagers, which I've drawn from, and just the people you meet. And then also, I think, you sort of have to put some of yourself in every character. Again, I would never do what Becky does or I would never do Eliot does, I would never do what most of the characters on the show do. But I'm going to say, what part of me can I kind of use for understanding why this character is behaving in the way that they're behaving. You know, Becky is very extreme in her behavior, but her learning and thinking, her sense of comparison and feeling that she's not good or interesting enough, or whatever, that’s the stuff that I relate to, and I think a lot of the people, Erin, who plays Becky, I think, related all that stuff, and a lot of people on the show did, and yeah, so kind of taking situations that you might never have been yourself in that situation. But you kind of take from your own experience of the world to try and understand that.

John Betancourt: Now, you wear a lot of hats on this show. And I would love to know how you managed to juggle being a writer and creator and director.

Alice Seabright: Not a lot of sleep is the answer. I came out the other end feeling like, “Wow. That was two years of incredible intensity.” Yeah, not sort of ready to jump into that same level of intensity right away. And you know, but on the flip side, you know, I’d written it and I really cared about it and knew it inside and out and all of these things. And it also means that when you're directing, working with actors and working with different heads of departments, trying to work out how to tap it, but also coming from a place of, you know, being so intimately familiar with it, that helps. It’s a lot, but at the same time, each hat informed the other hat hopefully. Because I could bring my experience in writing the show to the directing, and sometimes I was rewriting stuff while I was directing.

But, you know, not huge amounts, but tweaking scenes. And as you're going into them, or whatever you can find, stuff that's important as well from working with the cast. Getting sense of the story as we're making it. And then the other thing is like, TV is such a collaborative medium. And I'm a huge fan of collaboration. I love collaborating. And so, when you're working with so many great other people, anyway, you're bringing in so many of them, who are super talented, and it's just sort of a huge part of telling that story. Still feels to me like a kind of joint endeavor.

John Betancourt: Now another aspect of this show that is fascinating, is the amount of messages and commentary present within it, and I was wondering, of all the messaging you injected into this show what’s the one you hope sticks with the audience the most?

Alice Seabright: I would say… it doesn't matter that I necessarily think it should be taken away from. But I would love for audiences to think about stories the that they tell themselves, about themselves, about other people. And whether those stories, you know, sometimes I think we get… Becky gets stuck in a very toxic story she told herself about herself, you know, she’s looks looking at Chloe’s life and comparing herself. And actually, there's always more beyond the surface. There's always more going on. You often have the wrong perspective when you tell yourself a story about someone else. That’s the biggest theme, I think there.

John Betancourt: What would you say you’re most proud of when it comes this show?

Alice Seabright: I mean, I'm really happy with the final product. But I would say that I'm even more proud of the just sort of having been a part of putting together a team that made it. Because it was such a wonderful team, from the cast to the producers to the heads of departments, the crew, to the editors. Like everyone… it was a really lovely experience working with all of them as a team. And you know, when we bring together a bunch of people it's sort of a unique moment in time, all these different great and talented people coming together to tell a story.

John Betancourt: Last question for you today, what are you most looking forward to audiences experiencing when they watch the show?

Alice Seabright: I mean, on one level I'm very excited. The show came out earlier in the UK and it was lovely to see a lot of people getting to see what we've spent so long working on. On another level. Of course, I'm absolutely terrified. But that's normal as well. Yeah, it's just interesting. I think it is a story hopefully that has different facets to it, it explores different themes, and you know, I think it exists in a gray area with all of them, and all of the characters. The thing I found the most rewarding when the show came out in the UK, was hearing people's reactions. And so yeah, I'm hugely, hugely excited for that quite a bit. Just to hear what people… what it makes them think, you know?

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.  

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