Chris Geere Talks About ‘You’re the Worst’

Chris Geere You're the Worst Interview
Chris Geere as Jimmy Shive-Overly in ‘You’re the Worst’ (Photo Credit: Byron Cohen/Copyright 2014, FX Networks)

FX is set to debut its new comedy You’re the Worst on July 17, 2014 at 10:30pm ET/PT. The series is from writer/executive producer Stephen Falk and stars Chris Geere (The Spa), Aya Cash (The Wolf of Wall Street), Kether Donahue (The Carrie Diaries), and Desmin Borges (The Good Wife), and follows the dysfunctional romantic relationship between Cash as ‘Gretchen’ and Geere as ‘Jimmy.’ Jimmy and Gretchen are described as “two toxic, self-destructive people” who shouldn’t fall for each other but do and “attempt the impossible – a relationship.”

Leading up to the show’s premiere, I chatted with Chris Geere about what FX viewers can expect from this new comedy series.

Was it a very competitive audition for this role?

Chris Geere: “It was an amazing process, actually. I’m relatively new to auditioning for things in America and I was currently auditioning back and forth for a different show on a different network. I was the showrunner’s favorite but they’d wanted the character to be older and they were trying to convince the director, and I was sending all these different tapes back and forth from the UK to America. Then my manager got me the audition for You’re the Worst and she said, ‘They’ve been looking for this role for about six months.’

They’d only been looking for American actors. I read the script and I thought, ‘I have to do this. I have to audition for it.’ And I literally sent a tape on the Monday of one week and then I was testing in Los Angeles the following Thursday, and then two weeks later I found out I got it. It was the most amazing two weeks.”

Do you think the characters will evolve?

Chris Geere: “Oh, very much so. We’re filming the last sequences now of season one, and it leaves it very much open to whatever comes next. I think we’ve really only touched the first stage on what could happen between them all, especially as the four of them have developed now. At the beginning, it was just Jimmy and Gretchen but now you realize all four of them are as messed up as each other in their own way. Hopefully, we can explore those characters further.”

Chris Geere You're the Worst Interview
Aya Cash and Chris Geere in ‘You’re the Worst’ (Photo by Byron Cohen / FX Networks)

They start off pretty sarcastic. Are they going to remain that way?

Chris Geere: “I think sarcasm comes from a place of feeling uncomfortable or out of your depth in a way, and that’s like an instant reaction. I think as you learn a bit more about them during the season, you realize that sarcasm is just one of their tricks to avoid being hurt in a way. But, no, I think sarcasm is quite funny sometimes – especially between Jimmy and Gretchen – and I think there is a through-line of sarcasm throughout.”

Do we learn specifically how they were hurt in the past?

Chris Geere: “Yeah. I think as with all human flaws it starts with childhood and the relationships with their parents. Some episodes coming up you realize that Jimmy’s relationship with his father is one that created a lot of insecurity and bitterness on his side. And the relationship between Gretchen and her parents has forced her to pretend to become someone that her parents want her to be. So it’s that kind of rebellion that carries through the rest of the series. It’s always about what happened in their childhood.”

Are you able to improvise a lot on the show?

Chris Geere: “We don’t actually because we don’t really need to. I mean, Stephen Falk works hard on the script so that everything’s in place, and then we play around with the performance and the delivery to make sure that we get what we want. But there’s not really need for improvisation, which is quite new for us. I just finished a show in the UK which was largely based on improv. I loved doing that. It’s great, but with this I don’t think it needs any improvisation, really. Every line has been written for a reason and we just have to work out the best way of playing it.”

How did you feel about the sex scene?

Chris Geere: “Well, I think from any actor’s point of view you instantly read it and think, ‘I hope it’s not going to be awkward or embarrassing in any way.’ I think what’s really helped is that Aya and I are both married in real life, so we had instantly this mutual respect for each other as actors but also for each other’s partners as well. It became, ‘Let’s make this as believable and funny as we can.’ So with the director’s help, we explored how we could make this a different type of sex scene. It’s not meant to be sexy; it’s meant to be funny and a little bit awkward, and a little bit first time-like. I hope we achieved that.”

What can viewers expect from the first season?

Chris Geere: “I think the theme runs throughout where they find themselves in positions where couples at their stage of a relationship where what they should be meeting the parents and moving in together and all those kind of things, they struggle with it all the time. There’s a lot of great, funny moments where both of them are very much out of their depth. It’s how they deal with the fact that they don’t want to conform to relationships, yet the whole time they can’t be without each other.”