Avenue 5 cast talk season 2 and whether they ask Hugh Laurie for medical advice
When the Hugh Laurie-starring Avenue 5 premiered in January, 2020, creator Armando Iannucci's science fiction sitcom appeared to have less real world relevance than his previous, more obviously political, shows like The Thick of It and Veep. The ensuing pandemic made this tale of a spaceship whose crew and passengers find themselves cut off from the rest of humanity seem both horribly and hilariously resonant as its characters bickered about their predicament in a manner which seemed downright predictive.
"We came up with some crazy plot lines and then they started happening in real life," Iannucci recently told EW. "Like when all the passengers decide to go out the air lock even though they've seen people suffocate to death. They're still convinced that it's not real and that it's all CGI and they're in a virtual reality game and they deny the evidence in front of them. And that was happening as people were demanding to be let in to shut stores because Coronavirus didn't exist."
Nick Wall/HBO Hugh Laurie in 'Avenue 5'
Avenue 5 is now belatedly returning to screens after repeated pandemic-caused production delays, with season 2 premiering Oct. 10 on HBO.
"We had so many stop-starts during the Covid," says Lenora Crichlow, who plays Billie McEvoy, a senior engineer on the titular spaceship, and one of the show's less idiotic characters. "We actually did start shooting the show and it shut down, so it felt a bit like, finally! I was really excited to see where we were all going to go with the show because it felt so relevant suddenly."
"We all went through the dryer cycle of life that was those two years and, coming out softened and less shiny, a little sadder, a little more open, maybe a little sweeter, was nice.," says Zach Woods, who portrays the spaceship's Head of Customer Relations, Matt Spencer. "I think everyone was soft and sad and sweet the first season too, but more so the second season I would say. It's really annoying when people try to find the silver lining in global catastrophes, but I will say that that kind of education in your own smallness was actually in some ways a good thing."
Below, Crichlow and Woods talk about season 2, why politician Paul Ryan should play them both in a dramatization of their lives, and whether they ask Hugh Laurie for medical advice.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I watched the first couple of episodes of the new season and was chortling enormously. Just when you think things can't get any worse, they get worse! Lenora, could you tease season 2 a little bit?
LENORA CRICHLOW: I'll just let you know that I haven't actually seen the episodes, so you're probably in a better position to do it than I am. But, as you say, just when you think things are calming down, they ramp back up, and alliances are formed, and enemies are formed, and elections are held.
ZACH WOODS: I mean, because we haven't seen it, we could just make up whatever sounds appealing to a prospective reader or viewer.
Sure, knock yourselves out.
WOODS: Chance the Rapper might have a cameo. We don't know, right? We haven't seen it. What else?
CRICHLOW: Harry and Meghan might get on the shuttle!
WOODS: We don't know!
CRICHLOW: They're trending right now.
WOODS: They're trending hard.
CRICHLOW: Yeah. Who knows?
Gary Moyes/HBO Lenora Crichlow on ‘Avenue 5’
Can you tell us really what is going on with Hugh Laurie's character Captain Ryan Clark and Josh Gad's Avenue 5-owning Judd?
CRICHLOW: So Hugh Laurie's character, he falls in love this season, doesn't he? He has found his romantic interest, so that kind of gives him a new drive and a new focus, and another thing to juggle on the ship. And Judd is lost without his Iris (Suzy Nakamura) for a while. At the end of season 1, she leaves the ship, and who knows if she'll get back, and so he's kind of anchorless for a while. Basically, Judd is still trying to get out of trouble constantly, trying to not be accountable, whilst still retaining power.
Back on earth, there is a very funny dramatization of the events happening on the spaceship. Who would you like to play yourselves in a dramatized version of your life?
WOODS: Paul Ryan. There's a physical resemblance.
Paul Ryan?
CRICHLOW: You would like him to play Zach Woods?
WOODS: Yeah.
Paul Ryan, the Republican politician?
WOODS: Yes, the hardcore right-wing politician. Yes. [Laughs] Have you seen a picture of him? We have similarly sort of collapsing, sinking faces.
CRICHLOW: I think he could play Lenora Crichlow too. I can't think of anyone more suitable than Paul Ryan for me either. I think he would be able to get me.
WOODS: Yeah, it's like his aura is Lenora and his physiology is me.
Nick Wall/HBO Avenue 5
Are you ever tempted to ask Hugh Laurie for medical advice? Do you ever see a weird wart and think that his time on House might be of help?
WOODS: I just want to ask him about manhood. He seems to me to be the embodiment of a particular kind of weathered masculine charisma that I only aspire to and will never achieve. He did say something once that really made me laugh. I guess his actual father was a doctor, like a real doctor, and he said that in the way that all sons are predisposed to feel like pale imitations of their father in a certain way, or that they fall short of their fathers, in his case he literally is imitating what his father actually did. I thought that that was such a funny insight into the glorious, tragic world of Hugh Laurie
Watch the Avenue 5 season 2 trailer below.
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