Physical Series Finale: EP Annie Weisman Dissects [Spoiler]’s Return and Explains That Ambiguous Final Shot
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Physical ended right where it began.
In the opening moments of Wednesday’s series finale, the action jumped from 1983 to 1986, mirroring the fleeting flash-forward that kicked off the dark comedy’s pilot. In the intervening three years, Sheila (Rose Byrne) and Greta (Dierdre Friel) have fulfilled their ambitious vision of turning Body By Sheila into the female-driven multi-million dollar, 50-state franchise that is Strength By Numbers. But professional success has come at a price for Sheila: She’s lonely. What’s more, her mental issues remain ever-present. But the return of her fitness foil Bunny (Della Saba) allows her to repent for her original sin, and exorcise one of her biggest demons in the process. It also brings the Apple TV+ series satisfyingly full circle.
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Below, series creator Annie Weisman dissects Bunny’s big return, the twist involving Sheila’s personal life and that sure-to-be-debated final shot.
TVLINE | Did you always plan for the finale to be a bookend to the pilot?
I always wanted the series to span that progression of time, from the woman we see at the beginning of the show [in 1981] to this woman we see in the [1986] flash forward, this quintessential fitness icon of the ‘80s. And then tell the story about how she got there.
TVLINE | You did a bait-and-switch with us thinking Sheila ended up with John, only for it to be a figment of her imagination. It seemed to suggest that her mental issues have gotten worse vs. better in the intervening years. Is that fair?
She’s made enormous progress in her life, but she still has ongoing demons. And they’ve shape shifted. She’s conquered a level of self-acceptance in her body. But the cost of that is loneliness and continuing to live in her head. And while she’s not as self-destructive as when we met her, she’s still tortured. Not worse, not better.
TVLINE | Why was John her fantasy life partner and not Danny?
John represents an embrace of the shameless and ambitions self; the me decade. She was simultaneously attracted and repulsed by him. Now she’s in that same push-and-pull relationship [with him], only it’s in her head.
TVLINE | Did she love John?
I think she wanted to be him. I would call it attraction, not love.
TVLINE | Was there any part of you that wanted to give Sheila and Danny a happy ending?
I didn’t believe that there was hope for equality or change in that marriage from the beginning. But I wanted to give him a fighting chance to change. And to try to evolve as she evolved. But he didn’t get all the way there.
TVLINE | I loved how the story circled back around to Bunny and Sheila. I really missed Della Saba and Lou Taylor Pucci [aka Bunny’s beau Tyler] this season. Was the decision to write them out for most of the season a budgetary issue? Or was it purely creative?
Creatively we wanted the [Sheila-Bunny] conflict to come to an end. As Sheila’s career scaled up, we needed bigger adversaries. That’s just where the story went. It was not a budgetary thing. I love those actors and I love that relationship. And I wanted to give Sheila a chance to correct her original sin.
TVLINE | The show plays a lot with reality and fantasy so I have to ask: Was the final shot of Sheila standing alone in the room supposed to suggest she imagined the reunion/reckoning with Bunny?
It was very much real. It happened. At the same time, once the music starts and they’re connecting and dancing we [wanted to] move into a less literal memory space. I guess I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too. [Laughs]
TVLINE | It was also nice to see Geoffrey Arend back as Jerry. Was there anyone you tried to get back in this final season but couldn’t?
We always want more Murray Bartlett [aka Season 2’s gay aerobics instructor Vinnie Green]. But he was pretty tied up.
TVLINE | It was alluded to this season that Vinnie was battling AIDS. It was the first time we saw the epidemic orbit Sheila’s life, albeit briefly. Would you have liked to delve deeper into the impact AIDS had not just on Sheila but the aerobics industry as a whole?
Absolutely. If I could make a movie or do [a Season 4] I would absolutely explore that. The decimation of gay men working in this field to AIDS [was staggering]. It really touched the fitness world.
TVLINE | Would you have wanted to keep the show going beyond this season?
I got to do everything that I really wanted to do, in terms of taking her on this journey of self-realization. But I love these characters and my collaborators so much that I definitely had the appetite to do more had I been given the chance.
TVLINE | Is there anything that you can share about Rose’s process that might surprise people?
I can go on and on about how much I respect her process because I think she’s been underappreciated in this role — in a way because she wears it all so effortlessly. Her total bravery and commitment is incredible. She never objected to doing something — and we got pretty crazy. She always has an appetite to do more. And her technical skill as an actor is so impressive; it elevates everyone around her. She is so technically adept that it leaves that much more room for creative exploration. With a lot of actors, you’re struggling to get to that baseline. But Rose just [starts] at a high level. People that work with her see it. But I don’t know if viewers do. She also plays a second character on the show [via Sheila’s] voiceover, and she’s a master at it. She’s the best voiceover actor I’ve ever seen. She also Australian so she hates praise and is very hard on herself, so forget about being able to say any of that to her. [Fellow EP Stephanie Laing, who directed 24 of Physical‘s 30 episodes, including the series finale, echoes Weisman’s sentiment re: Byrne, telling TVLine, “Rose is so fearless and so vulnerable and not afraid to tackle anything.]
TVLINE | Speaking of the voiceovers, I missed those this season. You replaced her internal monologue with Zooey Deschanel’s Kelly. Talk to me about the decision to recast that narrative device in this final season?
It was definitely a choice and a risk. I felt strongly that we needed to see this character evolve and grow and change. The idea to shape shift her inner voice and turn it into her external relationship with [fitness rival] Kelly was something we came up with in the writers’ room and got really excited about playing with. [It represented] a restlessness and a creative exploration [on our part].
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