Tuca and Bertie Is Back, and Creator Lisa Hanawalt Is Over the Moon

Devoted fans will recognize illustrator, writer, and cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt from her days as the production designer and producer partly responsible for bringing the world of Netflix series BoJack Horseman to life (or even from her podcast, Baby Geniuses, which she cohosts with comedian Emily Heller), but when she struck out on her own with the zany, soulful animated series Tuca and Bertie in 2019, she gained a whole new following.

Hearts everywhere were broken when Netflix failed to renew Tuca and Bertie for a second season, but luckily, Adult Swim stepped up in its place; season two of the show, which follows talkative toucan Tuca and bashful songbird Bertie through the ins and outs of BFF-ship, premiered on the network on Sunday. This week, Vogue spoke to Hanawalt about the show’s move from Netflix to Adult Swim, representing anxiety onscreen, and her favorite TV friendships. Read the full interview below.

Vogue: I know the long-ago Netflix news must have been disappointing, but how did the Adult Swim premiere of Tuca and Bertie come about?

Lisa Hanawalt: Well, we got lucky. After the news came out about Netflix canceling the show, a lot of networks showed interest, and Adult Swim really seemed like the best home for it. [Adult Swim director of comedy development] Walter Newman fought really hard for it, and he really seemed to understand the show and love the show, and then it was just a matter of moving it over. The fans also were just not giving up; they were like, “We need this show back. We’re gonna get it back.” That was so cathartic to see—the enthusiastic fan base made me feel nice.

Is there anything you were particularly excited to explore in the second season, that you maybe didn’t have a chance to get into as deeply before?

A lot of what happens this season is stuff that I really, really wanted to do, and was excited to do. I really wanted to go to Plant Town! I also wanted to get deeper into Tuca’s deal, and see what she’s like when she’s lonely and doesn’t have Bertie. What is she like in a relationship; where she is maybe losing some of her confidence? I think it’s interesting to reverse the natural state of the characters a little bit. I wanted to meet their families, see some flashbacks, and see things like, “How did Bertie meet [her boyfriend] Speckle?” I couldn’t fit everything I wanted into this season, but hopefully, I’ll get more.

I was a big BoJack Horseman fan, and loved the world you built on that show; was there anything you made a point of including on Tuca and Bertie that you couldn’t do on BoJack?

It was nice, because all the rules I couldn’t break on BoJack—just because, you know, that’s the way its world was set up—I could break on this show. Raphael [Bob-Waksberg, BoJack Horseman creator and Tuca and Bertie executive producer] was equally excited to do that. It was like, “Okay, now we can use all these plant people I’ve been drawing for years, and you know, these buildings with boobs on them.” All this weird, super-surreal stuff, and all the strange things I draw in my sketchbook. This show was art directed by my friend Alison Dubois, who is just such a talent; she’s so good at giving buildings a personality, as you see in Plant Town. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Is there any fan reaction that you’re always happy to hear?

It’s so nice when people are like, “Oh, I feel attacked personally.” [Laughs] Like, “This is my problem, and I’m seeing it on TV.” It’s just nice that people feel represented and relate to the show.

As an extremely anxious person, I was so heartened by the show’s exploration of Bertie’s anxiety. Is that something you drew from life?

Yeah, I mean, I’m an anxious person. I have a lot of weird coping mechanisms, and I haven’t quite seen that represented in the same way before. So Bertie felt like a good, original character to me, and it’s just fun to plop a character with those issues into different scenarios and see how she reacts.

Do you have favorite shows or movies about female friendship that served as inspiration for Tuca and Bertie’s bond?

Oh, yeah, I have a lot. I really like the USA [Network] show Playing House; I feel like that show is underrated. It’s just so fun and sweet, and I like how warm it is. Broad City, obviously. It’s so good. Girls, I really like for a lot of reasons. The characters are so unlikable at times, but I think a lot of the episodes are really smart. There’s a lot of good friendship representation for boys too, like Jonah Hill and Michael Cera in Superbad. Their friendship is so sweet, and they’re very loving of each other, which feels kind of true to how I am with my friends.

Do you feel more like a Tuca or a Bertie?

[Laughs] I’m both! I think most people would think I was a Bertie, but I definitely have my Tuca moments. My boyfriend thinks I’m a Tuca. I mean, honestly, they’re both based on me, so it’s half and half.

Originally Appeared on Vogue