Go Girls' writer's blog: Episode one
Episode 1 - January - THIS BLOG IS FROM RACHEL LANG THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, CREATOR AND WRITER OF GO GIRLS
Our lovely show finally started on the tele. I watched it with my fellow writers Gavin and Kate McDermott, our buddy Sarah N and the enthusiastic McDermott whanau, who are the best built-in fan club a writer could ever have. Kate's netball team were tucked up in bed (she has four daughters, as well as a career).
Yes, she's busy, but fortunately also always up for a good time . . .
So here we are cramming into the lounge as the bottles are cracked open and there are texts from the actors Bron and Jay and Alix, who are nervously watching elsewhere. (Anna is still in Oz playing Mr Asia's slapper.)
It must be strange for the actors, since we wrapped months ago. And they've only seen a few finished episodes and even then not with the music and titles.
As it kicked off, it was also strange to look at Taka Beach in the sunshine and remember how hard it was to even get one fine day to shoot those beach scenes. The series was made last winter, the wettest nastiest winter in years. Hats off to the gals and Jay for making it look like it was hot, when they were actually freezing their tits off.
I loved casting Go Girls. The casting bit is always kind of scary for writers because by then you've been living with characters in your head for quite a long time, and stories and scripts are already well underway.
You know the characters so well, but will the right actor be out there? (Especially in a small country like ours). It's not just how a character might look, but how you want people to feel about them.
For Cody we had a big list of asks. We wanted someone who would be 'big for television', (ie: who looks like real NZ women actually do, ie, not a stick). We wanted someone preferably Maori, and staunch but also vulnerable. We thought it might be a tall order.
But there was Bronwyn, who made us laugh and cry on her first audition. The only challenge we had was convincing the network that she could transform to beautiful. Bronwyn was very patient through all of this, and with every recall and photo session we just fell more in love with her.
Anna was an obvious standout from the start for Princess Amy, bossy and beautiful, and one of the most experienced of our leads along with Jay, who was in Being Eve once upon a time, and is now mostly working in Oz.
Even though Kevin often is the quietest in scenes, his reactions are important, because the show is from his point of view. Jay is amazing and also possibly a God. He can convey so much with a look or a thought or a gesture. The weird thing is also that Jay is actually a hottie in real life, but somehow when he became Kev he transformed into the kind of ordinary bloke that Amy would overlook.
In the end the hardest part to cast was the one we thought would be easy. Britta is yes, a bit of a ditz, but a well meaning one. An eternal optimist and enthusiast. We saw lots of great young actresses for the role, but most of them just seemed to worldly wise and sensible to be Britta. Quite late in the process we saw Alix, who was still at drama school, she was gorgeous and unrestrained. Hallelujah, we had a Britta.
Tania Nolan, who plays witchy Angelina, was the first person we cast. Her audition just blew us away. Matt Whelan, who plays Brad, was also an instant hit. He's also not long out of drama school and a real find (also popular with the editors and gals in the production office because they all had crushes on him). When Angelina entreats Brad at the end of ep 1 that he must love her, the way Matt says 'I think so' never fails to crack me up. He manages to combine fear, guilt and bewilderment in just three words.
Once we had our leads, we could cast their families, who feature a lot more in upcoming episodes. Stephen Lovatt and Theresa Healey are Amy's warring parents, and Willie Davis and Bronwyn Bradley are Cody's Mum and Dad. Anyway, it's probably good to talk more about Cody's family later when that story hots up . . .
Britta has an unusual family, in that there are no guys in the equation. She's from a long line of solo mums who can do a lot with a benefit. Her mother, Fran, (Ingrid Park) has broken the mould and become (to the family's horror) a real estate agent. Then there's Jan and Nan and also Gran, who wasn't in ep 1, but turns up next week. Ingrid's been in lots of our shows before. We still cherish the memory of McKenzie Choat on Shortland Street, the Lionel torturer and clinic destroyer. Ingrid was also in Burying Brian. Annie Whittle and Irene Wood are Nan and Jan, a fabulously badly behaved double act.
Back at Allen Street, the McD whanau and Sarah N are an excellent audience and love Cody in the bridal shop. (The changing room scene is one of the rare times when I've got to use a real life experience in a script. It wasn't a bridal shop, but I did end up in a changing room once for a remarkably long time avoiding someone I didn't want to see . . . )
The McDs and Sarah love Kev, they feel sorry for Amy and they are worried that Brad will actually buy the house for three mill.
(As it happens, Kate's mum is a real estate agent, not that Fran is in any way based on Kate's mum. Though as it happens, Kate's sister is called Fran . . .)
Another odd thing is that when Gavin stuck in the line about 'beach front, recession- proof' it must have been around June last year. At that time, we had no idea that a recession was looming, and some of the things that are coming up in future eps seem kind spookily prescient. Though at the time we were going: 'well it could maybe happen' . (Just a shame we can't write a character winning Lotto and be sure that would come true.)
But then very fast, the show is all over. 44 minutes of tele, if you don't count the ads, and that's it, the end of episode 1.
It now remains to be seen if an audience apart from us, Sarah N and the McDs will like it. But we feel pretty happy with how it turned out., and there are 12 more episodes to go on the epic quest to get rich, married and famous in only one year. And also get that sports steering wheel . . .
Kate or I will probably keep posting, so if you've got any questions about the show, let us know.
Rachel
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