Why the Stars of You're the Worst "Were Told Not to Kiss" in Sex Scenes 

You\'re the Worst, FX\'s little series that could, has wormed its way into the hearts of critics and scored a devoted legion of viewers in the span of its stellar first season. In the first episode, Jimmy (Chris Geere) and Gretchen (Aya Cash) meet at a mutual friend\'s (or is it frenemy\'s?) wedding and share what they both intend to be a feelings-free, one-night stand. What follows is the sort of love story that resists being a love story with every fiber of its being. Show creator Stephen Falk (

Orange Is the New Black, Weeds) would much rather explore the awkward embarrassment of a failed threesome or a subplot about PTSD than come up with a charming spin on the meet-cute. In fact, the show is so averse to rom-com happy endings, its main characters are currently broken up.

We caught up with the show\'s leads, Aya, 32, and Chris, 33, by phone from their respective hometowns of NYC and Manchester, England, on the eve of Thursday night\'s season finale. The costars\' chemistry was palpable even via international conference call — they do actually finish each other\'s sentences — as they discussed Jimmy and Gretchen\'s story as a "they-will-and-how" romance rather than a "will-they-or-won\'t-they" one. They weighed in as to whether Gretchen\'s reformed-slut-turned-housewife bestie Lindsay (Kether Donohue) and Jimmy\'s war-vet roommate Edgar (Desmin Borges) might be on the verge of a romance of their own and even divulged the very last line in the finale episode\'s script — though, in the spirit of You\'re the Worst, don\'t expect it to wrap things up in a tidy bow. This isn\'t that kind of love story, after all.

POPSUGAR: So much of what you read about the show describes the characters as unlikable, but I don\'t understand where this new cultural obsession with characters being likable in TV and books and movies comes from. Does it bug you?

Chris Geere: Quite early on in interviews I said that they were unlikable people, and I\'ve completely changed my opinion of that now, having seen the series. I love these two. They are simply messed-up people. It doesn\'t mean they\'re unlikable. It just means they\'re not as perfect as other people. Them not necessarily being likable to some people makes them funny and interesting and brilliant to other people.

Aya Cash: The idea of likability, I agree, is sort of silly. If you think of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm or even Louie — these are not the kind of people who on the page you would be like, "Yes, that\'s who I want to be! That\'s the kind of life I want to lead!" or "Yes, that\'s the kind of friend I want to have!" but that doesn\'t stop them from being immensely entertaining and interesting, and this idea that we have to make everyone sort of palatable and likable, it\'s just . . .

CG: Boring. Never once was the show\'s objective to reinvent the wheel in terms of comedic, romantic characters who were meant to be relatable in an "adorable" way. Stephen always set out for us to kind of come up with a new suggestion on relationships, and I really do think it\'s achieved it. I look at these four people and how their stories have unraveled, and they\'ve really earned where they get to at the end, whether that\'s good or bad.

PS: I know Jimmy wasn\'t originally written as a Brit, so Chris, did you feel like you had to do some convincing during the audition process?

CG: Not really, actually. I kind of took it upon myself to simply audition with a British accent. As much as I\'m usually up for doing the accent if I think the role requires it or the director needs it, I read the dialogue out loud, and I just felt that all the ranting and the kind of pessimism lent itself to a bit more of a British accent. So I was just quite ballsy with it, really. I told my manager, "I would love to audition for this, but I\'m going to send a tape in British and see what they say." So I expected to send it off and get a straight "no," as all actors expect they\'re going to get, or a "can you do it in American?" Instead, I got a call the following week saying: "You\'ve got a screen test."

PS: You\'re both married, and Chris, you have a child. I wouldn\'t say the show is outwardly cynical about commitment, but we don\'t really see any healthy marriages on the series. Are there ever times where you balk at how marriage is portrayed on the show?

CG: No, not really. I consider myself, as Aya does, just very lucky to be in two very happy marriages.

AC: Don\'t speak for me! [laughs] Yeah, I don\'t really think it\'s against marriage. It\'s more against what is right for them. I don\'t think the sort of "normal" course is the path for them to take. Lindsay is obviously in a marriage that is not super healthy, as is Becca, but I don\'t think it\'s about all marriage. I think there are probably good examples of marriage, just not necessarily in these people\'s lives at the moment.

PS: Aya, I also feel like this show is rare in that Gretchen owns her sexuality in this way that\'s kind of guilt-free and very honest and it\'s not the weight of the world, the sexual decisions she makes, so that must have been refreshing as an actress.

AC: Absolutely, and it\'s why it\'s the first time I\'ve done a sex scene. I didn\'t do nudity, but I believed in pushing the envelope, because it was about her owning her sexuality and it\'s really important for the character. I think we punish women who deal with their sexuality powerfully, and I love that Gretchen sort of doesn\'t give a sh*t about that and doesn\'t buy into convention. She never worries she\'s a quote, unquote slut. She\'s out there having a good time, and she uses sex in her toolbox, but not as a way to define herself.

PS: And even for you, Chris, having done love scenes before, is there something different about the way they happen on this show? There\'s this awkwardness and humor in them that you don\'t really see very often, especially on cable shows that so often feature sex for a more titillating reason.

CG: The way that they\'re different is that the awkwardness of a first sexual encounter is very much there, and the scenes in between kind of justify that awkwardness. You watch love scenes and people kiss each other perfectly, and they look like they\'ve just been made up and their hair is in perfect shape, and we never really paid much attention to that because that was taking away from what was real. And that was the point. I think, of course, both of us were nervous in those scenes as human beings and as actors. Insecurities come into play. But at the end of the day, we all — everyone involved on that set — wanted everything to be genuine and to work and to feel comfortable and right. So we just kept working at it until it did. Those sex scenes in total last 30 seconds, a minute of scene time, but we spent all day on it.

AC: We also don\'t even kiss until the second episode, which I think is fascinating. I thought it was an interesting choice and we were told not to kiss in those sex scenes.

CG: There was a kiss that was also meant to be — when was it, Aya? In the "Sunday Funday" episode. The scene in "Sunday Funday" when I find Gretchen at a barbecue and I speak to her about the dilemma of her going to Tribeca with Ty. And at the end of that scene, script-wise, and shot on the day, we had this beautiful tracking shot with the camera pushing in on us kissing, and it was very rom-com. And when I watched the final cut, it wasn\'t there, and my instant reaction was: well done. Well done for recognizing that it didn\'t need to be there.

PS: Have you discussed the vision for a potential second season with Stephen? He\'s said he has a trajectory for these characters in mind, but has he shared it with you?

AC: I know exactly when I\'m allowed to get pregnant in life. [laughs] I\'m not telling you what season — and whose child — but I know when I\'m allowed to get pregnant. He\'s given us the basics and the structure of this relationship in terms of how it would work season to season, and he\'s plotted a bit ahead, but we don\'t know specifics. We know a little less about Lindsay and Edgar\'s trajectory, but we do know something for next season.

PS: You did sense a brewing romance between those two when they got stuck at the restaurant together . . .

AC: I think as actors they have great chemistry together, and that wouldn\'t — with no spoilers — be a wrong way to hope.

PS: We had that flashback episode. How much of an idea of Jimmy and Gretchen\'s pasts has he really filled you both in on?

CG: He\'s told me about my family. He says that I have two sisters, which aren\'t mentioned throughout the series, and who I\'m hoping make an appearance next year. I\'d love Lucy Punch to play my sister.

AC: Oh my god! I was about to say the exact same thing! I literally was like, "ooh, could we get Lucy Punch?"

CG: I met her very briefly at a comedy awards a couple of years ago and she wouldn\'t remember me, but we had a really great moment.

AC: I\'ll campaign for that. I think she\'s amazing.

CG: I do think Gretchen meeting Jimmy\'s side [of his family] could be a hilarious episode. Especially if they get to come over here.

AC: We\'re all plotting to shoot where we live. We want to go to England for Chris and we want to come to New York for me. I\'ve already pitched to Stephen. And my pitches to Stephen always get the same reaction. Which is: please stop pitching.

CG: I\'ve just been watching Californication — I\'m halfway through it — and there\'s an episode where they all go to New York for absolutely no reason, and I\'m like, "You all just wanted a holiday!" And production said, "OK." So I\'m hoping maybe by season three we can plan the honeymoon in the Maldives or something.

PS: It is interesting that neither of you live in LA, because there are a lot of things, especially in the "Sunday Funday" episode, that are so specifically LA-centric. Have you gotten to know the city in a unique way just through the show?

AC: Yeah. Des and Kether are also based in New York, but I think Kether\'s gotten sucked into LA. She might be there now. So, we all spent a lot of time exploring LA together since none of us live there, and that was lovely. And being able to shoot on location — especially on the East side — and sort of get to know those areas and the clichés behind the different neighborhoods was very fun. There\'s a lot that\'s comparable to New York in terms of "hipster" culture, which I think is an overused word to describe anyone who dresses a certain way or likes independent music or has facial hair. Let\'s be honest: we\'re probably all hipsters, the four of us. Des has a mustache right now! I think it\'s a kind of silly word, because if you\'re using it, you probably are it.

PS: One of the most unique parts of the show is how it handles Edgar\'s PTSD. I heard you have a military adviser on set.

CG: Of course. I think they had to kind of speak to someone who could give a genuine feel to everything, but Desi himself is so on it in terms of his research. I\'ve read all of the tweets in terms of the PTSD, and no one is saying "I can\'t believe they\'re doing this." Everyone is saying "Well done. Well done for actually speaking the truth about this within the comedy platform."

AC: Obviously, everyone knows now that Des is an incredible actor, but you guys have no idea of the physical transformation he made. Stephen was like: "I want you to bulk up a little. I want you to look like you were a really powerful soldier, in really good shape." And he started working out, went on a crazy diet, and changed his body for this show, which I think is amazing.

CG: Whilst Aya and I were at the craft table eating donuts.

CG: We went to the gym once a month, how much do they want?

AC: That\'s not true! I just want to be clear because — this is my pet peeve of mine, this thing about women and working out — I worked my ass off for the show for my own narcissism. I do not work out in life and I have not worked out since the show. However, what you see on the show, I worked very hard for. My husband was like, "This is what it takes to get you to work out? The threat of public nudity? I should have threatened to get you nude in public before," because he\'s very outdoorsy and rock climbs and things.

PS: I really want to talk about the breakup episode and how that was handled. What conversations did you have to strike this balance where it felt powerful and emotional, but still true to the characters and not cheesy or overwrought?

CG: This was something that Matt Shakman [director] and Stephen really allowed us a lot of time on. What was interesting about this scene for me, was that of the many takes we did, this is one of the only takes — the one they used — where one or both of us weren\'t crying. Aya was on fire that night. Absolutely brilliant and so terrifyingly honest, and she was acting in a way that I\'d never seen her before. It was actually quite intimidating, because I\'d always felt that Jimmy was in charge of Gretchen, and in this instance, she was completely in control. And my instant reaction was to really cow down as the weak one in the situation, and there were a couple of times when that fear kicked in and I just started crying in the scene. Which was totally wrong. A, it wasn\'t Jimmy — there was a little bit of me creeping in there. B, it wasn\'t the right time in the series, and C, it wasn\'t a parallel with the tone of the show.

AC: Matt is a brilliant director and he let us play it a bunch of different ways, but I remember after particularly emotional takes, he came back and I immediately said to him: "No. Wrong. Let me do that again. It should be more contained, because she\'s angry." Then she goes downstairs and has a moment where she\'s sort of allowed to collapse, but she can\'t collapse and lose her power in that scene. Same with Jimmy. So it was really fun to shoot and I think none of us on the show are super interested in being funny for funny\'s sake in terms of the context of the show. Comedy comes out of pain and drama comes out of comedy. It\'s all intertwined.

PS: So are you guys gonna get back together in the final episode?

AC: We can\'t tell you that! But I think ultimately whether or not they get back together on Thursday\'s episode, these two are meant for each other. I think the whole point is it\'s not a will-they-or-won\'t-they series. It\'s a they-will-and-how. That\'s not like the ultimate question: will they be together? Because they probably will at some point, whether it\'s in this episode or not.

CG: Right. It\'s how will they get there, because they won\'t get there the way most people get there. That\'s what the difference is to your regular rom-com.

PS: God forbid there\'s not a second season, do you feel like this week\'s finale would spell a satisfying ending in some way?

CG: Oh, of course. The script itself — I can\'t tell you what happens in the final scene — but the last line of the script was the stage note "leading them on to whatever comes next." There\'s just so much that can happen. There\'s so much that does happen in the last episode. We\'re closing a lot of stories and opening up a whole bunch more. Especially with Paul and Becca and Vernon. There\'re opportunities for millions of storylines. I actually feel quite envious of Stephen to get in the writers\' room and come up with the genius again.

AC: Stephen said a great thing in an interview I read, which is that the first season feels like a novel. So the novel ends, but it\'s a part of a series of novels. So it\'s Game of Thrones. [laughs] Game of Thrones is on TV with a lot of viewers right now, so let\'s call it Game of Thrones. But no, the season ends, but you will want to know more. And if there is no more, you will at least feel like you finished a great novel.

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