‘Peep Show with female losers? Bring it on!’ – Sam Bain on why comedy needs diversity
When he moved to Hollywood, the writer made a decision to think his way into the minds of characters who weren’t white and male
I’m in a huge, fake cavern in a huge, empty warehouse in the huge, boiling New Mexico desert. I’m part of a film crew shooting the climactic scene of the first US film I’ve written, Corporate Animals. It’s a comedy about a group of co-workers who go caving on a team-building trip and end up trapped underground with no food or water.
The crew has downed tools as the actors, producers and director perch uncomfortably on polystyrene rocks. We’ve stopped to have an impassioned debate over racial politics – specifically over how much racism is too much to put in one character’s mouth. The debate revolves around where the line is, between something that is provocative and shocking enough to make the drama work, and something that is so provocative and shocking that it’s just… horrible.