Natascha McElhone Gives Hints Of Next Season’s “Californication”

In the final moments of the Season 1 finale of Showtime’s sexy adult series Californication, Hank Moody (David Duchovny) did not stop the wedding ceremony of his ex-girlfriend Karen, though he clearly wanted to. Even so, the final moments had Karen rethinking the vows she had just taken, scrambling into the back seat of Hank’s battered Porsche and fleeing the wedding with her ex and their daughter.

But since the main story of the first season of the adult comedy had Hank trying his best — which was hardly very good, given the abundance of loose Hollywood babes who crossed his path — to get back together with Karen, where does the series go now? We connected with Natascha McElhone, who plays Karen, on the Los Angeles set where they are in the process of filming the last three episodes of the new season to ask about life on the set and what fans can expect next season.

Karen is the moral center of the series …

(McElhone laughs) I’m not sure how long you can say that this season.

But isn’t it fair to say that without Karen poor Hank would totally fall apart?

I don’t know. I just don’t know. It’s very hard to be objective when you’re right in the midst of it.

Season 1 ended in a shocking turn of events. But Hank’s desire to be with her was such a huge story arch for the first season, where does the story go now that they are together?

It’s tricky but somehow Tom [series’ creator Tom Kapinos] navigates that and it’s pretty interesting so (pauses), well, you’ll see.

I’m assuming they are not staying together long?

I think that’s a good assumption to make.

Since you are filming while pregnant, will the pregnancy become part of the plotline of the story?

It hasn’t been part of the storyline. I thought they might use it, but they have another character who’s pregnant — just the character, not the actress — and that will figure into the story.

What should people be looking forward to in Season 2?

It’s hard to summarize when one is in the midst of filming it. And what you shoot is not necessarily what ends up on the screen. … Hank, David, as you know, is killingly funny. And Charlie and Marcie really develop in a very outlandish way. Hank gets involved in another project, which offers a whole other side of the series which we didn’t have last season. Becca does develop more and become interested in boys. Hank and I do spend a lot of time together this season, much more than last season, and I also flirt around the edges of danger in a way that I didn’t do so much last season.

Has anyone in the series ever looked at a scene and just said no?

No?

I mean sometimes it gets little out there…

Oh! No. No. (laughs) not as far as I know. We come very willingly and excited to be part of it. It is a really lovely bunch of people, as well, not where you are made to feel exposed to strangers in any way. … I can’t think of a nicer way to do a TV series. It’s only 3 months of the year but it’s like a great extended family. I know all actors say these sorts of things but there’s not a threatening atmosphere at all on the set — because it’s a comedy, really.

It’s interesting to see a series that is so very naughty, but at the same time so incredibly sweet. Was that your reaction when you first read the script?

No, because TV is very different from films. [What I read] was sort of like the scaffolding of an idea rather than a fully fleshed out, realized vision. … When you’ve got 29 pages, there’s not a whole lot of character going on there.

There was only the first one, the pilot. I know David and Tom had much more conversations because obviously the series was modeled on that character. But when I spoke to Tom, he was great, and I had a lot of faith in where he wanted to go with it and how he didn’t want to follow the conventional formulaic TV serial idea. I found that inspiring, that he wanted to keep things loose and he wanted a lot of input from the actors and so we improvised a lot. He was very happy to accommodate other ideas.

Which scripts last season did you think were the funniest?

Very often what works best is something that was not that hysterically funny on the page. It’s when you play out the situation between the characters it comes to life and becomes funny. There’s a fight this season between Hank and another character. And the way it evolved … I was howling with laughter just watching them. And on the page I didn’t necessarily know it would be nearly as funny as it was.

For me, what I love about this show is the juxtaposition between something quite dark at times and something almost Pythonesque — very silly, very surreal and out there. I love that it pulls you in and out. Tom’s very good at pulling your heartstrings when he wants to. He doesn’t do it very often but when he does I think it’s beautifully done. We have an episode toward the end of last season which is quite sensitive and thought-provoking and more involved in the dynamics of relationships than people having sex or making one another laugh or being irreverent or outrageous or rebellious or whatever the character does. … I can’t remember what episode it was, 8 or 9, when Hank’s dad died. I love that Tom’s got the courage to sketch on a canvas and see what comes down.

This series touches on a lot of Hollywood excesses. As one who lives there, at least sometimes, is Hollywood really so lacking in substance?

Quite a lot of the First World is, not just Hollywood. There’s a lot of show without content that we accept unquestioningly right now. It can be a little empty at times. But there’s also a huge advantage and a lot happening that is totally frightening — and both are going on simultaneously.

Season 1 of Californication is having an encore run on Showtime in August with the new season set to premiere in September.