‘Man Seeking Woman’: Is There a Long-Term Commitment in Josh and Lucy’s Future?
You may recall seeing Katie Findlay on How to Get Away With Murder, where she played murder-suspect turned murdered-woman, Rebecca Sutter. Or maybe it was her stint as welcoming assassin Eve on The Magicians. Now Findlay has joined the cast of Man Seeking Woman, where she finally gets to show off her fun side.
Findlay stars as Josh’s (Jay Baruchel) girlfriend Lucy in the FXX surrealist comedy. When we meet Lucy in the Season 3 premiere, she’s a wildly energetic graphic designer who wants to change everything in Josh’s apartment to impress her friends, which in the past would have sent her relationship with Josh spiraling. (Josh’s love interests rarely date him for more than two episodes straight). Luckily for Josh and Lucy all ends well. And get this: Findlay is in all 10 episodes this season, so get used to seeing her around.
Findlay gave TV Insider a little insight into where Lucy and Josh’s relationship is headed this season and teases some of the wild moments to come.
How would you describe Lucy?
I’ve started saying that Lucy is like if a Disney princess had a horrible temper and no time. She was raised sort of conservatively and a little bit protected, but she was a bit of a punk, graphic novel teenager and she has become this highly expressive, antsy muppet in her adult life—big feelings, big ideas and a huge temper—which is always fun for me because I also have one of those. And she loves the s–t out of Josh.
Will we see her temper come out towards Josh?
Oh, god, yeah—of course! But the nicest thing about them is they both have gigantic hearts and are genuine in their weirdness and they’ve just happened to have found one other person that gets it and is the same kind of weird.
Was this an odd transition for you to go from roles like Rebecca on HTGAWM to a surrealist comedy?
No, I’m a very strange person. The joy of working on this show is that, if you think of how something can be just a little bit weirder and you ask a grownup, they let you do it. Not only do they let you do it, but they want you to and they’re excited about it. There’s a tenderness to how surreal the show is and it’s a very welcoming one.
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What does Lucy find attractive about Josh?
Josh is always available. Like, he has the sweetest heart and is just an open dude, and he’s going to do his best and show up and if you want to go to this thing – f–k it, he’ll go to this thing with you. Even if he’s going off completely in the wrong direction – which by the way, Lucy does too, constantly – he’s genuine and he’s kind and he loves her so incredibly and so stubbornly. There are things about her that have driven other people away because she’s snippy and a smart-ass and super particular and wacky. I think that she loves the way that he tries and the way that he gets her and Jay Baruchel is obviously a wonderful person and wonderful guy so he helps him become so likeable.
Lucy’s career as a graphic designer is going to get in the way a bit down the road too, right?
It definitely does. Especially dating in your 20s, I feel like slowly finding your professional feet and building yourself a private space as a working professional is a huge thing in anybody’s life. It’s bound to effect your most intimate relationships, but being Josh and Lucy, they miscommunicate fantastically for a little while in all kinds of horrible directions, which is good because if they didn’t we wouldn’t have a show.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve had to do this season as Lucy? You dealt with a puma attack in the premiere, but there are also forest creatures and an appearance from God coming up.
Oh, yeah, God is around! It all runs together in kind of a fever dream now, but I beat down a wall with a crowbar, which was not particularly crazy but fun. Being a tiny woman on television it’s nice whenever people let me kick the ass of something. There were muppets, not trademark muppets, and monsters, really big monsters. I walked onto set and they were actually standing in front of me, which is the greatest part of having so much of a show be so lovingly practical. Most of the stuff that you see, it’s really there. My very first day was a chase scene. I was tied up in a giant, boiling pot of water. You name it. It’s nuts. I had new bruises every day.
Lucy interacts with Josh’s family this season. Who is she most compatible with?
Well, my blinding, incredible love for Britt Lower makes me want to say Liz [Josh’s sister]. Liz and Lucy get along really well because Lucy’s so much like Josh that Liz finally has a female brain highway into Josh’s life and I also think she’s been waiting for this for awhile. Liz has her s–t together and has been waiting for someone to hop in and lighten her workload a little bit taking care of Josh, and she loves him so she wants him to be happy. We’ve [Lower and Findlay] been pitching a buddy cop or detective series to Simon [Rich, the show’s creator] every chance we get.
How about Mike (Eric André)? How does the best friend-girlfriend relationship go?
Lucy and Mike is an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. It starts with an ice-out, moves into complete and utter disaster and ends in one of the coldest days of shooting I’ve ever had.
Is Lucy going to be looking for a bigger commitment out of Josh?
The thing about Lucy that I’ve talked about with Simon a lot is that Lucy really has valued independence and carving out her own space in the world. She’s a really high-energy, particular person, but she’s a total sap. Something she and Josh have in common is they seem to back into things by accident and then rise to the occasion, so there will definitely be some of that.
What’s the biggest hurdle we’ll see Lucy and Josh face this season?
I think that through the course of this season, Lucy and Josh learn to communicate. They realize that there really is someone that has their back and they can be weird or grumpy, or crazy, or run off to follow some insane dream, or have some huge insecurity and no matter how humongous it seems to them, this person is really there for them, on purpose. They see you and they want you the way that you are. The road to understanding that is long and incredibly intimidating, and I think that realizing you’ve found someone like that is terrifying. Finally here’s a person who’s not going away and you have to admit to yourself that you’re loveable and maybe this is the person that’s supposed to love you. That’s as scary as any giant muppet monster.
Man Seeking Woman, Wednesdays, 10:30/9:30c, FXX
