I know you’re a big fan of Easter eggs and placing hints throughout the series for fans. Were there any in the third season that hinted at what the plot might be for this surprise movie?
I don’t really think of Easter eggs as hints, but more just winks to further the storytelling with narrative foreshadowing, I would say, versus clues to find.
For instance, one thing people didn’t pick up on was in the first episode of the season, there’s a SZA song that’s playing when Belly and Jeremiah are in bed, “Open Arms.” There’s a line in the song—“go to Paris.” It’s also a song where she’s saying, “You’re the only one that’s holding me down,” in a positive way. And then, it kind of shifts toward the end of the song. So I would say that is narrative foreshadowing, and I would consider that to be an Easter egg to maybe deepen your experience of a story, but I wouldn’t call it a clue.
Have you seen any Easter egg videos that are just totally off base? I saw one about the number 14, and a poster behind Belly in one scene being somewhere in the 14th arrondissement. Is that something that you were conscious about, or do you ever see these videos and you’re like, “What?”
No, that’s not something that I was doing. I saw people saying that they thought there would be 14 episodes, and then I knew they would be disappointed when they realized that there weren’t.
Will there be big time jump in the film?
It’s too early to say.
In your press release, you mentioned that you wanted to tackle one more of Belly’s milestones. What do you consider a milestone? How would you personally define it?
I would define it as a significant moment in life.
I assume you’re going to stay tight-lipped on the milestone Belly hits in the film?
Yeah. In part because script isn’t final yet, so it’s really early days. I don’t want to get people excited about something too soon before it’s final final.
I want to talk about the finale episode, the intimate scene. It was a lot sexier than anything we’ve seen on the show before. Can you tell me about the intention behind that?
The intention was to show the passion for each other, and that this is the culmination of all the waiting and longing and yearning. It was a chance for Conrad to really show Belly how he felt about her, and that he deeply loved her.
I think you can see from Belly’s side, too, that she loves him as well. She allows herself to get lost in that moment, and she’s the one who’s driving that moment. That’s always been important for me, that you see Belly really is in the driver’s seat when it comes to those experiences. Like the first time they have sex, or when she kisses Cam in the car, she is the one who is driving it forward. She’s really exuberant and excited and fully in.
