Nathan Fielder wasn’t the only special guest for a Deadline FY House + HBO Max panel on April 20 to discuss his HBO series The Rehearsal. The audience was also treated to an appearance from Kor Skeete, who enlists Fielder’s help in the series premiere.
Viewers will remember Skeete as the Brooklyn teacher who was worried about telling his trivia friend Tricia that he’s been lying to her about his higher education. When the pair first met, Skeete told Tricia that he had a master’s degree when, in fact, he never did. Throughout the episode, Fielder prepares Skeete for a trivia night at the Alligator Lounge, where he plans to let Tricia in on his secret.
“It’s been a very weird ride,” Skeete said of his life since the series aired. He explained that he’d become involved through a Craiglist ad, and he thought he’d merely be participating in a focus group. “What you just saw was the fun house version of my life. Very bizarre.”
The tone of The Rehearsal might lead to questions about whether its subjects are real people or paid actors. Though it has been discussed in the past, Skeete assured the audience he wasn’t aware of the project when he was recruited — and he didn’t know who Fielder was.
“I had not met this gentleman,” Skeete said, adding that the first time he was introduced to Fielder is during their first interaction on screen when Fielder visits Skeete’s apartment to learn more about him. “The shock you saw on my face in a lot of things was natural. I think I was picked out of a lot of people because I’m a natural reactor.”
To be fair, Fielder also added that he wasn’t exactly sure what the series was going to be either when the pilot was filmed. Re-creating an entire bar in a warehouse “unlocked” the concept for where the series should start, but Fielder said he knew he wanted to take it further than that.
“For the rest of the season, I was trying to create an environment that would sort of allow other things to happen. Because the second time you see a bar built, it’s not as cool as the first time,” he said. “But there’s other things related to like rehearsing and the anxiety of what’s going on in your mind and how we delude ourselves, which is like a big part of the show, is that self-delusion.”
Fielder also spoke about developing the series, which he said was inspired by his first HBO series Nathan For You, where he helps struggling small businesses boost their sales through experimental (and often confusing) marketing strategies.
“The goal is always for things that are better than your plan to happen. But I would try to map out like every scenario of what would happen … I would go into a situation, like, ‘OK, if they do this, I’ll do this. And if they do this, I’ll do that,’” he said. “And then all the time, these moments would happen that I didn’t see coming at all. And they’re often like the best moments in the show. But instead of thinking, ‘Oh, that’s like, cool that this thing happened,’ I would always be sort of mad at myself and go, ‘Man, why didn’t I see that coming?’ And so I thought that frustration was funny, because obviously, you can’t predict reality.”
Click on the video above to watch the conversation.
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