MADE Legends Edition | Page 51

MADE MADE FEATURES XXXX MADE: How do you create content that builds a loyal audience? PP: You know, I don’t know. I didn’t create all the shows I’ve worked on, but I’ve contributed to them. I always try to ask myself if this is anything that I would watch or if this is something that I’m personally interested in. MADE: So, do you actually put your real life situations in the work that you create or is it all imagination? PP: Yes. I think it’s not just about writing what you know, it’s also about writing what you’re experiencing. There is something that I’m developing now that has nothing to do with anything I know, but it personally has to do with my personal life right now. So, I’m putting it in a show where I can do that and I can talk about those things. So I think as long as you’re honest with yourself and you’re putting PHOTO CREDIT: a part of you in the show HBO whichever part that it is - as long as you’re truthful to that. Truth, I think, is always a great place to start. What hit, what doesn’t hit...who knows. It’s the time we live. I don’t know if our show would’ve gotten picked up if we had a different director because they probably wouldn’t have shot it. I don’t know if they would’ve gotten another showrunner. So many of those of things are kind of like whatever you believe in (God, the universe) putting those things together. Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I think at that point I was ready to try something else. I was just looking to make a change just within itself, because I had been there for years and I’ve been on a lot of shows that were just starting. I’ve been on Happy Endings and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and they were great shows, but there it always in the beginning (which was a blessing), but it takes a lot of work to get a show up and figure out what’s the DNA of the show and what’s the spine of the show. But when I was on Girlfriends, that show had been on for four years already, and I was coming into a machine so it was a different energy there. We kind of know the rules since the rules have been set. So I was looking to do something different and I just happen to look on “Deadline” that morning. And I’ll never forget I was in my office early and I have never got there that early. And I was just scrolling through Deadline and it was posted that HBO was going to do this pilot and they needed a showrunner. MADE: Since you mentioned the universe, let’s chat about you and Issae Rae. How did you all even meet and start collaborating to MADE: Now that really sounds like the end up combining creative energy to produce Universe calling. such a great show? PP: I remember I called my agent that PP: That’s a good question. So, what morning. I was like “Hey, get me a meeting happened was I was involved in the show to run this show”. I was just adamant about made-magazine.com | 51