Love You to Death stars spill on hilarious ‘improvised sex scene’ (Image: APPLE)
Love You to Death may have one of the best TV comedy scripts in recent memory – but a lot of scenes were totally improvised.
The off-beat new Spanish rom-com follows neurotic Raúl (played by Joan Amargós), whose world comes crashing down around him when he’s diagnosed with brain cancer and breaks up with his long-term girlfriend in quick succession.
Meanwhile, free-spirited marketing pro Marta (Verónica Echegui) is also rocked when she finds out she’s pregnant.
Despite being from totally different worlds, they make a connection at a funeral for a mutual friend and start seeing each other during one of the most chaotic periods of both their lives.
Created by well-known Spanish filmmaker Dani de la Orden, known for Casa en flames (A House on Fire) and Loco por ella (Crazy About Her), the series’ irreverent and edgy sense of humour could prove to be a hit with fans, as well as Amargós and Echegui’s natural chemistry.
Raúl is reeling after a break-up and cancer diagnosis (Image: APPLE)
“I think that some of the moments that are really clever, sometimes they were made on set,” Amargós recalled in an interview with Express Online.
“Dani de la Orden likes to improvise. When we had a little bit of time, or the arc of the scene was already rolled, he’d decide to make another version improvising or making crazy decisions. And sometimes that was the one.”
His co-star agreed: “He was always pushing for more. Once we had the one that was working, he would go somewhere else and introduce something else.”
Teasing a wild moment from the two-part series premiere, Echegui went on: “Like, ‘Oh you have a sex scene in the bathroom, so let’s put a cockroach here and see what happens!’
The unlikely pair feel an instant connection – but will their relationship work? (Image: APPLE)
“Because he’s scared of death and let’s see how he deals with it in that state of mind in which he is.
“This is one of the ones that I remember that made me crack. I really struggled not to laugh in the middle of the scene.”
De la Orden also praised his collaborators, co-creator Natalia Durán and director Oriol Capel, who clearly kept things loose on set.
“You had to be really open for the directors’ ideas and accept them,” Amargós said. “He has a thousand ideas he’s proposing and you have to try.
“Sometimes it works, sometimes not, but be in this kind of state where everything is possible.
“We had some rehearsal, we had the script and some things decided. And it was so different between something that was written and memorised and something that was created live with an idea, in the present.”
And Echegui added: “We were on set and he’ll come and say, ‘OK, you know what? Just forget about this.’
“He’ll go like this for five minutes then he’ll say, ‘OK, let’s go and let’s do it’.
“And he’ll just leave you to it and you’ll reproduce whatever he was bringing with his very alive mind.”
Creator de la Orden likened the series to acclaimed comedy-drama Fleabag and it’s already picking up rave reviews ahead of its premiere this week.
AV Club called it “consistently funny, occasionally swoony, and it’s poignant and aching too”, so this is definitely one to add to your streaming watchlist.
Love You to Death continues Wednesdays on Apple TV+.