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June 27, 2012 3:30 PM
22 Comments
Louis C.K. on Finally Bringing His 'Louie' Character's Ex-Wife on Screen and Why She's African-American
Susan Kelechi Watson and Louis C.K. on the set of 'Louie'
FX
Like the real life C.K., Louie is the divorced father of two kids -- he shares custody of the girls with an ex who has so far stayed off screen while remaining a regular part of the character's life. In "Something Is Wrong," the season premiere, Louie calls Janet to arrange picking up their kids, and we see her answer, as played by actress Susan Kelechi Watson, who recently appeared in "Small, Beautifully Moving Parts." On a press call today, C.K. explained his decision to introduce the character as part of his need to "do something that's new to the show":
The show needs to keep going, so I'm introducing new elements each year. The stories I wrote led me to her. The show has broken off into fiction much more in the last year and this year, so it's really not drawing from my life anymore. This ex-wife character is completely not anything like my real ex-wife.
When I was drawing from my own life, I didn't want to have the story be about an ex-husband and ex-wife -- that relationship wasn't what I wanted to write about. I arrived at a version of it for this character that I thought was good, this woman who's well put-together and an added pressure to his life. And the actress was so good.
A lot of the stuff that we do on the show, I'm not sure I'm going to do it until I see who's playing it. It's part of having the freedom without a network where you have to run all the scripts and casting by people. I wrote the script with her in it and I had the casting people go look for someone, and I told them open it way up and just bring anybody. And I really liked what this woman did, so I decided to stick with the character.
To me, the racial thing is like -- when people probably first see her, their brains do a little bit of DNA map and go "I'm not sure I get how that would happen," and then I think with my show most people, they go "Oh, all right, just go ahead." And then they watch the scene. The thing that's important is what's getting said.
I think that her performances are really compelling and I like what that character brings out in the stories and in me on the show. To me that trumped whatever... logistical notion. She's really direct and very self-possessed. She's got a great demeanor for somebody who's moved on in life. That's what she feels like to me. She's moved on in life and she's on a good new chapter. She looks like she's in a better new chapter than me, as far as us having shared a chapter earlier. I think that's a good contrast.
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22 Comments
marilyn | April 6, 2013 9:00 PM
That is soo dumb if you are going to have a black mother then you need to have mixed kids. Why don't you just have black friends instead. It doesn't make sense. MJ is not the biological dad of any of those kids and if you think so you are blind and in denial.
davidw | April 6, 2013 10:34 AM
Aren't Michael Jackson's kids white?
That proves it.
Monsterguy | September 27, 2012 11:44 PM
While it's very rare white kids from a mixed race couple can happen, the strangest thing is when they have twins and one of them is white and the other black.
susie | September 24, 2012 5:09 PM
The problem with believability isn't about the kids. I don't believe that model-y stuck up woman would have married him. Why not cast a normal looking or unattractive African American woman, b/c that I would believe. He's just stroking his ego with a black model instead of a white one.
L.A. Lady | July 24, 2012 9:23 PM
YOU ARE MISINFORMED! ONE CAN LOOK WHITE AND HAVE A BIOLOGICAL BLACK PARENT! The actress Carol Channing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Channing lived her life as a white woman (she was adopted by white people and learned her biological mother was african-american).
I live in L.A. and there are teens attending my child's high school that LOOK WHITE and have a biological black parent. You CANNOT make any assumptions with DNA. Mariah Carey has a black venezuelan (extremely dark-skinned) father and she could have passed for a white woman. The actress Rashida Jones (daughter of quincy jones and peggy lipton) has said folks have not seen her a black.
Who cares?! This is a semi-autobiographical, fictitious tv show. Regardless of the fact that Louis CK loves to use the word n*gger (gag me!) he obviously embraces hiring the right person for the job regardless of their skin color. Get over it and watch the darn show!
Johnny | June 29, 2012 5:28 PM
I can't believe that this is even a question. How many interracial couples have children who look pretty much like one parent over the other? Lots. It happens. I know race is still an issue in this world but how much of it being an issue is because we make it an issue? Maybe what Louis CK provided is an opportunity for people to just get over it. I hope so.
Ken | June 29, 2012 9:03 AM
I thought in Season2, in the episode where the divorce papers as being signed, we see his ex's arms and hands and she was white. Am I wrong?
Amy | June 29, 2012 2:01 AM
He's so right about knowing how people would react, cause for a split-second I was like, wait, blonde daughters, what? Then the next instant was like, duh, that's SO Louie, I love it. He's awesome. It's like how in the first season he'd have a younger version of himself with a blue-eyed kid playing him and the same episode would have his real brown-eyed self- and that doesn't happen- and the show doesn't miss a beat. It's just all the little, different things that add up to making this show one of the best on television.
anon | June 28, 2012 1:26 PM
how many times do we see bi-racial children with both parents being black in tv shows and no one blinks an eyelid now its an issue coz this woman is supposedly "black"?
df | June 28, 2012 12:50 PM
LOL...he's definitely in fantasy land (alluding to his children looking white and their mother being black)...his on screen wife is gorgeous!
Penelope | June 27, 2012 6:41 PM
Cool.
No | June 27, 2012 6:28 PM
Hmmm. It's interesting that he can drop a black woman in as the mother of his children while the creator of "Girls" could expand her parameters from the get-go. Maybe this has something to do with Louis' own-mixed heritage?
Emily | June 27, 2012 6:10 PM
First I was like, "What?" and then I was like "O..K... that's totally Louie." ... exactly what he thought his audience would think. He's done it again - total genius.
Melissa | June 27, 2012 4:29 PM
How is it that Louis C.K. has single-handedly righted the world for the first time??? Louis, you're a genius! THANK YOU!