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Writer Louisa Levy’s journey with… Off campus It’s been long.
The showrunner was sent an open-ended writing assignment and read Elle Kennedy’s new adult romance novels that serve as the source material for the show. She couldn’t put it down. “It’s incredibly easy to read,” Levy says. “There are a lot of books that I’ve read that I love, but I don’t see a way to put them on a TV show.” Hollywood Reporter On zoom from Off campus Production office in Vancouver.
The writer, along with the rest of the cast and crew, returned to Canada to begin filming the second season of the show, which was announced months before its premiere on Prime Video. “For these books, I could see what I would do with the TV show version of them,” she continues.
The writer was drawn to the idea of telling a more mature romance story — the books are technically “new adult,” a genre centered around college students and those in their early 20s. “I love YA, but I loved the possibility of being able to tell a romance story that delves into deeper things,” she says. “[A story] Which delves into Hannah’s experience with sexual assault, which delves into Garrett’s experience with domestic violence, but also [does it] In a way that still feels light and fun at the end of the day.
Levy, a first-time showrunner, pitched her idea to the series’ production company, Temple Hill, who loved it and brought it to Amazon. It was a success. The studio loved it, and Levy closed her deal. Then the writers’ strike happened and she wasn’t able to do anything. “I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous [whether or not] “I was still as enthusiastic about the project as I was at the beginning when the strike ended,” she says.
“Sometimes you just have to harness your enthusiasm and then it kind of dies, and that didn’t happen with this project,” Levy says. “I was as excited, if not more so, when the strike ended.”
Below, Levi speaks with THR on Off campusJourney from page to screen, as you learn which characters will lead the seasons and what to expect in Season 2.
How are the preparations for the second season going?
We are in Vancouver. We are getting ready. We’re doing our best to stay focused on Season 2, although it’s very exciting to see fans’ reactions to Season 1. Truly our fans are the best, and one of my favorite parts – I don’t even want to say favorite because there are so many amazing parts around the world experiencing this show – but one of my favorite parts is also the reactions of the artists. We have the big names, we have JLo, we have Elton John, but we also have the new artists. I love that we can give them a platform and introduce the world to artists like G-Flip, Chloe Qisha, and Bea and Her Business. There are a lot of great artists on our show.
I’m actually talking to The Beaches this week.
I love them so much. They were so nice and wonderful about the whole process.
What was the development process like after the strike?
I collaborated with Temple Hill and Amazon to write my first pilot script. As with any development process, it took a few drafts to zero in on what it was and what the access point was. I think that’s always been the format that we have in terms of closing the deal. That was always the core of that first episode, but how far we got into some of the other stories and the other characters and what we were shooting for, those things were [in the] Development process.
How was the partnership with the studio?
It was really fun to be able to find partners who wanted me to make the same offer they were looking for. I think that was critical for Amazon, to have partners that wanted a more exciting offering. They wanted to tell really emotional stories, but with a foundation of joy and positivity because no matter how emotional it gets, we always stay in the place of positivity and optimism at its heart. It’s a hopeful show and I think that’s what I wanted to watch. This is what I wanted to write. I loved that Amazon wanted it too. I did the pilot and then they asked for coordination. In that document that I originally put together, I had a 10-ring format. They asked for eight episodes, so I took the ten episodes and divided them into eight episodes. From that document, I got the green light to pitch.
This show has such a rich ensemble. However, the casting process is a little different for most shows. You’re casting supporting roles with actors you know will have to lead future seasons. I’ve talked to most of them, and it seems like many of them have auditioned for multiple roles. How was the process?
We were highlighting the essence of the characters, so using the books as an outline was very helpful. Elle writes these characters so clearly [that] We know who Dean is, and we know who Garrett is. We wrote the entire season for the most part before we cast anyone, so we knew what we were going to ask them to do in terms of skill level as an actor. We also know because we know what’s going on in Tucker’s book, and we know what Tucker needs to be able to do, and what Jalen needs to be able to do to make it happen.
How did you do that?
One of the things we did for Tucker, for example, was one of the test scenes was a future scene that might never get shot because we didn’t write the season, but it was a future version of Tucker because we wanted to see it. [how that would look] When we were testing people. I changed his age order. He’s the youngest now, which is different, to be able to get through his season and keep him in college. Some of the ones we tested felt too small, which seemed appropriate for this season, but we wanted to make sure there was range.
One of the nice things about Jalen is that he really has that range. He’s ready for it. We can see season one of Tucker, and we can also see season four of Tucker, so [we know] That we have room to grow with him.
How do you move forward with characters who were leads in one season and then move them into a supporting role for the next season? What is this balance like?
The second season really became more of an ensemble than the first season. Season 1 really had those communal moments – and I think episode 5 is a good example of that. Tucker has his own story in episode five. Hannah and Garrett have their own story. Jules and Logan have a story of their own. It’s really more of a classic ABC TV story model. In Season 2, we lean more into that so we can tell Hannah and Garrett’s continuing story.
Not only are we dropping them and letting them ride off into the sunset, but their romance isn’t the backbone of this season like it was in season one. We still have moments with them. We will continue to exist in their duality. We’ll still be able to see the challenges they face together, but that’s not the thing that’s driving the shape of the season in the same way. We’re leaning a little more towards this model. That doesn’t mean we won’t get plenty of romantic moments for Allie and Dean as they headline their season. We just have more of a group model and that will allow us to exist in this community, in this space where we now know all the characters that came out of the first season. We don’t have to introduce anyone, we just have to live in it.
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Mika told me that she knew from her first audition that Ally would lead season two. What was the decision-making process like in choosing the characters to lead each season? At what point in the process did it become clear or did you always know?
It’s always been that way because one of the things that, from my first shot when I was pitching Temple Hill and Amazon, I needed to do as a television writer to adapt is figure out how to not just take this story that’s in this book and put it on screen. But also because it’s a TV show and not a movie [is] Where to get this forward moving motor. One of the things that seemed important to me was… Listen, I came from the school of network television. I was helpful Gray’s Anatomy. This is where I learned the foundation of my storytelling skills, And you always have an exciting adventure. Whether it’s the end of a season, the end of an episode, or even a commercial, you have to fight for the audience’s attention.
The balance I had to strike is that book lovers want happily ever after. As they should. I’m also a romance book for girls. I want it happily in two years. I definitely don’t want the season to end with Hannah and Garrett breaking up. I want to give them their lasting happiness in this season. This means we need to break them up mid-season. This means we need to bring them back together, and give them a romantic sense of happily ever after, but what are you watching for season 2? How do we get people to not just move on to the next show. From the beginning, my solution to this problem was to tell about a book and a half per season. Obviously it’s not an exact calculation, but we tell the beginning, middle, and end of Hannah and Garrett’s story, and the beginning and middle of Allie and Dean’s story, and we leave it hanging. This has always been the structure.
And looking forward?
Now, we pick up Allie and Dean’s story in Season 2, and we get to start the next love story we’ve been leaving hanging. There will always be a happily ever after, there will always be something hanging on, a question mark that tells the audience what to expect in the next season. That was always part of the format of the show when I pitched it. We were very clear when we were making the plan because we needed people to know that even if they didn’t have much to do in the first season, they would be expected to step into bigger roles in future seasons, because we wanted to have actors who were willing and able to take on that challenge and also because it was important to Jenna and I to have a cast that acted as leaders on set.
How did you set that tone?
We sent them an email before we started filming Season 1 and told them it was important to us that no one thinks of call sheets as a hierarchy because even though it’s Hannah and Garrett’s season, it’s all our show. We said, if any of you step on the set, it will be as if you are number one on the call-up list, which means it comes with the responsibility of setting the tone for being a leader. It also means that you can all share that responsibility, that you’re all building this show together and not just leaving Bill and Ella with that responsibility. That was great because it connected them from a really early moment, but it also set the tone for what the show was and where the buck lay not just for the first season, but across the entire series.
Can you tell me more about your work with an Intimacy Coordinator?
I’ve worked with intimacy coordinators before, so it was very important to me to not just find a coordinator, but to find a really good one. We did that and it was non-negotiable because even before we hired Ella, we knew our staff was going to be young. We didn’t know how young they would be, but we knew they would be young, and we wanted to make sure that every care and every responsibility was taken to create a safe space for our actors. Kathy Kadler, our Intimacy Coordinator who was on the first season with us and is now back for the second season, is very thoughtful. She also has a background in mental health, which is helpful because we explore mental health things on the show. Being aware of that, especially since in this case, for Hannah, those two things intersect in her experience of her sexuality. assault. We were able to be very aware of that and how we set up those scenes in terms of taking responsibility for the character and how we portray that character.
I’m curious about the conversations surrounding Ella, in particular, given that she’s younger than Bill and in general.
When we met and fell in love with Ella, it was very important for me before closing any deal or any contract to have an in-depth conversation with her. As much as I loved her and thought she was a star, and now she is, I wasn’t about to put her on set if I felt she wasn’t equipped for it. I spoke with her on the phone and told her everything that was expected of Hannah this season because I didn’t want any surprises and I told her what the process of working with the intimacy coordinator would be like. I told her to reach out to people she trusts and knows who have done sex work and ask them about that experience. I could tell her everything I would do from my perspective as a director and producer, but I’d never been in her shoes. I can only tell her that I will do everything in my power to make her feel safe. I won’t make her do anything she’s not comfortable with, but I’ll never know what that feels like. I encouraged her to talk to someone. I don’t know if she did, but the fact that I told her not to close this deal if she felt even slightly that this wasn’t something she was ready and excited to do — that was really important to me. Honestly, that was important to me with everyone.
I still say that on a regular basis. We will not rotate the camera if you do not feel comfortable. You may think you are comfortable one day. Then you show up, we’re ready to get down to business and never feel uncomfortable again. I will never make you do something you don’t want to do. I tell managers that everyone we hire has the same spirit. No one will force anyone to do something they don’t want to do. This creates safety, but it also creates a good feeling for the cast because when they’re shooting these scenes, they’re excited to do it, and they’re looking forward to doing these scenes because they’re collaborators. They are not just dolls.
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Off campus The entire first season is now streaming on Prime Video. He reads THRCover the show here.
