Now that “Fleabag” is over and won all sorts of awards, Phoebe Waller-Bridge can open up more about the process of creating what many believe is one of the best TV series of the last decade. And in a new interview with The Guardian, what we realize is that Waller-Bridge isn’t a mad genius that was able to sit down and write 12 incredible episodes of TV in one sitting. Even though she’s probably a genius, writing “Fleabag” was a bit more arduous than you might imagine, and there are full episodes and an alternate ending that fell victim to this slightly manic process.
“I did a lot of drafts for the pilot,” said Waller-Bridge. “Mainly because I have no problem with throwing things out. In fact, I get a kick out of it. I have discarded full episodes of ‘Fleabag’ that have nothing to do with the series now. There’s an episode somewhere where Fleabag goes to ‘Grief Tango’ at the local church hall, which I’m slightly bereft about.”
She added, “I still don’t feel like I have a solid process. It’s a mystery to me that it ever gets written. I struggled to write the first episode of season two of ‘Fleabag’ for four torturous months. I just couldn’t find the right story. Once I’d decided to set it in the restaurant I wrote the whole thing in under an hour … WTF.”
It’s not just full episodes or specific scenes that get thrown out or altered over the course of creating “Fleabag.” According to Waller-Bridge, the entire ending of the series could have been very different. Though, we shouldn’t expect her to reveal that secret right now.
“There was an idea for an alternative ending, but I’ll never say what it was…” teased Waller-Bridge.
Speaking of teasing, the actress-writer-producer-incredible person actually hinted at something she’s working on right now. And though she’s vague in the description, it’s clear that she has something up her sleeve that is many years in the making.
“I’m working on a project that seems to encapsulate all the images and ideas I’ve been having over the last 10 years,” she said. “They all seem to be slotting in peculiarly well. I was drafting the other day and suddenly remembered a rough, lone storyline I’d written years ago. It fitted so perfectly into a gap in the project, I couldn’t believe it. It’s almost spooky. Like it had been waiting for me to catch up with it.”
“Fleabag” is now available on Amazon Prime Video and if you’re interested in more films and TV series from Waller-Bridge, “Killing Eve” is out there available to stream and her James Bond film, “No Time to Die” will arrive in theaters on April 8, 2020.