Zelda & Daniel Barnz Talk 'Genera+ion' & Collaborating As A Father/Daughter Duo [Interview]

In a strong show of collaboration, showrunners Zelda Barnz and her father Daniel Barnz teamed up to work on the HBO series “Genera+ion.” As her first job as both writer and series creator, 19-year-old Zelda Barnz was faced with an enormous learning curve that she and her father would conquer together. The show—which is often compared to its contemporary “Euphoria” but also feels a bit like “Skins”—is a look at Gen Z teens who are facing their everyday struggles of family, sexuality, gender identity, and what it means to grow up in a conservative environment. The series also features a strong ensemble of young actors including Justice Smith, Chase Sui Wonders, Lukita Maxwell, and Uly Schlesinger

Our critic who reviewed the series wrote, “The best parts of ‘Genera+ion’ elevate the beauty of the expression of various forms of ‘normal,’ reminding people that the definition of the word is different for everyone.” The half-hour dramedy will be dropping new episodes later this year. We spoke to the creators about finding the right tone for this generation, emojis, and working together as father and daughter. 

READ MORE: ‘Genera+ion’: HBO’s Teen Teen Dramedy Is A ‘Euphoria’ Cousin With A Lighter Touch [Review]

When did the two of you begin working on this project? 

Zelda Barnz: I initially had the idea for it shortly after I came out and had originally wanted to write it as a book. We started developing ideas and talking about how to switch those book ideas into the form of a TV arc when I was around 15, and we pitched it after I turned 16. We’ve been working on it together ever since.

Was there the deciding factor or moment that made the leap from wanting to write a book to creating a television show together?

ZB: I don’t know if there was one thing; at least for me I know for me I really wanted it to be a TV show from the get-go actually, but it started out as a book since I’d never written a script before or had any idea where to start with formatting things like that. I ended up asking my dad about the idea and expressed interest in it eventually being adapted into a TV show and he said that he could teach me how to use Final Draft and things just took off from there.

Daniel Barnz: As soon as she started coming home with these stories about her GSA at school I realized that it was an incredible world because the way that she was describing these characters and their lives some of the stories were just really funny and sometimes really poignant. It all felt like a very fresh work and I thought about how when you’re thinking about a television show these are exactly the kind of things you are looking for, and so we started talking about it as a television show. I do want to say that it was initially for my husband and I an amazing way to teach Zelda about the work that we did, and just because the chances of any show ever getting made are incredibly slim we didn’t necessarily that when we started working on it that it would that it would be something that would end up anywhere, let alone HBO Max. We just thought it was an interesting way for our daughter to be a part of our world and it really began as this amazing take your daughter to work activity that snowballed into a reality, which was sort of bewildering and thrilling at the same time.

Zelda, did you always know you wanted to be a writer, because if you are coming up with these ideas at 15 I have to imagine there is something there that you might want to pursue. 

ZB: Absolutely, I’ve wanted to be a writer for a long time now, writing has always been the one thing I’ve consistently maintained a passion for I guess. I’ve always loved it since doing free writing assignments in elementary school, getting to journal and having the space to put my thoughts into words however I wanted, and my parents were always very encouraging of creativity so growing up I developed a passion for writing and it has stuck with me ever since. 

Were there things from both of your lives you were able to draw from or was it primarily based on your experiences, Zelda?

ZB:
I would definitely say that some of the events were directly inspired by my experiences, specifically moments like the lockdown episode were based on things I went through many times in school. I would say that most of them were not exactly based on specific situations I was going through but drawn from the overall experience of my time at school.

DB: I think we wanted the show from the beginning to take a really frank and candid look at teenage sexuality and identity and I think it began from the stories that she was coming home and telling and they were based on people from her high school, so in a way it is all drawn from that. The thrilling thing about being a writer is that you can manifest yourself in all kinds of different characters, and I think that what’s true for both Zelda and me is that we really identify with all these characters, even the ones who seem so different from us, and there all little bits and pieces of us in all of them. When we were working in the writers room this was the key thing, to always personalize it and make sure we were coming back to specific experiences or events that we had witnessed or gone through when we were teenagers and to tell it in the most authentic way possible. The goal was always to try to put ourselves in Zelda’s mind and tell the story from a teenage point of view.

Was it important to get into that Gen Z headspace and give the series a particularly modern touch, or was that something that you even think about when you are writing as someone who actually is part of that generation?

ZB: Yeah I definitely think that when I write for these characters I don’t have to think too hard on the kind of language they are using because that is just the language I use and hear. It was important to us to make our show as Gen Z as possible without feeling nostalgic, we really made it a main goal to avoid nostalgia.

DB: We were always consulting with Zelda on every part of it, “Does this word feel right,”  “Does this word feel dated,” or “Does this sound like an adult trying to sound like a teenager?” After a while, you start to hear Zelda and her friends speaking in the back of your mind, but we would always go back to her. There is obviously a lot of social media used in the show as well, and that was another one of our key things too, using the right punctuations, emojis or abbreviations. One thing that we hoped with the show is that if you are Gen Z and watching a show that you can look at these characters and their feelings and their thoughts and think “Yeah, that is what it looks like,” but if you’re not and are a millennial or gen-xer that you could still look at these characters and understand that even though their language and clothes are a little bit different that the way that they’re walking through life could provoke this response of remembering that “yeah, that is what that felt like.” 

There is a bit of an easy comparison between your show and others on HBO like “Euphoria” and “Betty” that are offering these unique and different snapshots of what it is like to be of that generation right now. So with all that, it is interesting that there is also that feeling of being timeless that you were hoping to achieve.

DB: That is exactly right, it is interesting that one of the inspirations for us was the show “Friday Night Lights,” which on paper sounds nothing like our show. But I’m not from Texas and I don’t care about football at all, but I loved that show and its characters and that was what we wanted to evoke when we created a show about queer kids of color in Anaheim, that it could appeal to those people who don’t identify or think about that world and still be able to appreciate or enjoy the show.

You talk about deferring to Zelda to certain things about the world of the show, how much of a learning curve was there in terms of being able to work together?

ZB: Oh yeah definitely, especially for me in terms of how TV is actually structured and how the job works while I was simultaneously learning how to format screenplays and things like that. I think that a big part of the show was not necessarily forcing motions or thoughts forward but embracing the things that teenagers do when they’re bored or when they have nothing better to do, what makes a day special isn’t necessarily plot-driven. I think as someone who was primarily used to dealing with writing in terms of plot, that was something that had a learning curve to it on my end. It was also tricky incorporating the social media language into it like I remember a script where we had written a text into it and I was thinking “Wow this reads really passive-aggressive, why are they so mad,” so yeah it is kind of funny to have to play around with all that stuff and teach my dad how to punctuate a text in a way that didn’t make it sound mean.

DB: I remember when we were writing something where I wanted to write a bit where a character sends another character an emoji and the one who gets the text can’t figure out what it means, so I went to Zelda and explained what I wanted to write and we realized that what I had written sounded so millennial and I just had had no idea. I do have to say, Zelda did answer for me more of what I learned; the reason this collaboration has been so special even beyond the fact that we are father and daughter is that it is very equal. She obviously brings the authenticity of being a teenager and having that outlook and perspective on life and I bring an experience to storytelling, but sometimes that with this kind of storytelling you have to just put aside what you know because you do want these characters to feel as real as possible and when you want to get them to a certain climatic point you would usually try to maneuver characters into certain ways, and here Zelda was great about saying that “Yeah that was great story, but it didn’t feel real and it doesn’t happen like that,” and I tried to learn from her how to be a great listener. 

Were there any topics that you were hesitant about talking about or anything that you wish you could have delved into deeper?

DB: I think in the beginning I certainly have to admit to some blushing to some of the more frank and bold moments, even though I wanted the show to be real and authentic in depicting authentic sexuality in the show. It was important to never let anything feel gratuitous or titillating or that you’re watching characters hook up in order to appeal to an audience; we always wanted it to be showing something about these characters, and often with teenage sexuality it isn’t necessarily as good as it looks on TV and can be really awkward or messy and I don’t think audiences are very used to seeing it put that way so that was something we strived for. In terms of issues we wanted to dive into more, we both want to tell more stories about mental health, as I think for Gen Z it is such a present thing and their attitude towards it is markedly different than with other generations by being much more open and honest about it. We actually are delving into it more in the second block of episodes that will air in the near future. 

“Genera+ion” is available now on HBO Max.