There's an old saying “don’t meet your heroes” but for TV creator, showrunner Bill Lawrence, it was a dream come true. Lawrence's new series “Bad Monkey” for Apple TV+, premiering Wednesday, is based on a novel by Carl Hiaasen, one of his favorite authors.
“I started reading Carl Hiaasen books when I was 15-years-old. There’s a direct line from Carl’s surreal satires and wildly insane character pieces to, like, ‘Scrubs,'" explained Lawrence, who also created that long-running Zach Braff sitcom. “The guy helped me to be a storyteller. He turned out to be as cool as I hoped and such a good dude."
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“Bad Monkey” stars Vince Vaughn, whose observational humor and quick one-liners make him a good fit for the writing styles of both Hiaasen and Lawrence.
Vaughn plays Andrew Yancy, a former Miami police detective now living in the Florida Keys and working as a restaurant inspector. (A scene where we see Yancy on the job leads to a running joke about how he's lost his appetite for the foreseeable future and is Vaughn at his reactionary finest.)
A friend asks Yancy for a favor: deliver a human arm that washed up on the beach to a medical examiner (played by Natalie Martinez). When he later meets Eve (Meredith Hagner), the widow of the man whom the arm belonged to, Yancy finds himself unable to shake the case. The story unfolds, touching on themes of greed and power.
“He can’t let himself leave something where he knows there’s some wrongdoing there,” Vaughn said about Yancy, who he describes as “like the Energizer Bunny.” “He can’t help himself. And then no matter how many times he falls, gets hit in the face, or things don’t go his way, he’s going to just keep marching forward. That's just such an inspirational quality to have.”
Vaughn goes back more than 25 years with Lawrence — they played poker together. “He used to make me laugh. Just to watch his career do so well from afar, it was easy for me," Vaughn said about agreeing to the role.
For Lawrence, he said Vaughn's 1996 indie movie “Swingers" “helped shape a generation of writers. "When he burst onto the screen saying, ‘You’re so money you don’t even know it,’ everyone wanted to write that type of dialogue."
Michelle Monaghan plays Bonnie, Yancy's sort-of girlfriend who flits in and out of his life. She's a minor presence in the novel and Monaghan credits Lawrence for fleshing out her story.
“She's equal parts very delusional but also very naive,” said Monaghan, laughing. “When we first meet her she's very fun, playful and aloof but as the show goes on we see she's also quite predatory. ... Bill creates characters that do outrageous things.”
When it came time to try alternative takes and improvise, not everyone was as comfortable as Vaughn.
“Vince would encourage the other cast members like, ‘I’ll set you up if you say this. It will be funny,'” recalled Lawrence.
Ronald Peet, who plays a fisherman named Neville whose storyline runs concurrent to Vaughn's, said he had to grow accustomed to having freedom to deviate from the script.
“Every day I showed up to work, I was doing something that, you know, my mind was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this," said Peet. "That’s how you grow, and that’s how you expand, so I feel grateful.”
Episodes were filmed on location in South Florida so the cast experienced that kind of lazy humidity that slows down the pace of the everyday world.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. When I’m in a comfortable soundstage, I don’t like it. When it’s hot, I’m not in my head in the same way. And I kind of love being like, ‘I’m not thinking.’ said Hagner.
“I think my hair had to be a little more hair-sprayed,” recalled Vaughn. “The Keys were spectacular. The nature, the ocean, the wildlife. I really enjoyed it."
Martinez is from Miami so the job gave her an opportunity to connect with family.
“I’ve been in Los Angeles for 20 years, but I was born and raised in Miami. My entire family is there, so it was nice to be able to have my goddaughter or my aunt come on set and kind of see what I do. I had a break ... and I was able to go to my grandmother’s house and have lunch with her."
Making “Bad Monkey” gave Lawrence a cherished opportunity to work with his daughter Charlotte, who has a recurring role as Eve's stepdaughter, Caitlin. This was the first acting role for Charlotte, who is a singer-songwriter.
Charlotte is well-aware of the nepo baby discourse and said she's grateful for the “massive chance” she was given.
“I was in musical theater and plays growing up, but I always just loved performing. I just never really connected the dots, you know, or actually envisioned myself being able to do this as a career," said Charlotte. "I think because my parents were so involved in it, I kind of wanted to rebel and do my own thing and not be connected to them. But, it couldn’t have been more fun.”
“If you can work with your kids, do it forever," said Lawrence. “That’s my advice to everybody. And who cares what other people say. It's awesome.”