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Yorick Brown and his Capuchin monkey Ampersand may be the last two creatures on Earth with a Y chromosome, but he is not the only man left alive. In FX’s Y: The Last Man, which is based on the comic of the same name by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra, Yorick survives an event that kills off nearly half of all life on the planet. In the wake of this crisis, he finds himself pulled across the country on a hunt for answers, with the mysterious Agent 355 and brilliant Dr. Allison Mann at his side. Along the way, they’ll encounter survivors who hope to rebuild — and those who might just burn it all down.
Speaking to CBR, Y: The Last Man showrunner Eliza Clark offered some insight into her upcoming adaptation of the Eisner Award-winning comic series. She explained how the show updates the source material and recalled Vaughan and Guerra’s request to include gender diversity. She broke down the writers room’s approach to gender and how Dr. Mann offers a unique, scientific perspective of that diversity. She also weighed in on what she sees as “the most interesting version of villainy,” why this isn’t a “Girl Power” narrative, working with CGI to create Yorick’s primate companion and more.
CBR: As I know you know, Y: The Last Man is a project that’s been in development hell for years. How did that complicated history impact your approach to the series when you signed on?
Eliza Clark: Well, I can’t totally speak to what happened before me, but I will say that I was really lucky that FX and Color Force said to me, “Do your version. That’s what we want.” So I got to write a new pilot and shoot a new pilot. So, I think the development hell stopped when I got there, because we started and then we shot it, and now it is real! [laughs] I’ve loved the book for a really long time, so I am grateful for that development hell period, because it meant that I got to make it.
So as I was watching the pilot, I noticed a few small, key changes to the source material, the kind you get with any adaptation. How did you balance the spirit of the comic with the necessary updates you needed to make for the screen?
I mean, I love the book, and I think so much of what makes the book special is true of the show, too. So, I feel like the show and the book are rooted in character and relationships. There’s a big idea, but it’s really about the people at the center of it.
I think the opportunity to turn it into a series is to be able to use the world and the ideas and the characters that Brian [K. Vaughan] and Pia [Guerra] put out there and then just get to spend more time with them, or get deeper into them, or learn more about why they ended up where they were. I think one of the biggest things that was important to me that was also important to Brian and Pia in the adaptation was updating the material to include the gender diversity of the world we live in and making it clear early and often that Yorick is not the last man, that plenty of men survived, and the thing that makes him special is his Y chromosome and not his maleness.
Because everyone with a Y chromosome dies, that doesn’t mean that — you know, there were a lot of women who died and a lot of non-binary people and a lot of intersex folks. That also means that non-binary people and intersex folks survived, and they are part of this story. So, that was a really important thing for me and was definitely something that Brian and Pia were excited about. So that was, I think, the main thing.
It’s been about 20 years since the comic released and, in that time, we’ve really started to expand the ways we perceive gender as a culture. How did you factor that into this Y: The Last Man adaptation and its place in that conversation?
Well, there are trans and non-binary folks behind and in front of the screen. We talked with GLAAD. We wanted to take a lot of care in how we told the story. So that’s super important to me.
I really think that the show — in a general way — is about identity and about the ways that identities are foisted upon us, or what parts of ourselves come from us and what parts of ourselves come from our family’s expectations of us, what parts come from the systems of oppression that kind of makeup the air that we breathe, in ways that we didn’t even know about. So, you know, patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, CIS/heteronormativity, all of that stuff is a part of who we are in ways that we don’t even know about.
So I think the show is really about escaping binary ways of thinking. It was exciting to have a character, Dr. Mann, who understands the science behind the diversity of these things, that identity, that gender, is not equal to chromosomes, and that even chromosomes — there’s just a greater and wider diversity of people that exist in this world, and that’s part of what makes the world beautiful, and strange and exciting. She makes it very clear to Yorick in their first meeting that her desire to fix this is not about some narrow minded idea about bringing back men, because there are still men in this world, but about bringing back all of that diversity. That’s at the heart of who she is as a character, but it’s also at the heart of what I am interested in talking about with the show.
Of course, Y: The Last Man is coming out in a time where we are actually living through a mass death event, so it inevitably draws comparison to the COVID pandemic, even if they aren’t exactly the same. How does the series reflect our interesting times?
I mean, I’m grateful that the show is not about a pandemic, in the sense that I don’t want to watch a show about COVID. This is a show in which an event happens, and then the aftermath is where the story starts to begin. It is not like a virus… whatever — in that way, I’m grateful.
I do think that what we are seeing in our world is reflected in the show in ways that are both purposeful, and then also a surprise to me in disappointing ways. [laughs] For example, in Episode 2.. when the White House is stormed, I wrote that long before Jan. 6, and we talked a lot in the writers room about, “Is that real? Would that happen? I don’t know!” And turns out, it does. Turns out, when people are scared, and there’s conspiracy theories, and there is a breakdown of truth, bad shit happens.
So we learned a lot from COVID, because also we were about to start shooting the pilot when COVID hit, so all of production was during COVID. I had four months to really get into the scripts and make sure that they reflected the things I had learned. But yeah, I mean, when bad things happen, people insulate. They other. They get scared. They get paranoid. All of those things are true in the world and they’re true on the show.
Obviously, due to the nature of the story, the cast features predominantly women, and I know every episode was also directed by women. Why was it important to you to make that decision, and how did that impact the atmosphere on set for you?
I mean, I didn’t necessarily set out to just pick women directors, but it was important to me to have partners in storytelling who really understood the perspectives of the characters, and that happened to be the women that I chose. They are an incredibly diverse group of women; they have very different perspectives, and they brought a lot of themselves and their experience and their point of view to directing. It really, I think, creates a rich and beautiful visual landscape.
Then that was true also of — like, my production designer was a woman, and she’s an incredible storyteller. Every frame is world building, and every frame is not just beautiful, but it’s telling a story. We talked a lot about — and the same is true of my costume designer and our makeup people. You know, I think it’s just I wanted collaborators who were going to bring themselves and their perspectives to the show, and I think it paid off. I think it was a really lovely working environment and super collaborative, really fun, but also just a really strong group of storytellers, helping to create a story that is really very big and diverse.
What was it like to work with Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra on this project?
I mean, I’m just a huge fan of them both. So I had to get over that a little bit. The first time I met with Brian, I’m like, “Can we talk about Pride of Baghdad?” [laughs] They were very generous and saying like, “This is yours now. Please do what you want to do with it,” which was fun for me.
I think Brian probably felt safe knowing that I was a big fan and didn’t want to take an idea and then just go in a completely different direction. I really respect and love the books. I think the people who love the books will hopefully love the show. I think that the show honors honors the books. Brian and Pia, they read stuff, they watched stuff. They were super complimentary. They didn’t want to meddle; they wanted to cheer on, and I really appreciate them for that.
As was announced early on in production, Ampersand is a CGI creation. How did you arrive at the decision to use CGI vs., say, an animal actor?
So Disney, who owns FX, has a “no primates” policy, and I think it is rooted in — you know, I think it’s a moral issue, and it’s inhumane to work with primates. So that’s the reason not to work with them, but also, I was scared. Obviously, I thought it was the right thing to do, but I was also like, “But can he be great?” Because you see CG and you’re like, “I can tell that’s CG.”
We have the most amazing VFX producer that I’ve ever worked with. His name is Steven Pugh. He’s incredible, and he made me feel so safe. He was also such a good storyteller. One of the things he told me, which made me feel good, is that the Humane Society has to sign off on all use of animals on screen. So they watched the pilot, and they were like, “Well, we can sign off on the horse and we can sign off on the dog, but we can’t sign off on the monkey because we weren’t there when you shot with him.” And I was like, “He isn’t real!”
So I think he looks great… When you see him fully finished, he fully looks he is a monkey. It is amazing, and I am both surprised and delighted by it.
Speaking of animals, you use rats, a horse and — perhaps most devastatingly — a dog to warn of the upcoming crisis in the pilot episode. How did you select which animals to use?
I mean, I felt like it was important that we understand that this event kills everything with a Y chromosome, because I think some of the the narrative that’s out there about the show is like this sort of Girl Power thing, which it’s not actually — it’s tragic, what happens. It upends everything. Children die. A dog dies. Lots of men die. Trans women die. It’s horrible, what happens. I think it’s important to know that… but you only see one die.
A bulk of the pilot takes place before the event that wipes out every living thing with a Y chromosome, but — thanks to the comics and the premise itself — we know what’s coming before it happens. How did you set out to build that tension and that atmosphere of dread?
I think that knowing something is coming is one of the scariest things in the whole wide world. I mean, that’s what makes Jaws so exciting. I’m glad that when you finally see it, you still feel the chills, because that’s the thing with Jaws: it’s like, once you see the shark, it’s not scary anymore.
I feel like it was a collaboration of a lot of different artists. So, Louise Friedberg, who was our director, and Kira Kelly, who was the DP [Director of Photography] for the pilot, and everybody and all of the actors, I hope that it’s the subjectivity and point of view that creates that feeling of being inside of it. So it’s not just like a disaster movie scenario, where you’re just seeing destruction for no reason…
So I think it’s being inside of characters you’ve been following this whole time and understanding — even if you don’t know everything about their lives — you’ve connected to them in some way, and that’s who you’re with while this thing is happening. I think that’s what creates, hopefully, that feeling where you feel like you’re inside of it.
Tell me a little about developing Kim, the villain of this season, and how you built this character to get under your skin, but remain sympathetic in some capacity.
Yeah, I think Kim is a great example, because when you meet her, she’s talking about her book, which is called Boy Mom. Her whole brand and identity is based on this kind of gendered parenting. Obviously, you know that her kids are about to die, and she’s about to lose her husband, and her whole identity is tied to patriarchy. Her power comes from proximity to men: her father, her husband, even her kids. That’s where her place is in this world, and she’s shaken at her core because of it.
I think it’s not a spoiler to say that she is a villain in this story, but she’s also a person that you feel for, because she’s lost, just like everybody else. I just think that’s the most interesting version of villainy, like it’s the most interesting version of stories. For me, if you’re going to make everything in a show rooted in character, then you have to give that time and space to the characters you don’t necessarily agree with as well. I think Amber Tamblyn, who plays that character, has done an amazing job of making a person who you are sympathetic to while you also are afraid of what she’s capable of.
Y: The Last Man debuts Sept. 13 on FX on Hulu.
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