Rashida Jones: Breaking the mould

What made you want to write this now?

I wanted to write for a long time,but I had a lot of fear because I have friends who are professional writers,and I felt like,they were that and I wasn’t. They had purgatory relationships they were into for too long or trying to outsmart the pain of breaking up. I asked Will and we made a pact that we would write every day,and if it was terrible,we would throw it in the trash.

Since it’s about Celeste separating from a man,not about her searching for one,did you think about how it fit in the canon of romantic comedies or about subverting those conventions? It seems like we’re seeing more of that on screen.

We tried to create an element of surprise: He’s her gay best friend,but he’s not very good at being gay. Women have been interesting forever. I’ve had so many women come up to me and say they were being fully represented,that they’re complex,and it’s OK to be complex,and it’s OK to be emotional one moment and really pragmatic the next. We’re going through a major evolution,and men haven’t had the same evolution. At some point we’re going to have to do something to bring them along. What are they doing? Get it together! We’re going to have an entire generation of smart,stable successful women go without men,because they’re just playing video games and dating younger girls.

There is the Apatow dude posse of films. Do you feel like you’re part of a lady comedy crew with people like Amy,Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig?

I will let you say that I’m a part of that comedy crew. Amy’s one of my closest friends. For her it’s important that our relationship on the show reflects the positive,supportive arc that women have for each other. We don’t have conversations about women in film and TV and what that means because,honestly,you talk about dynamics and people and the things that interest us,and that probably translates into the things that we write. I think there’s just an inherent burden of being alive and being a woman. No man would ever admit that,but I think women know it,which is: You know more than men,you know more than most people you’re dealing with every day,and you know that’s it up to you to make things move forward,and you get paid half as much,but you just do it. But it works out,because if you can figure out how to harness that femininity—there’s something we have that’s so mysterious to men—that if you can figure out how to use that,you’re good to go.