Abby McEnany Interview: Work In Progress Season 2 (2024)

Showtime'sWork In Progressis not only a deeply personal story from co-creator Abby McEnany, who adorned theChicago improv scene for years prior to hitting the big time, it also feels like a universal meditation on anxiety. Leading lady Abby, played by and partially based on McEnany herself, fears the consequences of her actions so much that she often brings said consequences on herself.

For those who haven't yet watched the first season of this critical darling, stop reading now and binge itseight short episodes. Those whohavewill remember the heartbreaking conclusion that saw Abby and her boyfriend Chris (Theo Germaine,The Politician) breaking up on the sourest of notes. Now Abby is left battling her depression and guilt alone - save for her best friend Campbell (Celeste Pechous, fellow Second City alum and McEnany's real-life best friend).

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McEnany spoke withScreen Rant prior to the premiere of season 2 on August 22, breaking down the theme of accountability that runs through the show and how her own life experience and work in the writers' room (alongside The Matrixwriter Lilly Wachowski)reflects Abby's onscreen growth and education.

Screen Rant: How is it that you hit on this perfectly self-effacing tone, but still managed to make such a feel-good show?

Abby McEnany: Wow. How do we do it? I don't know. I think comedy has - not even always performing it, but just growing up listening to dad, who's super funny - comedy has gotten me through the worst parts of my life and still does. I think dark comedy is brilliant.

But it's not something you try to do in your work. It happens naturally?

Abby McEnany: Oh, for sure. We don't try to do it, I just think it comes out. I'm just a self-effacing person, probably. I guess what's really tripping me up is that you're saying that it's a good thing, and I have a hard time with that because I don't know if it's a good thing.

Some people have been like, "How do you decide how to make a character?" We really never have sat down and been like, "Now we need a character that does this." Even as we move on to this season, and there's more stuff that's not from my real life, we're still creating the real world around it. So, I would say it's not something we do on purpose.

Well, I love the beautiful accident of it. It's like that friend that laughs at a funeral.

Abby McEnany: Absolutely. Some of the best times I've had with family and friends [are] in really hard times when you're there for each other. I think when we're improvising - and I always call it greenroom comedy stuff that we could never do on stage - it's just dark s***. And it's so fun. I love it very much.

Another thing I love is the nuanced take on ignorance and accountability. I think that's a really interesting conversation that is carried into the second season. Julia Sweeney's Pat obviously left a huge mark on Abby, but at the same time, she has to deal with what she did to Chris. Can you talk about striking that balance?

Abby McEnany: Oh, sure. And again, I don't think it was on purpose. Sometimes you just discover stuff. We do that a lot in the room, and we do more improvising this year because a lot of the folks that we have are phenomenal improvisers. A lot of it is discovery.

But I find that the accountability thing is so important, and it's something that is just a goal of mine as a human. There's strength in saying, "Yeah, I [messed] up." And as someone who has a hard time with forgiveness of herself, as Abby the human - we see that in Abby the character. How does she get through this horrible [thing]? She calls it a hate crime. It's a hate crime against the entire queer, trans, non-binary community - and she screamed it. How do you come back from that? How do you decide not to end it, as somebody who's already suicidal?

I think there are no real villains and there are no real heroes, and that's exactly right. Again, it's not on purpose, but I just think that's the world. Certainly, we see horrible folks and heroes in the news and media - but in my life, we're all flawed and we all have value. I just think you choose your people, and they're your people, and there's no perfect person. Once you can realize that, then you know that not all hope is lost in relationships.

It's a hard thing. Conflict is difficult, and I only came to be able to have conversations and say stuff out loud to friends late in my forties. But it's made us so much stronger because I'm always like, "Tell me when I mess up," and they're like, "No." But just tell me; let's just talk it out, because I love you and I want you in my life for the rest of it.

I think we do deal a lot with accountability, and I think that that's important. I could be way better at it in my real life, and I strive to be.

I think that's a great theme to explore, because people sometimes don't know when they've crossed a line, but they know when others have crossed it.

Abby McEnany: Right. And also, it's never done. You're like, "Oh no, I took responsibility for that one thing," but this is a lifelong thing. It's scary. Conflict is really hard, and accountability can be very difficult, but you get to healing and you get to truth by actually talking about stuff.

I think I often talk about how, in our world with media and social media and stuff, those conversations have stopped. Because it's easy to think you know somebody, and if people are saying stuff online, then you're holding them up as the voice. And this person maybe just made an ignorant comment - who hasn't? - and now they're vilified.

And I think that I [mess] up all the time, and I just hope that somebody would tell me. Also, it's not their responsibility. We do a lot about, "It's not my responsibility to teach you how to care about other folks." But it's also, I really hope that if it's a friend of yours, then they'll just be like, "That hurt me." You can have that conversation. It's not your responsibility, that's exactly right, and it's not mine. But especially with somebody that you love or have a friendship with, once you can have those conversations, it just makes your relationships so much better. And not to hold people up to impossible standards, but also not to let s*** slide.

Speaking of not letting things slide, my heart was broken and dreams were shattered at the end of season1 with Chris and Abby's breakup. While desperately awaiting his return in season 2, I will ask you to talk about Abby's own journey of unpacking and healing post-Chris breakup.

Abby McEnany: Right. It was really funny, we'd be in the writing room, and I'm like, "Well, it's unforgivable! There's no coming back." And they're like, "Abby..." It's just what we were talking about before: people are redeemable. Okay, we could think about specific people who aren't, but [in general] people are redeemable. But I'd be like, "Nope, there's no coming back!" I didn't do that to my ex. I didn't dead-name them.

So, this season is a lot about making amends, but also taking accountability and being like, "This is what I did." Don't shy away from it, because it's not going to go away if you don't deal with it. And then there's some question of, "Will Abby find forgiveness?"

Honestly, it's so incomprehensible what Abby did. So, how does somebody who is already on the last day go on? There's something that happens at the beginning that keeps her busy and keeps her alive. There's something in the first episode that's like, "Oh yeah, I couldn't find time." It was just a lot of s*** going on.

I think also it's important that this isn't a story about somebody who is suicidal and has given herself a limit of time, meets somebody and goes into a relationship, and then is saved. And then all their problems are solved. That is not real, and people are not defined by who they're with. People have value if they're not with somebody, and you're not fixed unless you do your work. Nobody else can fix you, nobody else can do that work - it's terrifying and it's lifelong.

Or it is for me. Someone was like, "Are you in therapy?" And a friend of mine said, "Oh, I'm a lifer." I like that. I'll always be in therapy. I just think that it's a journey, and you're never done, and that's okay. That's all right. Somebody who stops learning, who stops trying to better themselves and better communicate and be a better person to others, I just think, "What are you doing?"

In the name of doing the work and improvement, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community yourself, you're speaking from a very personal place and touching so many lives. But at the same time, one person cannot encompass the whole community. A cis person cannot know the trans experience, and a white person cannot know the experience of people of color. How do you personally strive for inclusivity in your storytelling? Does it come from the writers' room, your own research, or speaking to consultants?

Abby McEnany: It is something that's definitely top of mind for Lilly and myself. There are two parts to that answer. One is: I've never claimed this is the queer story. The character [screws] up and, like I've said many times, I as a human [screw] up all the time. I never claimed to tell any other story but from the point of view of Abby, right? I think people want the show to be something, and that's a responsibility I cannot take on. I can't worry about that.

Although it is a mission. It's our mission to create and show stories that really are in mine and Lily's life. We're queering the screen because that's who we see in our life. I think in other shows, sometimes there's one queer person - but then we don't ever see another person on screen. So, that's important.

Obviously, with me and Lilly, we had an older queer dyke, and then we had an older - we're a week apart in age, though I always think I'm older - trans woman. We have that, but we do reach out because we want to make sure that we're doing those stories right.

Last year when we started writing, we didn't even have a budget because we didn't have a deal. They were like, "We think Showtime is going to say yes, but we're not sure. But if they say yes, it's going to be a quick turnaround, so you should start writing." We were like, "What?" So, there were no BIPOC in the room.

This year, we were lucky enough to be given the gift of being able to bring in writers of color. And last year we did have a punch-up room, and there were four friends of ours, including a queer Asian woman and a cis, straight Black man. We had a gay, white cis guy, and then a straight, white cis woman. So, we did have some BIPOC in the punch-up room last year, and we had eyes on it.

We were able to have a staff of six folks this year. Three of the people we brought in were BIPOC, and three were white. We had an episode that we sent back to folks in our crew, ones that aren't part of necessarily the post-production team and weren't seeing it. We were like, "Can you please [check this]? There are a lot of white eyes on this." We have BIPOC folks in the post-production office; it's very important to us, but it's also that we need more eyes.

I'm very open to hearing what people think, and that's okay. The thing about criticism is I want to hear it, but I also want time to think about it. Sometimes I'll agree, and maybe I won't, and that's okay.

You had me believing this lie that Julia Sweeney and Weird Al Yankovic are together. What inspired this alternate universe version of them, where it's normal Al?

Abby McEnany: Isn't that funny? People were like, "I had to Google it." That made me laugh so hard. Aren't they the sweetest?

We had Julia in from the jump. She's such a dream and has been on board, and I could just talk ad nauseam about how generous she has been not only to the show but to me personally. She is so open when talking about stuff. Last year, it was like, "Well, wouldn't it be funny...?" Because Julia Sweeney plays a version of herself, what if we also had another celebrity play a heightened version of themselves? Weird Al actually plays a de-heightened version, but he was just game also. He's just a dream; I only met him that one day, and I was so nervous.

There was that funny part where I walk in with Chris, and I was pretty rude to Al. Then we broke and came back, and I was like, "I hope you know I'm a huge fan." He goes, "Yeah, Abby, it's comedy. I'm like, "Okay! Okay, Al." He's so amazing. I just can't even believe that I got to meet him.

He's part of this season as well, and it's just a treat. I'm just really the most fortunate person to be able to do this, and I just hope that we're doing it right.

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Work In ProgressSeason 2 premieresSunday, August 22 at 11 pm EST on Showtime.