The world of Big Mouth is growing with Human Resources. Created by Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Kelly Galuska, Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, the spin-off series is set in the world of the various monsters seen in Netflix's hit animated series and explores their lives apart from humans as well as the headaches they encounter on the job.
Ahead of the show's premiere, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with creators Andrew Goldberg and Kelly Galuska to discuss Human Resources, the development of the Big Mouth spinoff and how they sought to set it apart from the mainline series and more.
Screen Rant: Human Resources was an absolute blast. I flew through it this morning and I'm going to fly through it again at some point soon. I know that with season 5, you had started developing this idea and there was the backdoor pilot episode, but how did this concept and this desire to explore this world come about?
Andrew Goldberg: It really started with the final episode of season 2 of Big Mouth, and it was Gil Ozeri who wrote that episode and had this idea where he was like, "I really want to see where these creatures work. I want to see where the hormone monsters work." So we went up there and it was so interesting. We always felt like there was so much more to know about them, because the creatures in Big Mouth really show up in service of the humans. But Human Resources gives you the opportunity to be like, "Okay, when they leave, what is their life like?"
So then what was it like really branching out this world to include all of these new creatures in addition to so many of the hormone monsters that we are already familiar with?
Kelly Galuska: Well, I think that starting like you actually mentioned in season 5 with some Love Bugs and then I think adding logic to the mix, because love and logic can be so diametrically opposed to one another, it seemed like a good way to create story. From my point of view, this started with love and branched out from there. Then we kind of just were thinking about, "Okay, well, what are the other creatures in our lives, in our minds that are very present?" Shame is always there, and we love the shame wizard, so we've got shame, we've got our hormone monsters, and then ambition was one of the big ones that came through in the beginning.
Then as we were starting to tell stories that we wanted to tell, new creatures came out of that. When we're telling a story about death, it was really a story about grief and about accepting grief, so we created Keith from Grief and got the amazing Henry Winkler, who is just the epitome of a human sweater, to play him. So they kind of just branched out from there and we're finding that there's an infinite number of creatures out there that we haven't even thought of or created yet.
Since you do mention Keith from Grief, Big Mouth has had a few gut punches here and there, but I feel like Human Resources specifically had a few moments where I was left in tears. Was that the intention for you, did you feel this one needed more emotionally deep and devastating episodes, or was it just a natural evolution with the story?
Kelly Galuska: I think it was a little bit of both. We think about this show as being a show about how hard it is to be human, and that that goes for the highs and the lows. So as we're exploring this wider breadth of stories, we think of it as being from birth until death, because you get your creatures when you're born and when you leave this planet, you have them until then and there's a a lot that happens in between. So we are telling a lot of our own stories of the things that we're struggling with, and the things that bring us joy, so the way that life can make you laugh and cry in one moment, it became a natural fit for this show to do the same thing.
Andrew Goldberg: Yeah, I really grew up on The Simpsons and was struck with some of those early episodes, especially on how emotional animation and comedy can be, like some of those stories with Lisa and Homer. We brought that to Big Mouth, and I think Big Mouth became even more emotional of a show than any of us imagined when we first started. Then we brought that idea to Human Resources and on Human Resources, we have that added layer of you're not just telling stories about teenagers, but telling stories that run the gamut of the human experience, which I think allows us to get even even more emotionally compelling.
Kelly Galuska: Yeah, I think coming from BoJack Horseman, which really punches you in the gut and then keeps punching you while you're down on the ground. [Laughs] I think as a writer, I found it very satisfying to be able to do the silly and the sad at once and that's what humanity is. So it's been fun, fun is the wrong word, but it's been great to be able to do that here as well.
Andrew Goldberg: I think what we like to do is punch you and then when you're on the ground, we tickle you. [Laughs]
You're not wrong, I remember immediately in that very sad scene of grief a punchline where it was like, "Oh, okay, I can chuckle in between the tears." So, continuing on that, as you mentioned, Henry Winkler got to play Keith from Grief and the show has never had a problem getting awesome voice performers, be it main or guests, but this one really has quite an awesome ensemble of franchise newcomers.What was it like really building up the cast for this one in comparison to the main show?
Kelly Galuska: It was so exciting. Andrew has said this before, so I'll steal his words, we kind of got everyone we wanted. The first person we're like, "Oh, we've got this addiction angel who could come across as a real asshole if we're not careful, we need someone really charming. Someone like Hugh Jackman would be so great." And then Hugh did a small part on Big Mouth, so we kind of had a little in there and asked if Hugh'd be interested in something like this and he was, which was awesome. Helen Mirren felt like the perfect person to torture David Thewlis' shame wizard and we're like, "Why not? Just ask and see, she seems like she might be up for something naughty." And she was and it kind of just kept building on itself and we feel so grateful for everyone we got, that's for sure.
Andrew Goldberg: I give Nick so much credit with the casting because, especially in the comedy community, everybody knows and trusts Nick and they believe that if he's asked them to do something, it's gonna be good. I think we've now kind of developed a reputation that it's fun to come and be on our show, so why not do it?
For each of you, who would you say was your favorite to cast, be it a main or guest?
Andrew Goldberg: That's so hard, you mentioned Helen Mirren and Hugh Jackman, which are obviously both insane. I love listening to Rosie Perez record.
Kelly Galuska: I was going to say her! [Laughs]
Andrew Goldberg: She's so funny and has such a terrific voice for animation. We've talked to about how incredible Aidy is because she takes this character that has so many flaws but makes her so endearing. I think Randall Park is so terrific in that he takes this character that's driven by logic, which could be a little alienating, but gives him such sensitivity and such humanity. I mean, I could go down the list.
Kelly Galuska: I will add it was very exciting to get Janelle Monáe to be a part of the show, because her character that she plays is such an ethereal, just magical person, and Janelle is just that. When we all got to meet her and record her, it was like being in the presence of magic, it was really exciting to have her on the show.
Andrew Goldberg: And to have all of our Big Mouth people come over to the show is amazing, too, whether it's Bobby are Thandiwe or Maria, Thewlis and Nick and Maya, who obviously are the king and queen of hormones. To be able to see Maury and Connie and what their life's like when they're away from these kids is really fun.
Since you do mention Nick and Maya and their lives away from the kid, that was one thing I was always curious about with this show was how involved they would be with the story in comparison to new characters. When you were in the writers room, was that something that you really kept focusing on of how much to have them around or did you want them in from the get go?
Andrew Goldberg: Yeah, we wanted them in from the get go. There's also this kind of thing that happens in the writers room, which is like when you pitch a good Maury and Connie story, it's like, "Well, let's do that, there's no reason not to."
Kelly Galuska: Stories with them are winners, the hormone monster stories are always winners. So I feel in every episode, or most of them, we had at least a runner of them because they're just such fun.
Andrew Goldberg: That story where Maury and Connie say I love you to each other for the first time is one of my favorite moments of the season. There's something about it that is so weird, but also so relatable, their relationship is kind of very human in a funny way.
Kelly Galuska: It is! I think that was one of my favorite stories with them, that one and them setting up, Sonya. These things that are very small human stories with these creatures, it's a totally different ballgame. It's very fun to see them be more vulnerable that way.
So in the writers room, what would you say was the the biggest mindset of really making sure that this show felt unique in its own sense when put it up against Big Mouth?
Kelly Galuska: I think one of the things that comes to mind when you ask that is understanding — and it took us the season to sort of realize this — that these stories, Human Resources are from the creatures' point of view first and the humans' second. So while Big Mouth is all about the humans and their creatures come and help them, we are with the creatures way more in HR and they're going down to help humans. So understanding that we needed to have stories that were about them first and then how that related to their human clients and the human story was a big one.
And I think, thinking about Big Mouth, we're always looking for those big animation moments in Big Mouth and strangely in HR, there's already a lot of them because the creatures are the big animation moments. So in contrast, we're looking for those big human emotional moments that kind of sets this show to have a little bit of a different tone, because it's telling emotional stuff that is across the spectrum, beyond just puberty, which was really fun. There's a never ending wealth of stories, because human stories will exist for forever.
Andrew Goldberg: As long as people still have problems, we've got stories to write. So when we figure everything out as a human race, then we're in trouble. [Chuckles]
So with this endless well of stories, as you mentioned, obviously there's more Big Mouth to come, but have you all started reflecting on possibly bringing this back for more, or did you go into this thinking of it as more of a limited series?
Kelly Galuska: I think we're really hopeful that we can do more because, with only 10 episodes in season 1, we certainly have not covered everything. There's so many stories that we still want to tell that we tried to squeeze in that we couldn't, so I think, like you said, this never ending well we would like to keep dipping into it. That'd be great.
How much coordination would you say there was between the Big Mouth timeline and the HR timeline, because this does sort of feel like it takes place on its own terms, but there are a few interconnections.
Kelly Galuska: Well, it's interesting, we kind of think of it fairly separate, but like you said, there are a couple of overlaps. They're on this different plane and I think time works differently up there, at least that's what we've decided is that time works differently up there. So I think, at least so far, we've not bumped up too much against timeline issues, because we've introduced a lot of new humans, so these people are sort of existing, in my brain, all simultaneously with Big Mouth. But, Andrew, perhaps you have a different idea.
Andrew Goldberg: Yeah, there is at the end of the first season of Human Resources a pretty big event that will have reverberations across both shows. So, you know, watch out for that.
Kelly Galuska: I think we think of them, even when thinking of that event, is sort of all chronological, I suppose.
Andrew Goldberg: Yeah, it's all chronological because we will explore that in season 6 of Big Mouth, what happens at the end of season one of Human Resources.
Human Resources hits Netflix this week.