Hung creators Dmitry Lipkin and Colette Burson
When I first read that HBO was going to air a show called Hung my first reaction was huh?. Why would I want to see a show about a guy’s dick? But since I had once spoken on the phone with the show’s co-creator Colette Burson and thought she was great, smart and feminist and since HBO shows are usually awesome, so I figured I’d give it a chance. And I was right. I really like Hung.
In case you don’t know, the show is about Ray (Thomas Jane) a former pro athlete and high school teacher and coach whose life is in the shitter. He’s broke, his house has basically burned down, he has no insurance so he is living in a tent in the backyard and it’s cold, his kids have moved in with with ex (Anne Heche) and he is all around miserable. But he does have one thing going for him…he’s really well endowed. Jane Adams plays Tanya the woman who encourages him to use his gift to make other women happy. So she becomes his “happiness consultant” aka pimp. Jane and Adams both rock. I especially like watching Adams gain self confidence as she gets better and better at her job. While the show is about prostitution and sex work it does not glorify it and the women who use Ray’s services are treated with dignity and are given back stories that are interesting. I’m excited to see where the show goes.
Hung airs on HBO on Sunday evenings. Check you local listings.
Women & Hollywood spoke with Burson about the show.
Women & Hollywood: How did you come up with the concept of Hung?
Colette Burson: We (she and her co-creator and husband Dmitry Lipkin) were looking for a male character that would be interesting to write. We felt that violence was tired and we wanted to create a character that was very masculine yet not violent. Ray comes across as extraordinarily masculine and by that I mean not only having masculine sex appeal and a masculinity that hangs on him like a perfume, but I also think he presents a masculine perspective as he goes through the world of women. The show does not emasculate him nor does it feminize him.
W&H: Talk about why Thomas Jane is so good as Ray.
CB: As writers, and for me as one of the female creators I felt that Ray was sexy being imperfect. There is something in women that really responds to a man who is imperfect and struggling. The female mind turns off when they are imperfect and not giving a shit about it. But something deep happens in the female psyche when they are trying to keep their head above water whatever their problem is. We really root for them. And so Ray is not perfect. He’s beautiful but flawed.
W&H: And the other characters? The kids are not typical TV kids.
CB: We wanted the kids to be real. Our goal is to make all of our characters real as well as idiosyncratic. So I was not interested in the eye rolling teenager. I was not interested in open defiance because I have seen it on TV. My best friend in high school was very passive and stoic. Her parents were going through a divorce and she was really my inspiration for these characters.
W&H: And Jane Adams as Tanya?
CB: There is this whole thing about how everyone wants to be a writer and that connects to the fact that in most everyone is a well of creativity that could come out in all sorts of ways. I do feel that a lot of creative people through geography or fate or fear are trapped in uncreative places. There is such a level of being trapped as a creative person in a world that does not value creativity. There was a line in the pilot – “it’s not my fault that things that should be valued and cherished aren’t valued and cherished.” (some version of that). Saying it’s not my fault that creativity means nothing in this world. She’s not a conquer the world type. So when we write Jane’s character we really feel like we are writing to the secret creative longings of people everywhere and particularly those in the mainstream.
Continue reading ‘Interview with Colette Burson, co-creator of Hung’
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