When you think of Seth Rogen and the projects he is attached to, you will most likely be transported into a hazy smoke-filled dream featuring animated characters, James Franco, and a slew of profanities. From the hilarious films Superbad and Knocked Up to the cult-classic television show Freaks and Geeks, Rogen knows good comedy. As the executive producer of Hulu’s Future Man, Rogen proves he is more than a funny guy who smokes weed, he is a stellar director and producer. The television show first aired in 2017 and is now in its third and final season. Starring Josh Hutcherson, Derek Wilson, and Eliza Coupe, the show is a mixed bag of time travel, hilarity, and a lot of surprises.
Actress Eliza Coupe joined the series as Tiger, a soldier from the future, after finding success on hit comedy television shows like Scrubs and Happy Endings. And when I connect with Coupe on the phone in the midst of a global pandemic and shelter-in-place, it is clear that she has not lost her comedic charm. “Here’s the thing,” she tells me with a half-laugh, “This isn’t that different from my normal life. As an actor, things are always a little uncertain about when we’ll work again.” Coupe adds, “It is a really cool time to slow down and I think it is necessary. I think on a certain level, the world needed to slow the fuck down.”
Living in Topanga, California with her dog, surrounded by picturesque scenery, Coupe has been making the most of her self-isolation with yoga and mediation, and of course, hikes with her dog. “I choose to look at this situation like a beautiful opportunity to go inward and discover different things about myself, things that I want to be doing, to create, to write, and so that’s what I’ve been doing.”
While the actress admits she hasn’t actually watched a single thing since being in quarantine, she does recommend checking out Future Man. “The show has exceeded my expectations. The beautiful thing about the show is that it is crazy comedy and has an insane storyline; it transcends space and time, literally, but there is a lot of meat to the bones of the characters,” she says. The third and final season of the show aired on April 3 and in just eight episodes, you will go on an adventure filled with humor, drama, and depth. “The characters are all multi-faceted but my character especially, it took quite a circuitous route, but to get to a place of having a fully fleshed out arc is beautiful.”
Tiger’s story arc might be beautiful but it is not going to be expected, according to Coupe. “To say I reach a place of enlightenment is sort of an understatement. My character really becomes a very different version of who she was in the first season, which I’m pumped about. I don’t know if they ripped from my own life because I meditate a lot, I wear a lot of crystals, I’m a fucking hippie, and I live in Topanga, but maybe they did.” Coupe adds that Tiger is a very agro character with a lot of masculine energy, which was sometimes difficult to portray every day. “It was quite therapeutic when I was going through a divorce when we filmed, but it’s hard to play that intense of a character for three years so I really welcomed the softening, the more calm, and beautiful evolution of this character,” she says.
With the final season of Future Man out now, Coupe is preparing to shoot a pilot for Fox, and is spending a lot of her time during quarantine writing with her brother Thom, who she wrote a film with that she will direct and star in. Produced by Red Hour Films, the movie will be based around pond hockey and will need to be shot in the winter months. “Once we see what the temperature is, no pun intended, of the world is, we will continue with that,” she says.
