Yahoo Sports ‘Dave’ Season Finale: Dave Burd Talks Securing Brad Pitt As His “Shepherd” For Wild Stalker Episode & “Scariest” Fan Encounter He’s Had
SPOILER ALERT: The following story contains details from the Season 3 finale of FXX’s Dave.
If Dave has met viewers with just one idea over the course of its three seasons, it’s to expect the unexpected — and with Season 3 finale “Looking for Love,” co-creator and star Dave Burd (aka rapper Lil Dicky) has delivered again.
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As the supersized episode directed by Kitao Sakurai opens, Dave is shooting his “Mr. McAdams” music video alongside new friend Rachel McAdams, with Brad Pitt popping in for a cameo. Brad hits it off with Dave and winds up coming over to record in his music studio, only for the pair (and later, GaTa, as well) to be taken hostage by the gun-wielding Bella (Tenea Intriago) — the obsessed fan introduced in the first episode of the season who is determined to make Dave her friend and prove that she’s every bit as special as he is.
Ultimately, while Bella manages to shoot Brad in the chest with a crossbow at the height of the tension — the actor presumably survives — her plan is foiled when Dave and GaTa manage to push her down into a bathtub filled with wet plaster. What Dave takes away from the experience is a quote from Brad — that “until you love yourself, you can never love another.” So, while it initially seems his brush with death will lead him to run back into the arms of his girlfriend of the season, Robyn (Chloe Bennet), he ultimately lets her move back to Wisconsin and flies to West Africa to spend time with his idol, Drake.
Burd caught up with Deadline this morning to break down the events of the finale and what they set up for future chapters of the series. He speaks below about breaking Season 3’s story, how he managed to get Pitt on board as a “shepherd” of sorts for his stalker episode, the “scariest” run-in he’s personally had with fans, his thoughts on Succession‘s recent finale, and finding himself ascending to “a different level” of late with his music.
DEADLINE: How did you arrive at the story you wanted to tell this season, and with this finale?
DAVE BURD: I feel like this season has a few core themes going on at once that have a fair amount of overlap to them. One is the search for love and finding the one, and then another one is the search for, I guess, validation and fame, and being seen as your best possible artist. By the end of the season, with Episode 9 for example, it’s like you’re seeing part of the character’s personality traits that make it why he is able to go for fame the way he does, but also hinders his ability to find love in that way. At the end of the day, it’s a character’s quest for fulfillment and satisfaction.
Then, as far as how we netted out at the finale, we thought what better way to show these themes than through, I hate to say it, but like a sick twisted mirror of a character, who possesses a similar type of fervor and ambition as Dave does, but obviously taking it to a far more extreme level? It’s just interesting for my character to see himself in what would be otherwise looked at as a horrifying, scary character.
DEADLINE: There’s a lot of touches of horror throughout the season. What was the thinking behind that?
BURD: I think this season, I was really excited about what tour could provide, as far as every episode, it’s in a different place. It allows for its own short film tone. So unlike seasons prior, I felt very justified in going for [it]. So, Episode 2 in Philadelphia is like a chaotic, gritty vibe. Episode 5 in Mississippi is like a comedy horror, and 6 is like a wandering desert saga. I think Episode 9 last year, Season 2, the Rick Rubin one, being such a tonal difference from what the show typically is and being a lot of people’s favorites, my personal favorite of the first two seasons, really made me feel like, “Okay, we’re just going to go for it this season.” And I think as a result, you have a few different episodes that yes, have a little bit of thriller-y, psychological, “we’re stuck somewhere” type of vibe. But I think that’s the coolest part of this season, is that every episode, you really don’t know what to expect. For a comedy to branch out and do slice-of-life comedy, a documentary-based episode…One episode’s kind of futuristic; another is like, we’re trapped with a stalker. I just love that we had the freedom to reinvent ourselves every episode.
DEADLINE: The horror this season generally revolves around encounters with fans that are uncomfortable at best and terrifying at worst. Have you had any experiences of the sort?
BURD: The scariest moment I had with fans was in Detroit. There was just a car that was following us, and we didn’t know why, we didn’t know who. And we’re in this RV, very similar to this season. We didn’t have a big tour bus, and I just remember I got on the ground because I didn’t know, “Are people going to shoot?” We’re swerving trying to lose this person, and our luggage has fallen off the top racks. It was so chaotic. Now, none of that really impacted any of the episodes this season. But that is the scariest…I’ve never been trapped in a hurricane with a conservative Christian. Never have I been trapped with Brad Pitt and a stalker.
DEADLINE: When we last spoke about Season 2, you expressed caution about orienting episodes around big guest stars, given the prospect that people might just back out of an episode at any given time. But this season, you’ve got Brad Pitt, Rachel McAdams and Drake all playing major roles in the narrative. What inspired their inclusion, and how did you secure their involvement?
BURD: Those three people, their characters precede them. Everyone knows what Rachel McAdams means to our generation, as far as growing up and seeing the romantic movies of our time, and she represents, I think, a lot of people’s dream woman. Drake [is] obviously the manifestation of the top of the top of hip-hop. Brad Pitt [is] one of the [biggest], if not the biggest movie star ever. So, I think all of them represent something so key — the love, the fame, the hip-hop, the quest for greatness.
They all so embody that in their own ways, and yes, we wrote them very specifically into the season without having any real knowledge of if they’d say yes or not. Now, I had my hopes. I had met Drake and he told me that he thinks the show’s one of the most important shows of our generation. I know he really watches every episode and loves the show. I heard Brad Pitt was a fan of the show, without knowing that — you know, you hear it through the grapevine of Hollywood — and sent him a really well thought out email that took days to write, explaining the premise and why I thought this could be the coolest thing ever. With Rachel, I got on a phone call and explained it all to her. So, every method was different.
People in my writers’ room were looking at me a little bit like I was crazy [because] I was putting so many eggs in the basket. But I really believed that the premises and the thing we were going for were so good. Honestly, people hit me all the time and say, “How did you get all these people?” And it’s really a testament to the show. The were very willing because they loved the show. It didn’t take pulling anyone’s legs to make it happen; it just took me explaining the idea. They’re all just massive fans of the show, which is the biggest honor of my lifetime, truly.
DEADLINE: What would you have done if Pitt read your script and passed? How much would that have changed the way the season plays out?
BURD: I thought about it, of course. You would’ve just had to pivot and create a different type of…Maybe there’s a stalker with me and GaTa the whole time. You know what I mean? I don’t know. But we loved the idea of this fan, meeting her in Episode 1, her coming back in Episode 10, her representing a total mirror of everything that’s wrong with my personality that I don’t really see until I see it through her. So, that was the core idea. Now, obviously there’s no better way to do it than to have Brad Pitt right by your side. I think you want a shepherd through this process — a guy who’s had stalkers in his life, a guy who’s had immense fame in his life…That was the best way to do the episode. I mean, it’s kind of surreal when I watch it…
DEADLINE: You get the sense watching Pitt’s work that he’s the kind of person he portrays himself as on your show, one who is energized by taking unexpected risks, like taking on this episode of Dave. How did you find the experience of working with him?
BURD: Best professional experience of my life. First off, he is the coolest, nicest guy ever. Off the rip, you don’t have to worry about, “Is he going to be challenging? Do I have to worry about getting him out?” I mean, this guy was working overnights — four shoot days, going to like 5:00 a.m. — and couldn’t have been better spirited, couldn’t have been more game, couldn’t have been more all in. You know, he’s like smashing his head through the [recording booth] glass, and couldn’t have been nicer to everyone on set.
I just felt like the days he was there, there was such a spirit in the crew. Everyone was walking with such a sense of purpose, and I think it’s because we all do this because we love telling stories and we love making cinema. And when you have the guy, the biggest movie star of our time willing to come in and be in TV…I think the last time was in Friends, like 30 years ago. And he’s willing to come in and play ball and be the main character of our season finale. And he was amazing in it. He’s so funny. He killed this episode… So to answer your question, it was a total dream come true. I’m giving him direction and he’s trusting me the same way that I know he’s trusting Tarantino or the Coen Brothers. It really validates me as a filmmaker and makes me like feel like, wow, I really am doing the right stuff here.
DEADLINE: Is Dave’s relationship with Robyn officially over at this point? Has he placed love on the back-burner for the foreseeable future?
BURD: I think the way the season ended was obviously a massive mislead, thinking that I’ve learned all my lessons and I’m going to go and do the right thing, and pursue the thing that really can fill you in life and love. I think the surprising thing on the season, [where I’m] looking for love the whole time, [is that] I failed to realize that in my grand quest for validation, despite my absurd level of self-confidence at all times, I obviously have this gaping hole and need for validation as a character. Until you actually are at peace with who you are, you really can’t love anybody else, and I look at the ending as not necessarily simply dark side, choosing Drake and fame and money, but also awareness and being like, “I’m not ready. And rather than stringing this person along more for my own self-interest, I’m going to, in the mean time, work on myself and continue to figure out how to become the best artist I can be.”
I’m faced with this big season-building decision every season, and I think the first two seasons, I do the right thing. This season, we were really drawn to the idea of, maybe he doesn’t do “the right thing” this time, and I think that leaves a lot of things open for where it could go next. The second the character learns all of the lessons of life, maybe you don’t have as much to do.
DEADLINE: Have you thought much about where things might go next season, or entered discussions yet with the network?
BURD: I think with the writers’ strike, they can’t even really talk about it. I’m not sure. But no, I have not thought about it. My brain has been focused on this season, and now it’s focused on enjoying life and getting back to music, too. The show takes so much time away from [that], and luckily the show’s about a rapper, so I can get all the best things I’ve been working on in the show. But I feel like I’m really hitting my stride as a musical artist and want to jump on that, too. I’m fortunate enough to where I have one, a personal life… I have a true girlfriend in real life who I’m fully in love with that I want to spend time with and actually live life, loving her, and experiencing that and traveling, and then I have a whole musical career that is begging for my return. And I want to honor those things.
DEADLINE: Could you talk about what you’ve set up, as far as the trajectory of Dave’s friends, with Emma making progress in her filmmaking career, Elz about to launch a record label, Mike in a relationship and GaTa being able to buy his mother a house with reality series winnings?
BURD: GaTa goes forward with the show, but not for the wrong reasons; I think for the right reasons that you weren’t really thinking. Emma, I think one of the more satisfying scenes of the season is Episode 9, after the screening, when we have… I don’t know, I hate to use another show, but I look at it like the Succession, Logan Roy-Kendall [dynamic], where it’s not the master getting a dose of his own medicine, but a little bit… I’m trying to think of another analogy, but you know what I mean, where I do things a certain way and then she kind of Daved Dave, so to speak. It’s a satisfying thing to see her put her foot down and be like, “No, I’m not changing anything for anybody. This is my thing,” which has been seasons in the making, ever since the ad agency rap where she didn’t really get the shine that my character got. Elz has been not putting himself out there and scared of failure, and he’s going to really go for it. Mike went to visit his father, and now he’s in love and has a whole partner. I love that ending montage because it really does tie everything together really beautifully, and I think anything can happen next.
DEADLINE: You mentioned Succession. Have you watched the finale, and if so, what did you think?
BURD: Mhm. I loved it. I thought it was really satisfying, and I liked that it ended not on the happy [note]. I was surprised to see the Shiv [backstab]. I thought it was weirdly simple in a cool way. It all comes down to this board meeting [that] you’ve seen [them] do so many times. It all felt organic and cool…That’s the one show that I watch as a true fan and don’t feel a competitive spirit towards it, and I’m just like, “I love this show.”
DEADLINE: Where are you at in the process with your next album?
BURD: My predictions in the past have been so egregious that I feel like a loser in saying anything, so all I know is that I’m at a different level now. In between Season 2 and 3, I had six months to work on music, and the six months that I worked on there were more fruitful than the five years prior. I think I’m at a more expedited pace now, where I’m able to make better music, faster, so that bodes well. But I can’t put a timeline on it. At this point, I might as well wait until I feel great about it, and it’s not for lack of effort. I truly work as hard as I can on all this stuff, so I’m doing the best I can.
DEADLINE: I saw that your co-star Christine Ko gave you some credit in a recent interview, noting that each season of the show you make is essentially an extended visual album that you’re putting your all into.
BURD: Yeah. The life cycle of the show is like an 11-month thing, starting with writing [for] four months. I’m the main writer in the room every day. Then, you shoot it; I’m in every single scene, almost. I’m so part of the directing of everything, and then you edit it. I’m in the edit every single day. I’m in every color session, every mix. I do all the scoring with the composers. I’ve been working, for this whole process, like 7:00 a.m. to midnight for months, seven days a week. So, it’s really a lot.
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