[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Platonic.]From co-creators Nicholas Stoller and Francesca Delbanco, the Apple TV+ original series Platonic follows Sylvia (Rose Byrne), a married mother of three that decides to reach out to her former best friend Will (Seth Rogen), whom she lost touch after a falling out occurred when she shared her harshly honest opinion with him about the woman that he was marrying. Now divorced and trying to find himself again, the two rekindle their friendship and share some fun moments together, but things don’t go quite as smoothly as either of them expect.
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During this interview with Collider, co-stars Byrne and Rogen (who are also executive producers on the series) talked about what their characters hope to get from rekindling their friendship, gauging how mean they could get with each other without going to far, researching how to tackle the wild mini-mart scene, how the Coyote Ugly dance worked its way into the show, whether they’d be game for another season, and the longtime real-life friendship Rogen has had with Stoller.

Collider: It’s so lovely to see you guys together again. I had so much fun watching you in this show. Rose, when this all starts, what do you think Sylvia wants and is looking for from Will? Does she genuinely care about and want to reconnect with him, or is it something about her?

ROSE BYRNE: I think she genuinely cares and wants to connect. But before she knows it, it becomes more about her own personal crisis, rather than just reconnecting with a friend. They bring out the best and the worst in one another. I feel like she doesn’t really know what she wants, and I think she’s driven by something that she doesn’t really understand. Through the course of the show, she begins to figure it out. Why is she acting out so much? Why is she being so destructive? It’s only when Charlie reflects back at her and says, “What are you doing? You’re making me feel insecure.” She had to pull herself together, but first, she goes off the rails a little bit, which is fun.

Image via Apple TV+

Seth, what do you think Will gets from Sylvia, that he doesn’t get anywhere else in his life?

SETH ROGEN: I think he’s put himself in a position in life where he doesn’t really have anyone that likes him that much, or that he likes that much. He’s not maintained his relationships that well, and he’s found himself in a place where he’s working with people that he’s alienating, due to his own personality flaws. In reconnecting with Sylvia, it’s someone he views like, “Oh, she’ll forgive me for anything,” to some degree. I think he sees that she’s also going through something, and there’s a co-dependency there.

There are moments when Will and Sylvia can get a little mean with each other.

BYRNE: Yeah.

Did you have a gauge for when you might take it too far? Do you just trust your gut with something like that, so it never gets to the point that they can’t recover from it?

BYRNE: It’s interesting because we had done the Neighbors movies where we were a married couple, and there was far less affection in this show. We were able to be meaner to each other, which was interesting. I remember feeling a little sad, when Seth would be mean to me.

ROGEN: We both did.

BYRNE: And then, we’d apologize in between takes, or something corny like that.

Image via Apple TV+

My two favorite dynamics on this show, aside from you guys together, are actually the ones between Sylvia and Katie (Carla Gallo) and between Will and Andy (Tre Hale). Those dynamics are so much fun to watch. I love the friendships and the honesty that they have with each other. Did those scenes and those relationships also just feel really fun and easy to play with?

BYRNE: They did. Carla Gallo plays Katie, and she’s a very good friend of mine, in real life, and an old friend of Seth’s, and of Nick Stoller and Francesca [Delbanco]. So, I was delighted that she did it because it made those scenes really, really funny. It was easy to come up with natural rapport and comedy and dialogue that felt very effortless. It can be hard for supporting characters to get that sort of chemistry. And Tre, who plays Andy, was terrific. That was only the third thing he’s done, or something.

ROGEN: Yeah. He was really naturalistic. I think it reflected dynamics that I’ve had with people, where I work with people and become friends and get along very well, and then I ultimately drive them insane.

Rose, what was it like to shoot the scene in the mini-mart when your character is high on drugs and rolling around the floor? I loved every minute of that. Were there moments that you just got carried away with it?

BYRNE: Oh, yes. I will go for it, in a way that’s probably unhealthy and I’m immediately told I’ve gone too far and to rein it in. There was incredible footage of people on Ketamine that I could see. It’s a very strange thing that it does to one’s body. It’s this very specific physicality that people have, so I was obsessively watching it and trying to do it.

ROGEN: There are a lot of YouTube videos of people in convenience stores on Ketamine.

BYRNE: I had plenty of inspiration. It was just so ridiculous.

Image via Apple TV+

Seth, is the dance from Coyote Ugly something that is normally part of your skill set, or did you have to learn that?

ROGEN: I did learn that. I actually think, at first, it was something from Cocktail.

BYRNE: Oh, yeah, that’s right. I forgot that. That’s very hard.

ROGEN: I was like, “I’ll never be able to do this, and I don’t think anyone knows anything from the movie Cocktail.” God bless, Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown.

BYRNE: And Elisabeth Shue.

ROGEN: I don’t think Cocktail is a movie that really made it to a younger generation. Not to say Coyote Ugly necessarily is, but I felt like my character would know the dance from Coyote Ugly. It seemed more obtainable.

Do you guys feel like there’s still more in these characters? Would you want to return to them for another season and more episodes? Have you talked about that at all?

BYRNE: Sure. If there was a good idea, I’m open to it. I love working with Seth and Nick and Francesca. It’s certainly a lot of fun. It’s just about timing and if there’s a fun, good, worthy idea to explore.

Image via Apple TV+

Since he’s not here to defend himself, what do you guys most connect with when it comes to Nick Stoller and his work and, and why you want to work with him?

BYRNE: He’s an old friend of Seth’s.

ROGEN: Yeah. I’ve known him since I was 18. We shared an office on the show Undeclared. We were both writers on it. And I remember when he started dating Francesca. We were good friends then, too. I was at his bachelor party and his wedding, and he was at mine. We came up in the same environment, but everyone created their own style, off of that. He always had a very outwardly funny, but emotional and very character driven style. He always really liked to delve deep into relationship dynamics. He’s someone that I’ve worked with since I was a teenager, so it’s a very easygoing thing, at this point.

Platonic is available to stream at Apple TV+.