Jonathan Ames is an accomplished writer and now the creator and executive producer of the HBO sitcom which is partly based on his own life. In the series Jason Schwartzman plays a novelist named Jonathan who feels like his life is mired and he cannot get going, so he takes out an ad as a private investigator. He feels that he’s written and read enough about the job, he can do it himself.
Living Vicariously Through Fictional Characters
As Jonathan Ames said when he appeared with the cast during a session with the Television Critics Association, “[The story] came out of my long-time love and fascination with detective novels. And also at one time in my life I was obsessively playing Internet backgammon and crazily bored and rereading Raymond Chandler at the time. And I've wanted to be a hero. So the story that I initially wrote, which became the basis for the series, was me getting a chance to be heroic through a fictional character.”
Ames also commented about the look and feel of the show itself. “[It] was definitely a goal was to sort of pay homage to noir films, not to overdo it, but certainly lampoon it, but just to have some classic beautiful shots like [the scene with] Jason in the alleyway, or [the] shot where he takes off the sunglasses. That's a little bit less noir, or maybe more 70s hero. But [I] definitely wanted to have some of these lighting [effects], and evoke that feeling that this guy is having this incredible Walter Middy experience of being a private detective like his heroes in the books.”
Jason Schwartzman Enjoys Playing Jonathan
Jason Schwartzman is excited to portray Jonathan in the series. He said, “To me, Jonathan Ames is the greatest writer. And it was the greatest thing that happened to me to have Bored to Death cross into my life and for me to be able to work with Jonathan, and to work on these scripts.” He said that filming the series was more like filming a long movie.
“I would do it as long as Jonathan could write these amazing scripts, and have these great situations,” Schwartzman exclaimed. “Because it's very rare in any situation in any environment in my life to have a Jonathan Ames right here working with you.”
Ted Danson Plays a George Plimpton- Like Character
Veteran actor Ted Danson plays a character named George in the show. “In this show I play a character who's struggling with relevance, and I'm finding it really fun and easy to play,” he told the journalists.
Ames explained, “I was lucky enough toward the end of his life to get friendly with George Plimpton, whose middle name was George Ames Plimpton, oddly enough, and I didn't know that when I met him, but he just struck me as this incredible New York character, not unlike Ted with his beautiful beacon of white hair.”
Jonathan Ames is an accomplished writer. “I like writing books,” he acknowledged. “I like making things, and I like to try to amuse people. So I feel like we made, in my mind, eight episodes, but also, like, eight short films.”
Bored to Death airs Sunday nights on HBO.
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