{"id":380986,"date":"2026-04-04T03:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/380986\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T03:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:08:09","slug":"company-retreat-bosses-on-finale-reveal-casting-sia-anthony-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/380986\/","title":{"rendered":"Company Retreat Bosses on Finale Reveal, Casting Sia, Anthony and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the ending of \u201cJury Duty<\/a> Presents: Company Retreat,\u201d now streaming on Prime Video.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cJury Duty\u201d executive producers have done it again.<\/p>\n

\n\tCo-creator Jake Szymanski and director Lee Eisenberg pulled off another hilarious season of TV and fooled an oblivious main character, this time a temp assistant named Anthony Norman<\/a>, into believing the absurd workplace shenanigans happening around him were real. But this time, \u201cCompany Retreat\u201d went even bigger than their 2023 breakout hit \u201cJury Duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cCompany Retreat\u201d finale, now streaming on Prime Video, reveals how they pulled off the season. After interviewing 10,000 applicants for a fake temp job, Szymanski and Eisenberg chose Norman to anchor the show, about hot sauce company employees on a corporate getaway. \u201cCompany Retreat\u201d grew from a single courthouse set on \u201cJury Duty\u201d into a multi-acre camping lodge. The second season had 48 cameras (up from the 29 on \u201cJury Duty\u201d) and 3,600 hours of footage (versus 2,100 hours). Every character who worked at Rockin\u2019 Grandmas Hot Sauce also needed to memorize years of backstory, in case Norman asked someone a question about their job.<\/p>\n

\n\tSzymanski and Eisenberg also upped the drama on \u201cCompany Retreat.\u201d Rockin\u2019 Grandmas CEO Doug Womack (Jerry Hauck) was originally going to pass the business down to his slacker son Dougie Womack Jr. (Alex Bonifer), but then enters into a deal with Triukas Group, an unfriendly conglomerate. Despite working at Rockin\u2019 Grandmas for only two weeks, Norman grows close to his fictional co-workers and fights to keep them independent from Triukas. In the shockingly emotional finale, Norman bursts into the meeting room just in time to stop Womack from signing the deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the deal is called off and Rockin\u2019 Grandmas is saved, the cast reveals the truth to Norman and he\u2019s awarded $150,000. Speaking with Variety, Szymanski and Eisenberg discuss how the season nearly fell apart, how they landed Sia<\/a> for the talent show and which actor nearly ruined the show by saying their wrong name.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Prime<\/p>\n

\t\tWhat stood out to you from Anthony\u2019s application that made him the right hero character?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tJake Szymanski: Anthony\u2019s so great, and he\u2019s a multi-faceted person. He\u2019s very kind and thoughtful. He\u2019s also confident in knowing who he is, which is important because we\u2019re looking for someone who\u2019s never the butt of the joke. We\u2019re never punching down and trying to make fun of our hero, but we do want him surrounded with interesting characters who are making questionable choices a lot. You need someone who is confident enough to say, \u201cNo, I can step up and help, or I can offer you my opinion\u201d and also be judgment-free enough to not make anyone feel bad that they\u2019re acting a little strange or crazy. He\u2019s not going to come down too hard on the characters. He\u2019s a real go-getter. He\u2019s kind, and has a great work ethic.<\/p>\n

\n\tLee Eisenberg: I think he\u2019s just inherently decent. The show has a hopefulness and optimism and a lack of cynicism. The world that we\u2019re living in right now has all of those things in spades. There\u2019s something slightly refreshing to see someone like Anthony who makes the right decision, who wants to support these people that he just met. There\u2019s something uplifting, aspirational and hopeful about that. I think Anthony\u2019s even more invested, because in Season 1 it\u2019s a group of strangers; in Season 2, he\u2019s coming into a family. He really gets invested in these characters and their storylines in a really significant way.<\/p>\n

\t\tHow do you make sure you\u2019re casting someone who hasn\u2019t seen \u201cJury Duty\u201d Season 1 or who will recognize any of the actors?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSzymanski: We don\u2019t like to give away all of our secrets on how we do it, but I do think it\u2019s safe to say, we\u2019re certainly not looking for people who are up on the latest pop culture or who have seen every episode of TV recently, or spend every waking hour scrolling through TikTok. Casting is tough. By Hollywood standards, we\u2019re looking for people who haven\u2019t popped yet, but it does also come down to \u201cWas this comedian in a really popular viral comedy video that went around the internet all this year?\u201d That\u2019s dangerous, and maybe we can\u2019t cast that person. That\u2019s the type of thing our hero might have seen.<\/p>\n

\t\tI recognized Lisa Gilroy from Season 1, and she\u2019s been all over my TikTok with her comedy videos.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: Yeah, he did not know who Lisa was. We love Lisa. She was such a breakout in Season 1. For as small a role as she had, not being part of the main cast, we changed her look from Season 1 and what people expect of her. She\u2019s such a chameleon that she disappears into a role in an amazing way. But yeah, that\u2019s probably pushing the limits of how far we can go. Deservedly so, she keeps getting bigger and bigger.<\/p>\n

\n\tSzymanski: Lisa was obviously playing a new character who is not named Lisa. When she was introducing herself to all the employees who came in, she shook Anthony\u2019s hand and said, \u201cHi, I\u2019m Lisa.\u201d And we\u2019re like, \u201cOh God.\u201d Right away, she said her name to him. He just walked by, didn\u2019t think twice of it. It worked. She literally admitted who she was to him, and we got away with it.<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: \u201cHi, I\u2019m Lisa Gilroy. I\u2019m an actress!\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tDid you worry about Anthony googling \u201cRockin\u2019 Grandmas\u201d or searching for any of the actors\u2019 characters\u2019 social media?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSzymanski: Well, I think Rockin\u2019 Grandma\u2019s is a small business, and has an appropriately sized website and social media presence, so I think we were safe there. The main difference between Season 1 and Season 2 is we\u2019re creating a world and characters who know each other so much better than Season 1 when they were all strangers. So it\u2019s a little easier to have Anthony go with the flow. When he sees everyone say, \u201cWe\u2019re not doing phones on this retreat,\u201d he follows along.<\/p>\n

Eisenberg: We took almost three years between seasons. There\u2019s a tremendous amount of care and preparation that goes into every one of these eight 25-30 minute episodes. There\u2019s nothing casual about it. In the preparation, there\u2019s an Instagram with multiple pictures of Rockin\u2019 Grandma\u2019s hot sauce. There\u2019s a Triukas website. You have to build enough of an infrastructure so that the world is not just what he sees, but if he were to venture outside of it a little bit. The Rockin\u2019 Grandma\u2019s website looks like something that your 14-year old nephew made, and the Triukas website looks like you hired someone to pay tens of thousands of dollars to develop it.<\/p>\n

\n\tSzymanski: In Season 2, the world build was so much bigger that it felt a lot more like \u201cThe Truman Show.\u201d We have to build company histories. Instead of being in three rooms in a courthouse, we were on three acres of a campus. We had to be ready for him to go anywhere.<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: You have to create backstories for the characters, and then the actors run with that. Then you have to create dynamics between the characters. This person\u2019s worked at the company for three years. This person\u2019s been there for 18 years. This person is above this person. There are inside jokes. There are things that existed before this person, but after this person. All of that needs to be carefully orchestrated, because at any point if Anthony says, \u201cDid you always work in customer service or did you start as an assistant, or were you the secretary?\u201d All the things that you might ask in a workplace, there had to be answers to everything.<\/p>\n

\n\tSzymanski: One of the actors can\u2019t randomly say, \u201cWe went to college together, and that\u2019s how we know each other.\u201d Then Anthony can mention that to the next actor, and they\u2019ll be like, \u201cWhat are you talking about? I don\u2019t know.\u201d And then all of a sudden, the whole show falls apart.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Prime<\/p>\n

\t\tHow did you get Sia to show up for the talent show? Did she know what was going on with the show?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: Sia absolutely knew what the show was. She was a giant fan of Season 1. A few of the producers have known Sia for a few years. So we reached out to her, and she was immediately on board and so excited to be a part of it. She and Anthony completely connected. I\u2019d never seen Sia do that before, and it was just a delight. She had a blast with Anthony, and Anthony loved her and had so much fun with her.<\/p>\n

\t\tAfter having James Marsden in Season 1, were you trying to land another celebrity for Season 2? Was Sia always your choice?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSzymanski: With \u201cCorporate Retreat,\u201d we wanted to be true to the world. We can\u2019t just randomly have a celebrity who\u2019s there all the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: James Marsden does not work in the warehouse of Rockin\u2019 Grandma\u2019s, and there\u2019s nothing we can do to convince anyone of that.<\/p>\n

\n\tSzymanski: Sia was our top choice, because it fits so well with the talent show. So that worked out perfectly. The tricky part is, normally when you have a guest star of Sia\u2019s level, on a typical production you move everything else around to make it work for her however you need to. You\u2019ll film out of order and do any of that. When we pitched it to Sia and she became interested, the tricky part was the one two-hour window that this will work for Anthony and she has to be there for it. But she was totally up for it.<\/p>\n

\t\tYou reveal in the finale how one opened car window nearly derailed the entire ending. Were there any other close calls that almost ruined the show?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: When we were doing the hypnotist show, we thought that somebody had left a script out. Again, in a normal show you\u2019d call cut. You\u2019d say, \u201cHey, someone left their cellphone, and we\u2019re shooting a show that takes place in 1883. Can you take your cellphone out?\u201d In this, it\u2019s like, \u201cWhat\u2019s that page? What\u2019s happening here? Oh, my God. Anthony\u2019s right by there. Is there anyone who could get it? Is there a waitress who could race in and remove it?\u201d You\u2019re just watching, it\u2019s like a trainwreck in slow motion. Finally, someone was able to move the paper, or whatever it was. But for three minutes, we\u2019re all just staring at the monitors, like, \u201cPlease, Anthony, don\u2019t look to your left.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tOne of the most surprising moments in the finale was when Anthony convinces Doug to reject the Triukas deal and says \u201cfather to father,\u201d because we don\u2019t learn much about Anthony\u2019s personal life or that he\u2019s a dad. Did you know that when you were casting him, and did that impact your decision at all?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: It wasn\u2019t a surprise to us. You\u2019re interviewing them, and you\u2019re getting as much information as you possibly can. It was not something we wanted to lean into and make it feel ploying in any way. That moment was really organic. It was close to what we had envisioned when me, Jake and the other EPs went away on our own company retreat to talk about \u201cCompany Retreat.\u201d It was the most meta writing session of all time. The whole thing was, the hero is going to run down the hill and and stop this deal from happening. We had constructed it in a slightly different way, and then he said \u201cfather to father.\u201d It took our breath away. It was so dramatic in such a personal way and really spoke so much to Anthony\u2019s character that it so far exceeded whatever we could have possibly envisioned two years earlier. That\u2019s what\u2019s so fun as writers and creators of these worlds. There\u2019s a danger to it, and you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. There are moments where you\u2019re like, \u201cHow are we going to get them to search everyone\u2019s rooms?\u201d And Anthony\u2019s like, \u201cI think we should search everyone\u2019s rooms.\u201d And you\u2019re like, \u201cDid you tell him? Why would he offer that?\u201d Those are real. Those are not moments that we constructed. We need the rooms to be searched. If Anthony happens to say it, great. But if not, these three people are going to come up with this idea, and then all of a sudden he says it. It\u2019s remarkable.<\/p>\n

\t\tWas there a more stressful moment on set than when you were shooting the finale?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSzymanski: Because Anthony\u2019s a real person, and you never quite know how he\u2019s going to react, it\u2019s just tense every day. Even the little moments are tense. It\u2019ll be something silly, like we\u2019ve constructed an entire scene to happen outdoors at lunch. All of our cameras are hidden for them to talk at the lunch table. Then you\u2019re just hoping that he\u2019s walking back from a seminar and he\u2019ll stop at the lunch table and won\u2019t decide to take a nap or that a bee doesn\u2019t fly by or he\u2019ll go, \u201cI\u2019m not sitting outside today.\u201d It\u2019s silly stuff that becomes very stressful, because sometimes he knows the documentary crew cameras are there. A lot of time, he doesn\u2019t know the cameras are there and that\u2019s where you really need everything to work.<\/p>\n

\t\tDo you have any other ideas in mind for a third season?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tEisenberg: When we first started doing \u201cJury Duty,\u201d we promised Amazon that we would pull it off and shoot a full season of television, and that was maybe a hair of a lie because we didn\u2019t know that we could actually do it and no one had ever pulled it off before. We only decided to do \u201cCompany Retreat\u201d when we felt like we had this great idea and a storyline that we really want to tackle. Going forward, if we\u2019re lucky enough that someone wants to pay us to do that, we need to make sure that it feels right.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the ending of \u201cJury Duty Presents: Company Retreat,\u201d now streaming on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,170036,169798,106580,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-380986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-jury-duty","12":"tag-jury-duty-presents-company-retreat","13":"tag-sia","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}