{"id":323795,"date":"2025-12-01T08:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T08:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/323795\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T08:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T08:45:08","slug":"zach-hadel-michael-cusack-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/323795\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Hadel, Michael Cusack Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe creators and voice stars behind the cult-favorite Adult Swim<\/a> animated series Smiling Friends<\/a> are happy to have found their groove.<\/p>\n

\n\tSmiling Friends aired its season three finale<\/a> Sunday, focusing on the green and mysterious Glep. Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel co-created the project that debuted in 2022 and centers on co-workers Charlie (voiced by Hadel) and Pim (Cusack) attempting to bring positivity into the lives of others. The show has become a buzzy breakout for Adult Swim, which has already renewed it<\/a> for two more seasons.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Cusack and Hadel discuss how the differing rhythms of the first two seasons helped to inform the third one<\/a>, their reactions when fans appear to read too much into certain show moments and why the Beatles<\/a> serve as inspiration for how long the series will ultimately run.<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tSmiling Friends<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Adult Swim<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did the season three finale feel like the right time to explore Glep\u2019s past? <\/p>\n

\n\tZACH HADEL Three seasons in feels about right to explain what one of the main characters does. (Laughs.) Why is he here? What does he do? We have a throwaway line in the first episode of season two where a guy says, \u201cWhat does the green thing do?\u201d and since then, people have been quoting that. It just felt like a good time to answer.<\/p>\n

\n\tWere there other potential flashbacks to Glep\u2019s past that you had considered for the episode? <\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL We\u2019ve had in our minds since whenever we started thinking of the show, the idea that Glep would be thousands of years old. We had some other ideas [and] might use those for a later season. An interesting idea was that Glep went back to his home country, [and] what are the other Glep guys like? We went in a lot of different directions, and everything just felt like it didn\u2019t scratch the itch. A big chunk of the episode is just flashbacks, but that works well because it\u2019s funny, it\u2019s unique and it keeps it from being a serious lore episode.<\/p>\n

\n\tMICHAEL CUSACK We wanted to do a time travel episode through the Smiling Friends universe. The Founding Fathers stuff is just funny to us that they\u2019re bro-y and speak modern-day.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow has Charlie and Pim\u2019s relationship evolved this season? <\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK It always evolves just naturally of what we find funny with them. \u201cSquim\u201d was a good example of Pim maybe realizing that he doesn\u2019t have the best partner in his work and questioning it, but he always goes back, and he loves Charlie. It\u2019s questionable what Charlie thinks of Pim. (Laughs.) It\u2019s a little bit unclear.<\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL My feeling is Charlie\u2019s a recluse, and he likes Pim. He wouldn\u2019t work there if he didn\u2019t like him. But it\u2019s definitely lopsided.<\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK Charlie probably sees Pim as a colleague. Pim sees Charlie as his best friend. Charlie is a little like, \u201cI like you, but don\u2019t go too far on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tSmiling Friends<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Adult Swim<\/p>\n

\n\tThis season has delved into fans\u2019 relationships with favorite projects. There was some social media chatter about the anime con tag<\/a> for the Squim episode. <\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK That cracked me up, to be honest, when I saw that trending on Twitter. First of all, that\u2019s just a guy dressing up as a Sailor Moon thing. People read into it too much. But I actually loved that it became a controversy because it was funny. It was a dumb moment. By the way, it wasn\u2019t even a controversy. There was Bluesky versus Twitter stuff \u2014 that\u2019s classic. [The difference between the platforms is] becoming more of a thing now. <\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL It\u2019s also that classic thing where more people are talking about it being a controversy than [actual backlash]. One person said something. That certainly wasn\u2019t a commentary on fans. If you go to a convention, especially around the beautiful cosplay babes, some gentlemen really have no hygiene sensibilities. Also, guys go to the X-rated conventions. I\u2019d say 99.999 percent of the people that I\u2019ve run into that are fans of Smiling Friends have been great. So it\u2019s not a commentary. No one\u2019s done that to us yet.<\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK It\u2019s not in Smiling Friends\u2019 nature to be topical or political or anything like that. Like Zach said, anytime there\u2019s anything like that, it\u2019s one percent backlash on something that they\u2019re reading into, and most people are like, \u201cYou\u2019re reading too much into it.\u201d It\u2019s always funny to observe.<\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL It\u2019s baked into the show where we\u2019ve hidden all these fun little things that we do want people to find. But it\u2019s almost like we\u2019ve turned up people\u2019s schizophrenia pattern recognition, where they\u2019re now looking for something everywhere. I\u2019ll have some people go, \u201cThat\u2019s a reference to Bomberman 64!\u201d You\u2019re like, \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d <\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tSmiling Friends<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Adult Swim<\/p>\n

\n\tYou do have Mr. Frog becoming a disastrous president and references to assassinations. Do you have real-life politics on your minds when you\u2019re working on episodes? <\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL Probably yes, in the sense of, while we\u2019re making the show, shit\u2019s going on around us, and sometimes in the writer\u2019s room, it\u2019s like, \u201cOh, my God, did you see fucking North Korea just launched an ICBM over Japan? Jesus Christ.\u201d Sometimes the stress of that stuff or COVID will make it in. Speaking about Charlie\u2019s phone background [showing an image of Mr. Frog surviving an assassination attempt], that level of real-world, political-touching on that stuff \u2014 first of all, it\u2019s not real life. But in that office of Smiling Friends, they would all have different politics. One of them would be a quote, unquote more Democrat voter. One would be slightly more Republican. A friend group having different POVs, that was really more where that was coming from. Charlie is more the friend that goes on weird websites and looks at conspiracy shit on TikTok. Pim is not. Pim\u2019s feed is probably flowers and nice songs.<\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK We love a lot of things, like history, politics and just the interests of the world. Obviously, it\u2019s going around our head, but we make sure that the show is apolitical in that way. We don\u2019t want to be one of those shows that chooses sides or endorses someone. Someone told me very early on, and it\u2019s a really good lesson: \u201cWhy would you split your audience in half?\u201d Our personal politics are all over the place, so we just try to be funny.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Brian [O\u2019Halloran] from Clerks<\/a> appearing this season, was he a fan of the show?<\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL I will not speak for Brian, but I would bet that he\u2019s not a fan of the show. I don\u2019t think he knew what it was. But he was very gracious. He was an angel. He did a million takes when he didn\u2019t have to. But I don\u2019t think he knows what the fuck Smiling Friends is. (Laughs.)<\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK Zach and I grew up as huge fans of Clerks. It got me into filmmaking. So it was a dream to get him. That\u2019s why when I watch that scene, there\u2019s a bit of me that\u2019s like, \u201cLet Brian talk about Clerks.\u201d If I was The Boss, I\u2019d want to hear him giving trivia. (Hadel laughs.) Brian seems like a really great guy, and he shouldn\u2019t have died in Clerks III. He should have lived on for Clerks 4, in my opinion. <\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL [Clerks 4] could start with, he wakes up from a bad dream where he died. <\/p>\n

\n\tSend that to Kevin [Smith]. Were there other options for that scene if Brian had said no? <\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK We\u2019ve always had [an idea for] this joke where The Boss would say, \u201cHey, do you guys want to hang out with Randal from Clerks?\u201d The joke to us was like, \u201cAre you talking about Randal, the character from Clerks, or the actor?\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cYeah, Randal.\u201d That just evolved into us getting Brian because I think we just assumed that the actor [Jeff Anderson] who plays Randal in Clerks doesn\u2019t really say yes to many things. I don\u2019t even think we asked him. I think we just went to Brian.<\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL Yeah, the original bit was The Boss is like, \u201cIf you do a good job \u2014 I\u2019m not going to say it, but maybe Randal from Clerks might hang out with us later.\u201d That was going to be the whole thread of the episode. I also think at some point we did consider Kevin Smith<\/a> himself.<\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK Kevin Smith was definitely an option at some point as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL All three of them. It rotated. <\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK We went to Brian because we just knew he says yes to fun stuff like this. <\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tSmiling Friends<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Adult Swim<\/p>\n

\n\tWere there key takeaways for you now that the new season has aired? <\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL I really am proud of the whole season. Season two, it had some really good highs. We learned some lessons writing-wise. Season twos are always the hardest because you\u2019re trying to replicate season one but not make it the exact same. [For season three,] we hit a stride in the way that we understand the characters better, and I like that every episode\u2019s different. The Shmaloogle one is completely fucking different, and then you\u2019ve got Silly Sam. Nothing feels like we\u2019re doing anything too same-y.<\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK We\u2019ve finally gotten to the point where it\u2019s coming out more naturally. Scripts can flow out easier. What I want to take away for the future seasons is, no matter how big the show gets or how much spotlight is on the scripts, I do want to always keep in mind just to have fun with Zach with writing. At the end of the day, it is an excuse and a playground for us to come up with fun, dumb stuff.<\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL Not taking it too seriously. If you\u2019re really looking at it zoomed-out, season one was very plot-heavy. Season two meandered a little bit more. It was a little bit less plot and more improv. To us, the core of Smiling Friends is the really improv-y stuff. Season three does a good job of weaving in improv moments. You get 10 seconds of that, rather than big 30-second or minute-long improv scenes.<\/p>\n

\n\tHave you written new episodes yet? <\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK We\u2019ve written two scripts. We\u2019ve got a third in the making. Super happy with it so far. It\u2019s always fun to jump back into getting fresh again with ideas.<\/p>\n

\n\tHollywood seems to be trying to create comedy series that appeal to Gen Z. What\u2019s the secret?<\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK We don\u2019t follow the pipeline of a Hollywood show. We don\u2019t have table reads. We don\u2019t have a big writer\u2019s room. We\u2019re just being ourselves. Shows should come from a vision of a person, duo or group. There\u2019s so many Hollywood shows that\u2019s this weird machine.<\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL A network gets partnered with some comedian or a random artist that they found. The fucked-up thing is, everybody involved is talented in their own right, but nothing is being made for a passion. They literally sit down and say, \u201cHow do we make a hit show?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis season included commentary about The Simpsons<\/a> having run for so long. What are your latest thoughts on when you might hang it up? <\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK We\u2019ll see how we feel after four and five, and then Zach and I will get into the war room and decide what the next plan is. We pretty much can guarantee it\u2019s not going to go on as much as these other shows. <\/p>\n

\n\tHADEL Even if we had a thousand ideas at the end of season five, we\u2019re not going to go on long. I will say that much. We\u2019re not going to put a number up, but five is getting close to probably where we\u2019ll want to wrap it up.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs Adult Swim arm-twisting you to keep it going?<\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK Even our agents think we\u2019re going to go to season 80. (Laughs.) Our reps and Adult Swim are like, \u201cSurely, we\u2019ll go on forever.\u201d But Zach and I know what\u2019s best for the show. The Beatles are so cool. They ended with Abbey Road on a peak, and it\u2019s like this nice little discography you can go back to watch. Leaving the audience wanting more is the best.<\/p>\n

\n\tWings<\/a> had some good songs.<\/p>\n

\n\tCUSACK Yeah, but that was good because it was like a reset. If Zach and I made another show after Smiling Friends, that would be an excuse to be refreshed again. That\u2019s why Wings were good because Paul McCartney was like, \u201cAll right, now I can start again.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The creators and voice stars behind the cult-favorite Adult Swim animated series Smiling Friends are happy to have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[115519,12874,165393,88,165394,115522,13979,32275,92,13469],"class_list":{"0":"post-323795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-adult-swim","9":"tag-animation","10":"tag-clerks","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-kevin-smith","13":"tag-smiling-friends","14":"tag-the-beatles","15":"tag-the-simpsons","16":"tag-tv","17":"tag-wings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}