{"id":538117,"date":"2026-03-22T06:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T06:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/538117\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T06:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T06:39:12","slug":"billy-magnussen-and-simon-helberg-talk-the-audacity-at-series-mania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/538117\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Magnussen and Simon Helberg Talk ‘The Audacity’ at Series Mania"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCreated by Jonathan Glatzer<\/a>, \u201cThe Audacity<\/a>\u201d is returning for a second season, and its stars are ready for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe stakes are high,\u201d Billy Magnussen<\/a> tells\u00a0Variety. \u201cJonathan has set up so many twists and turns,\u201d adds \u201cThe Big Bang Theory\u201d veteran Simon Helberg.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs actors, we don\u2019t tend to think ahead much, but these characters are so well-defined that you really want to see what will happen to them.\u00a0You feel like you know them, you feel so invested in that world. That just comes from good writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMagnussen adds: \u201cThe sad reality is that because of technology, people\u2019s attention spans have died. They move on so fast. But I always gravitate towards shows where I relate to the characters.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDon\u2019t plot me over the head: I want to live with these characters every week, and that\u2019s what I hope we\u2019re conveying. We want to make them so real that you want to show up to see what they\u2019re getting into and how they overcome their hurdles, flaws and mistakes. I think that makes for a successful show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSold by AMC<\/a> Networks, \u201cThe Audacity\u201d <\/a>takes on the poisoned bubble that is Silicon Valley, with its ruthless inventors, billionaires, tech bros and even their long-suffering psychiatrists. As a writer and producer, Glatzer is also behind \u201cSuccession\u201d \u2013 another show full of characters that people love to hate and yet can\u2019t look away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s like watching a train crash. It\u2019s an amazing compliment to be compared to great television like \u2018Succession,\u201d but I do love that we\u2019re creating our own story and our own journey,\u201d notes Magnussen, who plays CEO in crisis Duncan Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHelberg, cast as inventor Martin Phister, opens up about their characters who are trying to be virtuous and end up getting corrupted instead. Zach Galifianakis, Lucy Punch, Sarah Goldberg and Meaghan Rath also star.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re watching them at a point in their lives and careers where there\u2019s a lot of temptation and power just out of arm\u2019s reach. But we had to find something that was good about them initially. If they were pure evil, it would be a caricature. They had some idea of what they wanted, but they have strayed from it. That\u2019s what\u2019s so amazing about Jonathan\u2019s writing. When you watch \u2018Succession,\u2019 you\u2019re also watching an internal conflict within each of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir bottomless ambition and greed make them scary. They also make them funny.\u00a0 \u201cThey say all these audacious phrases and you\u2019re just like: \u2018What?!\u2019 How can you be so close-minded and horrible? Their blind spots \u2013 that\u2019s the humor,\u201d says Magnussen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHelberg adds: \u201cAll the actors would come up to each other and ask: \u2018Tonally, what are you feeling when you\u2019re doing your scenes?\u2019 I\u2019m doing half of mine with a robot, basically. There\u2019re farcical moments and tragic moments, but we just always wanted to play it real.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is no small feat, given that real-life Silicon Valley stories often seem too bizarre to be true.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEverything that happens in our show is happening in Silicon Valley. We screened it for CEOs in San Francisco and asked: \u2018Did we nail it?\u2019 They said: \u2018Guys, it\u2019s too real.\u2019 But they also never think it\u2019s actually them,\u201d recalls Magnussen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think there was innocence in a lot of these people, and it just shows what corruption, power and money can do to you \u2013 and to your family. They are fake idols. It\u2019s sad they\u2019re still celebrated by so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYeah, but they also fall very quickly, you know?,\u201d says Helberg.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSome smoke and mirrors that can go a long way. A con man tells you one thing, and it may take a while before you realize you\u2019re being scammed. It\u2019s not a political show, but it\u2019s about power in many ways, even though the characters are somewhat titan-adjacent. They\u2019re not there yet; they\u2019re still clawing their way up that ladder. When we see what\u2019s really going on there, it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone trying desperately to become like that. But they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese people are miserable in the show, but they\u2019re striving for happiness. They\u2019re just going in the wrong direction. You still need your wife or your husband look you in the eye once in a while, and you still need to connect with your children. You need to go out and be social, and experience culture and life. That\u2019s what you need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhich makes them human, although for the longest time, only their children seem to notice their flaws.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe adults are all trash fires. The kids are the hope. I think the children in this show are one of its most important aspects, because they\u2019re innocent, and then you slowly see how the world around them corrupts and destroys them,\u201d says Magnussen.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDown the line, you really start empathizing with these people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Created by Jonathan Glatzer, \u201cThe Audacity\u201d is returning for a second season, and its stars are ready for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[32821,241106,88,241107,240887,240888,240889,92],"class_list":["post-538117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-amc","tag-billy-magnussen","tag-entertainment","tag-jonathan-glatzer","tag-series-mania","tag-simon-helberg","tag-the-audacity","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538117","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=538117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}