Creator of HBO’s New Rom-Com Thriller RUN Suggests the Series “Might Provide A Little Escapism” For Viewers in Quarantine

HBO’s new romantic comedy thriller RUN, starring Merritt Weaver and Domhnall Gleeson, kicked off with an intense start and provides viewers with the perfect combination of comedy, romance, and thriller during these trying times. Created and written by Vicky Jones, and executive produced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, RUN is genre-bending series about a woman, Ruby Richardson (Wever) who walks away from her ordinary life in the suburbs to revisit her past with her college boyfriend, Billy Johnson (Gleeson), with whom she made a pact 17 years prior that if either one of them texted the word “RUN” and the other replied the same, they would drop everything and meet in Grand Central Station and travel across America together. With new episodes debuting Sundays at 10:30 p.m. ET only on Crave – creator Vicky Jones shares her inspiration behind the series, working with long-time collaborator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and how viewers can relate to the multiple themes. Where did the idea for RUN come from? “Me and Phoebe [Waller-Bridge] had this old joke where we’d whisper “Run!” to each other in any situation we wanted to escape from. I also wanted to write a romance about the little routines that develop between couples, the beautiful details and minutiae of relationships behind closed doors. So we had this idea of this couple coming back together after years apart, then Phoebe mentioned our old “Run!” joke. That led to this premise of a pact that if one of them texted “Run!” and the other texted it back, they would walk out on their lives, meet on a train platform and go on this journey together. ” Do you think viewers will relate to the theme of breaking free and reinventing your life? “I hope so. Nowadays we have so many choices but as life happens, those paths close down. Worrying that you took the wrong option and wondering about what might have been is only human. We might pin those feelings from a certain person and fantasise about the idea of dropping everything for them. In some ways, it’s a really exciting idea. Time goes so fast. You leave school or college and suddenly you’re in your late 30s, still feeling like the same person inside but with all these grown-up commitments. Maybe we’re secretly all feeling like it happened too quickly. ” Run combines comedy with romance and thriller elements. How did its unique tone come about? “Mainly we just wanted it to be exciting. The Before Sunrise idea was done so brilliantly by Richard Linklater. We wanted that sense of minutiae, of deeply investigating what makes people fall passionately in love, what makes you feel so safe and accepted that you can say anything, do anything and be your true authentic self with that person. I definitely wanted to write about that but, of course, you can’t have a drama without conflict. Rather than just having them falling in and out of love, we felt this urge for other things to come crashing into their world. Their romance is renewed and there’s the excitement of that but on the other hand, life is happening too. There’s an element of “Be careful what you wish for” too, exploring what happens when you step outside your obligations. Wonderful, magical things happen but terrible things too. ” Apart from Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise film series, what were your other influences? “Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train, of course. We watched lots of road trip movies like Badlands. And I always reference Nora Ephron. When Harry Met Sally’s influence can be detected in everything I do. I aspire to the gorgeousness of that back-and-forth. ” How are you feeling about RUN’s release at this strange time? “It’s important to think about positive things during this devastating situation, so it’s nice to imagine it might provide a little escapism. Literally, it’s escapism. “