What Producers Chris Keyser And Daniel Goldfarb Hope Viewers Will Take Away From HBO's Julia - Exclusive
While a great viewership and high praise from an audience are undoubtedly two of the biggest hopes that any executive producer and creator could ask for with a new series, there's always a bigger lesson or a deeper takeaway from most shows than just the pure entertainment value. That's something many people took away from Julia Child's former cooking show and it is certainly true of the latest dramatization of her life, seen in the HBO Max series "Julia." To find out more about what creator Daniel Goldfarb and executive producer Chris Keyser hope people glean from the show, Mashed spoke with the duo in a new exclusive interview.
For Keyser, there was a lesson that really became a sign of the times. "One of the things we thought we were going to say to people is that food and cooking can be one of the best ways to reinforce family and community, but it turns out that we're telling it to a population that spent the last two years cooking, locked up together, cooking and eating," Keyser said. "It may be a lesson they've already learned." And for his part, Goldfarb hopes people find a source of inspiration in "Julia."
Julia Child is still seen as such a huge life force to many
"I hope they take a lot from the show," creator Daniel Goldfarb said, noting that Child's energy and presence continues to be a positive force for many. "I hope they're inspired by Julia. I hope they're inspired by not just her success on television, but how she navigated her relationships and how she continued to feel full of life and how she continued to live life with a sense of joy, a sense of mystery, a sense of surprise," Goldfarb said. "We can all learn from her."
In Goldfarb's opinion, Julia Child can teach viewers so much, but so can all of the people she surrounded herself with. "Again, all the characters in the show, all of them are aspirational characters," Goldfarb said. "There's not one character on 'Julia' that has a lazy bone in their body. All of them know they have limited time here and they're going to do the most with what time they have," he explained. "That's inspiring for everybody."
The first three episodes of "Julia" are now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes premiere on Thursdays.