From executive producers Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, and based on the British series of the same name that was created by Julia Davis, the HBO comedy series Camping follows the obsessively organized and controlling Kathryn (Jennifer Garner), who puts together what she thinks will be a delightful camping trip to celebrate her husband Walt’s (David Tennant) 45th birthday. Pretty quickly after arriving, this group’s bonds become tested, and the heightened emotions and tension that arise at the Brown Bear Lake campsite threaten to ruin the weekend. The series also stars Juliette Lewis, Ione Skye, Brett Gelman, Janicza Bravo, Arturo Del Puerto and Chris Sullivan.

At the L.A. press day for the new series, co-stars Ione Skye and Juliette Lewis spoke at a small roundtable about why they wanted to sign on for this series, their own stand-out camping stories, the challenge of playing an anything goes type of person like Jandice, the women that inspired Carleen, and their hope for a second season.

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Image via HBO

Question: So, do either of you guys have any great camping stories from real life, either as a kid or as an adult?

JULIETTE LEWIS:  I have a fun story. I love bringing up childhood adventures. My step-mom, at the time, rode horses. I was super equestrian, as a kid. Not many people know that. We would take the horses and go to Northern California, and we got stuck in a hail storm. First, it was fun and we were tying up the horses, and then there was hail and it became very cinematic. My dad was like, “Get the horses in the trailer!,” and the wind blowing. As a little kid, it’s out of your control. But initially, it started with washing your hair in the river, and it became something that you just live through, by the end. But, we had a good time.

IONE SKYE:  My 9-year-old wanted a camping birthday. It was great. But then, my husband got either a tummy bug or food poisoning, so we made him sleep in the car. I was checking on him every few minutes. I felt so terrible. We quarantined my husband, but we gave him all the sleeping bags we could and put the seat down in the SUV. And then, I had nothing, so luckily, we had rented this glamping tent, which came with a Moroccan wool rug. It’s this whole kit for $150 that you can rent, and in the middle of the night, I just like grabbed the rug and slept. Wool is very good, if you’re cold. So, I slept under a dusty rug, but I was warm. When you’re cold, you don’t care about anything. You like being dirty because you’re just cold, and being warm is the priority. It was glamping to the rescue.

LEWIS: Right before I got this job, I had gone on a grown-up camping trip with my friends. We wanted to get rid of our devices and commune with nature. It was neat to see bits of my friends in these characters, particularly Jen Garner’s character. I have a friend who’s similar, with the health situation. You see yourself in all of these different characters. I thought that was really fun when I first read the script.

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Image via HBO

When Camping came your way, what made you want to work on this project?

SKYE:  Well, I really loved Girls. I was like, “HBO, Lena Dunham, Jenni Konner? Yes, whatever it is!” I wasn’t like, “As long as the script is good.” I was like, “I’m in! What is it?” They really had such great writers, as well, for the comedy and the interpersonal relationships. It was an interesting challenge for them and us because Girls had a very specific voice. For me, it was exciting because I’m a fan. I was a fan of that voice, so I was happy to get involved with it.

LEWIS:  It’s so exciting, when you have women of this caliber that have created their own, I don’t want to say brand, but recognizable culture, characters and dialogue. You have [Quentin] Tarantino, [David] Mamet or Sam Shepard. With these scripts, the dialogue has such a particular rhythm and it feels so real. For me, I couldn’t believe that I actually laughed out loud, reading these scripts. That’s so unusual, especially when you’ve been doing this for 30 years. I was in a hotel, laughing and going, “Yes! Jandice is the wild card. Okay, I’m in!” Jen Garner and I had worked with before, some 10 plus years ago, and we really enjoyed working together. And I was genuinely a fan of Ione’s, for such a long time, and we had mutual friends, so it really felt like a family affair. It was one of those jobs that come around not so often, and you’re lucky to grab it.

Why do you think taking people out of their environment, and taking away their wifi, TV, clothes and comforts, and putting them in the woods makes them more primal?

LEWIS:  They’re devouring themselves, yeah.

SKYE:  It’s a great backdrop for people from a city, coming into this and falling apart.

LEWIS:  We’re also meeting these characters at very particular times in their life. I have a group of girlfriends and we have these trips, throughout our lives. We’ve been doing it for maybe two decades now. It’s funny, sometimes people are all in similar disarray, or they’re in mercury in retrograde headspaces, and other times, just a couple of people are a little out of sorts. That energy in that mix is really exciting to play.

SKYE:  It’s a birthday party, so everybody is supposed to be on their best behavior. This is all for Walter, played by David Tennant. We’re just coming in for him, with our best behavior, but the pressure gets to you and you just can’t help it.

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Image via HBO

How much of yourselves would you say are in these characters?

SKYE:  When I got this character, I studied Jennifer Coolidge, Julie Hagerty and Carole Lombard. I’ve never done so much research. I just thought, “I don’t know how to do this. I really don’t know. She’s not a hippie. She’s not necessarily ditzy. She’s just innocent and meek.” I just didn’t want to phone it in.

LEWIS:  There was such a musicality in her voicing, when we were at rehearsal. When Carleen came to life, there was just music in her voice.

SKYE:  I said to my husband, “I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to pull this off.” He said “You’re way more like this than you know.” You’re a total space cadet, and you have an innocence.” So, I guess I had more of it than I thought. Whereas Jandice’s persona is bad, but in real life, you’d think, “Oh, wow, Juliette is really not like this, at all.”

LEWIS:  You exaggerate parts of yourself for characters, so that there are some things that are relatable.

Juliette, what’s the fun in getting to be the disrupter, who’s the one that comes in and really can do anything with all of these other couples?

LEWIS:  She’s the anything goes person. There are more challenges in it than you’d imagine. I know people always have these preconceived ideas of me sometimes, which can be complimentary. Other times, it can be a straight jacket. I think of myself as a character actor, so it’s so fun to play a character where anything goes, but within that, it’s so strange. Jandice has a desire that’s quite conventional, that you wouldn’t quite expect coming from her. Things like that were challenging to play. And then, with the comedy, it’s about how big to go because you still want to be rooted in a real character. That was the beauty of Jenni Konner’s direction, for all of us is. That was fun for me to navigate because Jandice is a real wild card. She’s a ‘70s throwback, with the skinny dipping.

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Image via HBO

The scene in the field in Episode 3, where Jandice gives Carleen a bit of a make-over when she cuts her hair and encourages her to embrace her individuality is such a great moment. What was it like to shoot that scene?

SKYE:  That’s a great scene. There was some improv. Juliette could be a comedy writer. The writing that would come out of her mind was so fun. We love each other personally, so it was just fun to be in a scene together like that. It was a great way to explain our characters without explaining it. It was just a weird, great scene.

LEWIS:  It’s one of my favorites because you get to see Carleen and learn about what she’s been living with, which is quite heartbreaking.

SKYE:  Right, and it was a great way to tell that story. It’s a sad story.

LEWIS:  But for her, it’s just her truth.

SKYE:  It was just a great way to explain my character more, and it was also a really hilarious scenario, with the extroverted character loosening up the meek character. In life, we do all of these things to make ourselves feel safe. There are those characters whose safety is being in a new age cult.

LEWIS:  Jandice’s hell would be too much security. I like the physicality of Jandice. Unless I’m on stage, as a rock and roller where I’m like a superhero, in real life, I’m not like that. Her physicality is uber confident. I’m just not walking around in a showy way. Jandice doesn’t mind the attention. That was interesting for me.

You’re on a show called Camping, and these characters have a bit of a harrowing experience on this camping trip, so have you had conversations about how you could get them back together for another camping trip, for a second season?

LEWIS:  That’s my dream. I hope they have a crazy hit on their hands and they have to write a reunion.

SKYE:  They definitely left a bit of an opening.

Camping airs on Sunday nights on HBO.