From creator/writer/executive producer Scott Ryan, the third and final season of Mr Inbetween sees criminal for hire Ray Shoesmith (played by Ryan) finding it more challenging to keep his dangerous work life from colliding with his complicated family relationships, whether it’s parental responsibilities with his too smart for her own good pre-teen daughter (Chika Yasumura) or his aging father (Kenny Graham). Questioning both his career choices and his morality is new territory for Ray, as he struggles with what comes next.
During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, Ryan talked about the journey he’s taken with this show, whether he’d ever considered having someone else act in the show, the father-daughter dynamic at the heart of the story, the collaborative relationship he’s had with director/executive producer Nash Edgerton, how a vagankle made its way into Season 3, closing the book on this character after three seasons, and why he might just have to draw a card out of a hat to figure out what he’s going to create next.
Collider: What’s it like to go from taking on this character to then winning awards for playing the character? So many professional actors talk about how they don’t care about awards, but after everything that you went through to get this show made, does it feel rewarding to know that people have actually recognized what you’ve done?
SCOTT RYAN: Yeah, that’s what you want. When you make stuff, you put it out there and you want people to like it. If you get an award, it’s a reflection of that. It’s a positive reflection of what you did. An award is just an award. It’s a lump of metal. But it also means that people went, “I like this and I’m going to vote for it.” That does mean something. It means that people felt something about it. The opposite of that is that you make something and people say it’s a pile of garbage and they don’t give you awards. It’s certainly better to get them than not get them.
Over the course of this series, did you read reviews? Did you check in and see how people were responding to the show or did you intentionally not pay attention to that stuff?
RYAN: No, I think that’s important. I think it’s important to get a gauge on whether your audience is liking what you’re doing, and whether they like this or they don’t like that. I think it’s good to be aware of what your audience is feeling. I’m wearing so many hats that I think I’ve gotten pretty good at compartmentalizing. I can put my actor’s hat on, or put another hat on.
You’ve talked in the past about how part of the struggle of getting this show into production was that nobody wanted you to actually be in it. Did you ever get to a point where you considered having another actor play the character, or would you have just continued to hold out or even walk away from the show, if it hadn’t eventually happened the way it did?
RYAN: Not to say that nobody wanted me to be in the show. We developed it early on with somebody here in Australia who was quite happy for me to act in it. There was a problem getting this show made. There’s no doubt about that. And there was a point where Nash was just trying to get it made and I said, “Just make it. Just put somebody else in it.” But Nash felt that I should do it. It certainly paid off.
I certainly couldn’t imagine anybody else playing the character because you’re just are so brilliant in this role.
RYAN: Thank you.
I love the father-daughter relationship on this show. That has been one of my favorite aspects since it started. What’s it been like for you to write and play that relationship and to see Chika Yasumura grow in that role?
RYAN: After we finished Season 2, I didn’t see Chika until we started Season 3, and she’d grown about a foot and a half and her voice had changed. I’d heard stuff from Nash [Edgerton] about how much she was growing up, so that’s why I based my writing of the character on.
What has most impressed you about working with her over the seasons? What have you enjoyed about working with her, as an actor?
RYAN: We have a lot of fun. We get along really well. We’re with each other a lot. In between takes, we’ll have a chat and a laugh. She’s got a natural talent for what she does. They grow up. Her voice has completely changed. She’s grown up a lot in the last couple of years.
We also see her starting to get closer to figuring out or at least seeing sides of him that she hasn’t seen before, especially with her discovering his gun and shooting it. How does he feel about that? How would he feel about her finding out who he really is?
RYAN: He wouldn’t be happy about it, that’s for sure. I think he’s realizing that she’s not going to stay a child forever and nobody wants her to stay a child forever, really. It’s a problem, but I also think he respects her intelligence.
What have you most enjoyed about that collaborative relationship that you’ve had with Nash Edgerton throughout this? What do you think he brought to it? What have you learned from him about making a TV show?
RYAN: I think Nash and I have strengths in different areas. I actually think we compliment each other quite well, in a lot of ways, creatively. We’re similar in some ways, but very different in others, and I think that’s what makes it work. I don’t think we’ve figured it out completely. We still have disagreements. The more you work with somebody, the more you get to know them, and that certainly helps in dealing with each other.
You have scenes in this show where I always wonder why you wrote them for yourself or how you managed to get through them during filming. This season, one of those scenes was the explanation of the vagankle. How did that scene come to be? What inspired that and what was it like to shoot that?
RYAN: I spend a lot of my time on the internet looking at random things. I’m naturally curious and you never know when you can use something. I was looking at random things and a rapper named 2 Chainz had done this show with a sex doll, and during the show, the guys who were doing it said, “We make vagankles.” I was like, “That’s crazy!” I didn’t think about it for the show, but it stuck in my head. As I was writing the season, it just seemed to me that it would be something that Gary would have. That’s where the whole vagankle thing came from. And then, shooting it, I remember the day when we actually got the vagankle and we were like, “Oh, my God!” And then, shooting it was quite funny.
What have you loved about playing this character? Are there things that you have really enjoyed about inhabiting Ray for three seasons?
RYAN: In a lot of ways, he’s an enjoyable character to play. Not so much the violence, although sometimes that can be enjoyable. I enjoyed the conversations where we’re just talking to each other.
Was it easy to close the book on this character, once you got to the last episode and the last scene?
RYAN: I just thought it was time to wrap it up. I have no regrets.
How do you feel overall about the show, as a whole? Do you feel like you did everything you wanted to do with it, or is there anything you feel like you’ve never got the chance to do?
RYAN: I don’t think I’ve ever made anything where I’ve felt like I nailed it. I think that’s true for most filmmakers, really. You have this idea in your head of what you want to do and what you want to achieve. If you can get pretty close to it, you’re very lucky. That’s just part of it, really. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a director say that they feel like they really nailed something, or a writer feeling like they nailed something, or an actor feeling like they nailed something. You just do the best that you can and hope for the best.
Where do you go from here? Are you looking to write and tell more stories? Do you want to do more acting? Do you want to do both of those things together?
RYAN: I’m looking at doing a bunch of different things. I’m up for acting in other people’s stuff, if I really like the script, the director and the cast and it’s something that I’m passionate about. I’m up for helping out with other people’s projects and helping them along and getting creatively involved. And I would like to do my own stuff. I’ve got a few things I want to do, in features and TV. Once this is all put to bed, I’m going to start writing again and start working on the next thing. It’s just hard at the moment, trying to figure out what that’s going to be. I’ve got too many ideas. I’m just trying to figure out which one. I guess I’ll just have to do a lucky dip thing where I write all of the ideas down on some cards and put them in a hat, close my eyes, pick one out and go, “Well, that’s it. I’ll just do that.”
Mr Inbetween airs on Tuesday nights on FX, and is available to stream at FX on Hulu.