One of the things I've found really interesting about the show is that a lot of people really relate to our animal characters, more than we thought they would. Part of that is, because they are animals, people project themselves onto them. If BoJack just looks like Will Arnett, people go, "Oh, I know who that guy is. That's a Will Arnett type." But because he's a horse, people can go, "Oh, I'm kind of like him in some ways."
Raphael Bob-WaksbergDaniel Radcliffe was actually a fan of the show and excited to be on it. Some of it is we've gone long enough that we're legitimate. Even if they don't know the show, they know we are a show and not some weird thing that's going to go away. Also, the more celebrities we get on BoJack show, the more it feels like a club to be in: "If Naomi Watts will make a fool of herself, I guess I can make a fool of myself, too."
Raphael Bob-WaksbergIt's really cool to get these guests on the show BoJack Horseman: not just actors, but, "Can I get Jonathan Lethem on my weird talking horse cartoon show to talk about how growing up in Brooklyn, he always dreamed of being a ringtone?"
Raphael Bob-WaksbergWe often ask, "Do we have enough humans?" Because it's always fun to come up with an animal in show, but it begins to feel like overkill.
Raphael Bob-WaksbergJessica Biel is a really interesting case. She actually called us after the table read and said, "You guys should go meaner." She pitched us, and said, "Look, I know there are a lot of things to make fun of me about. I don't want people to think you're pulling punches. Please, dive in." We asked, "Could we tell a joke about your friend and mentor Stephen Collins?" And she said, "Well maybe not so much in that area. As long as the jokes were about me, I'm game for everything."
Raphael Bob-WaksbergI think you can imagine everyone has ankle weights on, or technology, and there's a reason that people aren't floating around. But I also liked this idea that in this world, people forgot they can swim. The modern world weighs you down, there's always emails to check, you've gotta go to your job and pay your mortgage. You're not really thinking, "Oh, yeah, I can swim around." BoJack discovering it is a big deal, and kind of fun.
Raphael Bob-WaksbergIt was fun figuring out the science of the world as much as we wanted to figure out, and then playing fast and loose in other places. Which we do with our show in general. One of the things we love about the BoJack Horseman show is that we can always fall back on, "It's a ridiculous cartoon." And it is! It's a serious, relationship-based grounded character tragedy, but it is also a ridiculous cartoon.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg