The Big Picture
- Physical Season 3 explores Sheila’s personal growth and success as a fitness guru, but also the loneliness that comes with it.
- Show creator Annie Weisman wanted to give Sheila a complex journey of recovery and growth, gradually showcasing her evolution throughout three seasons.
- Weisman had some ideas left unexplored, including a deeper exploration of Sheila’s relationship with John Breem, but ultimately felt satisfied with the ending and the closure provided.
[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Season 3 of Physical.]The third and final season of the Apple TV+ original series Physical sees dutiful housewife turned fitness guru Sheila Rubin (Rose Byrne) achieving a level of success that she’d previously only dreamed of while learning that it can often be lonely at the top. Although her own demons are not fully at bay, personal connections and increased inner confidence have empowered and healed Sheila in ways she never expected.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, show creator Annie Weisman talked about how much of the broad strokes of the series she’d conceived early on, the one thing she wishes she’d had time to dig deeper into, that dinner scene between Sheila and John Breem (Paul Sparks), getting to close the loop on Sheila’s original sin, giving a Vinnie Green update, what Zooey Deschanel brought to the final season, whether Sheila will ultimately be okay, her collaborative relationship with Byrne, and her desire to direct a feature film.
Collider: How much of this arc did you know, from the very beginning? Did you see this as a three-season series? Do you feel it could have gone on longer? How much of this is actually what you thought it would be?
ANNIE WEISMAN: I had conceived a lot of the broad strokes of it. I knew that I wanted her to go from this really dark place at the beginning to this really evolved and empowered place at the end. How long I would get to do that, I didn’t know. I wanted to be honest about it and I didn’t want it to happen too quickly. From the beginning of the show, it was really about vulnerability and telling the truth and being honest about a woman’s struggle and I didn’t wanna betray that by having her recovery happen too easily and too quickly. I really wanted the chance to show all the complicated scrapes and steps, and the two steps forward, one step back reality of recovery and growth and change for anybody. How long we would get, I didn’t know, but I’m really happy with three seasons. It felt like we got to cover a lot of ground and we got to have a lot of scope. And I really wanted to give it an ending, but not leave it open.
Was there anything that you had hoped to do or planned to explore, that you didn’t get to do?
WEISMAN: On the contrary, I feel like, never in my wildest dreams, would I get to make this show and make it at the level I did. This season, we got to really be in that quintessential eighties fitness culture and we got to do this big fitness expo with the scale of that, and that was a really cool moment. The show really tracks the evolution of that fitness world, so I wanted to get there and really got to. I would say that, if I got to do everything I wanted, I would have really explored Sheila’s relationship with John Breem (Paul Sparks) a little more. Ultimately, I think where she ends up is exactly where she should end up. She gets everything she wants professionally, but she has to do it alone, so she is on her own. But there was a part of me and a part of the writers’ room that thought, “Boy, it would be really cool to have a whole season of them together. What would that look like? Where would they live?” Instead, their affair was more compressed, I would say. So, if I really got everything on my wish list, they would have had a whole season on a ranch somewhere, just raising horses, and then it would have fallen apart. That was the dream. I did get her on a horse at one point, but not as long as I wanted. You don’t get everything you want in life.
What made you decide to do that dinner scene between Sheila and John? It’s fun because you do give that glimpse to audiences before you take it away from both her and us, as the audience. What was the thought process behind doing that?
WEISMAN: It evolved because I was handwringing. It felt real to me that while she accomplishes everything she wants professionally, it comes at the cost of really being alone. I really believed in that, but it felt really unkind not to give that sense of them together too. It was also the opportunity to work with those incredible actors, Paul Sparks and Rose Byrne. Knowing what they’re capable of, you just wanna keep raising the bar and challenging them. And so, that idea of her realizing her fantasy was so that we could have it both ways, seeing what she would have wanted, and then also seeing that she didn’t get everything she wanted.
And it’s such a sad, bittersweet moment, too.
WEISMAN: Yeah. The whole show really takes place in her head. It’s about getting to know her brain and all the corners of her brain, so it felt right to end in that same place. Her brain is not as tortured a place as it once was. There’s an opportunity for wish fulfillment and fantasy there too, in a way that I hope is gratifying. Now, instead of just intrusive, horrible voices, she can have a more pleasurable experience with fantasy, but then there’s also the reality, and Rose did such a beautiful job with it. And then, the camera pulls back and the reality is that she’s alone.
Did you always know that you would bring Bunny back before the end of the series, so that Sheila could have that moment with her?
WEISMAN: I didn’t necessarily know where in the final season it would be, but we definitely wanted to revisit that relationship and give it some closure. That was an early original sin that led to her success, and we wanted to close the loop. It was a chance to revisit those wonderful actors and that storyline, as well. Della Saba is such a wonderful actress and she brought such unique energy to it, and same with Lou Taylor Pucci. I didn’t necessarily know that they were gonna be in as much of the show as they were, initially, but they were terrific and their energy was great and their connection to Rose was great, too. It was definitely fun to bring them back and see them again and close the loop on that. It was really fun for everybody.
Similarly, we get a glimpse of Vinnie and are given a bit of an update on him, even if it’s not directly through him. Had you written anything in the hopes that Murray Bartlett would be available to return? Was it important to at least bring him back, in some small way?
WEISMAN: Yeah. Once we came up with the idea of this big fitness expo, his presence in the world needed to be addressed. And of course, we wanted him. We reached out to see, but he was just very understandably unavailable because he’s such an incredible talent and wonderful human being. We couldn’t get him back from wherever he was, but we had to give him a presence. And then, we were lucky enough to have Anna Gunn. That’s one of my favorite scenes of that episode, that terrific scene she does. She’s so nuanced and funny and moving. It was a pretty awesome substitute to get the great Anna Gunn in there for a scene. We made story out of the absence.
It’s interesting that searching for control seems to have taught Sheila that she’s actually happiest when she lets go, at least a little bit. Do you feel like, from where you left her, that she will be okay, going into the future? Even if there are bumps in the road, do you think she’ll be okay, moving forward?
WEISMAN: Yeah, I do. I feel like my journey merged with hers in that way because she learned that there’s this balance in life, of needing to plan and control a certain amount and also understanding that it’s all an illusion and we need to just let go and go with the flow. I know that I’m okay, and it didn’t always seem like I would be, so I feel like she is too.
Obviously, she’ll continue to hit bumps in the road. Everybody does. But it feels like she’s a little more equipped with how to navigate them a little bit better than she was.
WEISMAN: Totally. And one of those things is friendship and community, which is something she always kept away because her relationship to her eating disorder was so enmeshed and so powerful that it pushed everything else away. One you let in that kind of relationship and closeness and intimacy and friendship, it just couldn’t have the same grip on her. They fought for it, but I think she won that battle.
It feels like it was just as important for her to have some redemption within herself, as it was for her to have some redemption with other people. Forgiving yourself can be a lot harder than forgiving somebody else or having someone else forgive you.
WEISMAN: I think that’s true. That’s a really wonderful point. She really had to come to terms with her own misdeeds in her own past and let it go.
Rose Byrne has talked about how you would ask her if she had anything that she hadn’t done yet and that she wanted to do, and that you were open to listening to her. Did any of her suggestions inspire who Sheila became, or what we saw over the seasons?
WEISMAN: As we started to make the show, anyone that she felt really alive in scenes with was where she was my guide. The communication was more intuitive between the two of us. She’s not one to make a bunch of requests and demands, but she shows you with the work where she’s getting most fired up and creatively excited. And then, I would just really follow her lead in that way. So, within the parameters of the stuff we wanted to explore, it felt like I could follow her lead, in terms of which relationships and which scenes were most exciting to her and just keep that going. One of those was really her relationship with Greta (Dierdre Friel). They had such a good time together and she enjoyed that so much, and it felt like that with both the actresses and the characters. I really took her lead, in terms of focusing on that more than I had originally intended to.
What’s it like to close the book on something like this? We always ask actors what it’s like to leave a character behind and if they have a process for that and if they ever think about that character again, but people don’t ask the creative team what it’s like to finish a series, send everybody home, and have the world of that character just be over and done. What was that experience like for you?
WEISMAN: I’m figuring it out right now. I’m definitely experiencing a grief process. I’m somewhere in that denial phase still. I’m really early in it, partly because it’s still rolling out and people are still discovering it. Just getting a chance to talk about it and getting to hear people’s responses is a really important part of the process, so I feel like I’m not done. We don’t get to make any more of it and that’s really tough, but the wonderful thing is that it’s out there for people to discover. I feel like the conversations are really gratifying and they continue to give back to me. I’m done giving what I gave to it, but people aren’t done giving it back to me, so I take a lot of solace in that.
Do you think that she’s a character that you will still think about, even if it’s only every once in a while?
WEISMAN: Totally. I’ll never stop thinking about her because it’s just been really in my blood. Rose and I have talked about that. She’s such a part of us and we’re so used to having that outlet. It will just always be something I’m proud of and feel connected to.
Because you drew so much from your own personal journey in creating the series and character, did that give you a different perspective on yourself? As you took Sheila from beginning to end of this story, did it recontextualize anything for you?
WEISMAN: I did have a lot of empathy and respect that I didn’t expect to, in the making of the show, for generations before me. That was the perspective I really got from it. Just diving back into that time period, even though the experiences and emotions and a lot of the actions are from my life, I wasn’t an adult in 1981 to 1986. I was a kid. And so, thinking about my mom and about her generation of women really walking through this world at that time, has given me a lot of empathy and respect for how tough it was.
What did you most enjoy by getting to watch Rose Byrne and Zooey Deschanel play off each other all season? There’s such interesting dynamics happening between the two of them and it’s so fascinating to watch them together.
WEISMAN: It was really fun. It was a swing, coming up with this idea because it wasn’t a sure thing. We had this device that we were using in the show, that we were leaving behind and doing something new. I was determined to keep evolving it and not just rely on the same things, over and over again. I was determined to do it, but I was also nervous because I didn’t know how it would turn out. But I’m just so happy with what Zooey brought to the table. I describe it as an old Hollywood energy because she really has that feeling of that timeless starlet of yesteryear. She’s also a real triple threat, with her musical ability and her comedy and her dramatic acting. She was larger than life in a really cool way, and it created a new dynamic and energy in the show that was a really fun evolution.
I love what she brought to both the imagined character and the real-life character.
WEISMAN: She sort of got to play two parts, which is always a cool thing. Rose did that, as well, in the show, playing the outer and inner self, which all women do in our lives. We play many different roles, in different contexts. It was just a real joy, having her in the mix with Rose this year. There were very formidable, toe-to-toe scenes between the two of them.
Do you have any idea what you’re going to do next? Are you someone who always has a list of ideas or various projects, at any given time?
WEISMAN: I always have my little pot bubbling. The strike work stoppage was a very different experience than I’m used to. I was in the last strike, but I had a baby during that one. I do have a lot of things, but nothing that I’m ready to talk about yet because everything is in development. There are a lot of different opportunities coming to me, from having done the show, but also just things I wanna explore and do next. I really enjoyed getting to direct this season, so I wanna do more of that. I’d love to do a film, as well. There are a lot of things bubbling away on the burner.
If you do direct a film, you would want to direct a film that you wrote?
WEISMAN: Yeah, I think so. I’d really like to write and direct a film. Showrunning is making so many decisions that I think doing that for a film would be the same. So, that’s the next step. It scares the crap out of me, but in a good way. I’d love to go for that next.
Physical is available to stream at Apple TV+.
