Yahoo Lifestyle 25 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Netflix's "No Good Deed" Straight From Series Creator Liz Feldman
There are major MAJOR spoilers ahead for Netflix's No Good Deed.
1.First, series creator Liz Feldman came up with the idea for No Good Deed during the pandemic "when we were locked down into our houses when literally the only place you could be was your house. And so suddenly our homes took on this mega-powerful meaning to all of us."
She told BuzzFeed, "I guess in some ways No Good Deed is personal. But I also think it has more of a universal motif to it. It's the only place we were, like, legally allowed to be, it was the only place where we knew we were safe. That was a little bit where my mind was for at least a few months there at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. And at night, I would doom surf on Zillow. Just like, let me look at another house. I can't go to my friend's house or leave my own, but it would be nice to at least feel like I was at somebody else's house."
Liz added, "So I really was looking at real estate as a means of escape."
2.Also, Liz and her wife, musician Rachael Cantu, were looking for a new house, too, and she became swept up in the chaos of trying to buy your own home. With every home they stepped into, Liz realized the sellers each had their own stories for why they were selling.
"I quickly realized that my wife and I needed more space because now our home was also both of our offices, too. So, we started to look for a home, and I just realized that every time I stepped into a new door, there was some incredible story to be discovered. There's a reason why people buy and sell a house, and sometimes the reasons are really positive, and sometimes they're pretty tragic," Liz explained.
She continued, saying, "So that's what I kept finding as I would go from house to house. And we saw over 50 houses, and I just thought, like, this is a really interesting template to be able to tell a story."
3.Prior to No Good Deed, there had never really been a narrative TV show "about the buying and selling of one house, and just sort of tracking that," which is what interested Liz.
Liz explained, "I just realized that the entire process really brings out the worst in people. And I'm really interested in things that bring out the worst in us. It can also bring out the best in us. But I'm really interested always in the dichotomy between good and bad and all of us. And I felt like this is a very high-stakes situation in everybody's life."
She continued, saying, "When you're buying or selling a house, like, it is literally every dollar you've ever made. It could not be more of an intense decision, and it's basically like an arranged marriage where you walk into a house, you see it once, and then you're like, 'I'll spend every penny I've ever made.'"
4.Liz was also interested in how "our homes contain our memories," and she was interested in telling a story about a family selling a house, but not necessarily wanting to leave all those memories behind.
She said, "I wanted to not just write a show about the buying and selling of a house, but I wanted to write a show about what a home can mean to people, especially when there are some traumas involved in the living of that house.
So I also really like the idea that not everybody is selling for the same reasons. And I found that over and over again as we were looking for a home. I started to think about, like, now that I live in the home where I'm raising my family, I can imagine, like, everywhere you look is a memory. My daughter is only 2, and it's already just completely packed. Every corner is, like, Oh, she was learning how to walk there. So I was thinking, like, Gosh, to have to sell a house that you really wish that you didn't, and that not just that you wish that you didn't, but that you sort of wish was back in time a little bit."
Liz added, "That's what home is, especially when you're a parent. It's like a little time capsule of your little loves."
5.This also allowed Liz to explore grief from a different point of view than what was shown in Dead to Me. This time, it was about two people, Lydia and Paul, who were grieving the same person but in very different ways.
"I didn't set out to make another show about grief. But I think grief wasn't done with me. So it just happened," Liz began. "I just started thinking about the character of Lydia. Like, why wouldn't she want to sell this house? Like, what would these memories be?
I was really interested in the idea of the different ways in which people grieve and what happens when those two people grieving are grieving the same person, but in completely different ways, and completely missing each other in that experience and misunderstanding, and have essentially lost each other to their own grief. So, in wanting to give them back some sort of happiness, they needed to start from those places in order to bring them to an interesting conclusion."
6.Liz started working on No Good Deed during Dead to Me Season 3, and Linda Cardellini expressed to her that she wanted to play a "badass bitch" next after playing the sweet Judy for three seasons. That's where the idea for Margo began.
Liz recalled, "Judy is an angelic, sweetheart, kind of a doormat, would do anything for anybody, kind of person. And Linda, almost like, half jokingly, was like, 'Oh my god, the next thing I want to do. I want to play a badass bitch.' And I was already thinking about this world of real estate and buying and selling a house, and it inspired me to think of who she might be playing this badass bitch in this world. And that's kind of where the idea sprouted from."
7.Before knowing if Linda could even play the role, Liz wrote Margo for her, and there were even some writers from Dead to Me in the writers' room, too.
Liz recalled, "The only person I really had a clear idea about was Linda because she had given me the inspiration of wanting to play a badass bitch. I thought I'm at least going to write this part with her in mind. I didn't know if she could do it. I didn't know if our schedules were gonna line up. I'm so thrilled that it did work out and she did get to play the part because I did really think of her the whole time in the writers' room. There are several writers, Kelly Hutchinson and Cara DiPaolo, from Dead to Me, too. So it was a joy."
8.Ray Romano was suggested for the role of Paul by Liz's agent, who wanted to make sure that Liz always works with "nice people," and Ray is one of those people.
"In my wildest dreams, I wouldn't have reached for stars this high in the sky. It was actually my agent who brought up Ray because the first and foremost thing he said was, 'I really want you to work with nice people. This is a nice guy,'" Liz explained.
"And I thought, Oh my god, it is Ray. I had been writing it for him the whole time. And I didn't realize it, but I couldn't unsee it as soon as they said his name. And then I was like, Please, God, let him do it."
9.And one of the writers on No Good Deed mentioned that Lisa Kudrow would be perfect for Lydia. And, coincidentally, at the same time, Liz was in the middle of a Friends rewatch.
She recalled, "One of my writers had brought up Lisa, and I was like, 'She'll never do it.' And then, weirdly, at the exact same time, my wife and I had been re-watching Friends. So every night I go to bed watching Lisa, and then I can't stop thinking about her. And then, when she wanted to meet me, I almost fell out of my chair, you know? We just hit it off from the get-go, and she's also just another lovely human being."
10.Like with Christina Applegate on Dead to Me, Liz loved the idea of showcasing Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow in roles that were equal parts comedic and dramatic, which is different than what people most associate them with.
Liz elaborated, saying, "Back with Dead to Me, with Christina Applegate, I don't think people had thought of her as a dramatic actress. And she was incredible. I think that was such a positive experience working with somebody who, I think, was seen one way, like from sitcoms, who then was allowed and given the material to really show her range. I was like, I want to keep doing that.
So with Lisa and Ray, it was an incredible experience to get to go to those depths with them. Lydia is much closer to Lisa than a lot of her other characters that she's played. Lisa's a brilliant intellect. It takes somebody that intelligent to play somebody like Phoebe [from Friends]. She's so smart and has so much soul and depth. I didn't even really quite know how to say it to her, but I was like, 'I think that there's a lot of you in this part already. I don't think this is about reaching for something you need to find.'
And Ray, just immediately related to this guy who is trying to live a normal life. He's just being put upon and pressurized. Ray has three sons of his own, too. He was just effortless in the way that he approached the work, and yet he worked so incredibly hard. He wrote a whole backstory for his character and shared it with me."
Liz added, "It's a real pleasure to be able to give actors material that challenges them, stretches them, but also showcases them for all of their dynamics.
Of course, nothing beats Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond, right? But that's its own thing. I love sitcoms. I love working in multi-cams, but this is just a different thing. And once you've lived long enough and you've got some sort of grittier stories to tell, it just feels incredible to be able to tell them with actors who are this good."
11.Meanwhile, Liz's wife is the one who suggested that Denis Leary be a good fit for Mikey, Paul's brother.
"I got to give credit to my wife because we were trying to figure out who should play Mikey, and she texted me, 'What about Denis Leary?'" Liz recalled. "And my casting director, Sherry Thomas, who is amazing, is like, 'I will never live this down. I go to sleep at night thinking, How did Rachael beat me to it?'"
12.Casting directors Russell Scott and Sherry Thomas helped fill out the rest of the cast for No Good Deed.
"They have such great vision. As I saw Abbi [Jacobson]'s name on the list for Leslie, she was absolutely my first choice. That part is very much inspired by me, and the couple is very much inspired by my wife and I. Even though we're not really that much like those characters. And Poppy Liu is just hilarious. I just think she's so unique. I just couldn't take my eyes off of her. So that was a no-brainer.
Luke Wilson, never in a million years. He's amazing and brought such an interesting texture to the character that I didn't even know was there."
She continued, saying, "Teyonah Parris, I just thought she was so talented. I've seen her in a bunch of things, and I really wanted this character who was pregnant and going through this major life change to have a very rounded quality to her. And Teyonah is just such a brilliant actress and she had just had a baby. Our kids are, I think, two months apart. I wrote this pilot before my daughter was born. So within the year she had just had a baby, so it was so fresh to her.
And O-T Fagbenle is so good, and I didn't know how funny he was."
13.The moment when JD goes to the piano and sings a song for Lydia was improvised by Luke Wilson.
Liz told BuzzFeed, "Luke improvises the most funny things, many of which made it in. So, if there's a line where you're like, That is so crazy, but so hilarious, I can almost guarantee it came from Luke. The piano moment, like he made up those lyrics. He was like, 'I feel bad. I should warn you, I don't sing very well.' And I was like, 'Great!'"
14.The knife moment in the kitchen between Lydia and Paul was also improvised by Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano.
"There's definitely some improv in the show, and also some moments that we found together, which are kind of my favorite moments," Liz began. "Like that whole thing with the knife. I was like, 'We needed some sort of back and forth that just shows that there's still a playful energy between these two people. It's not just all stress all the time.' I love those moments, and sometimes those are the best ones. I mean, all of these actors are incredibly good at improv."
Liz added, "To me, always some of the funniest stuff comes out when you let actors also go a little wild. We didn't do quite as much as with Christina and Linda on Dead to Me because with Christina and Linda, since it was just the two of them so often, it was much easier to contain."
15.The original No Good Dead Season 1 ending didn't originally have Margo being the one who actually shot and killed Jacob.
Liz told BuzzFeed, "Like always with me and my shows, I come in with one plan, and then I get into a room filled with very talented writers with great ideas, and I always say, like, I want the best idea to win. I don't need to be right for it to be good. So, what I think was the feeling in the writers' room was that, because we're starting this family, these parents, off from such a sad place, there was really a feeling of wanting to make them whole again and to give them some version of a happy ending. I always need to be talked into that.
I'm always keen for darkness. But the writers were like, 'Come on, let's give these people a break.' So there was a desire to want to make it no one's fault in the family. I mean, of course, in some ways it's everyone's fault, like, everybody sort of plays their part, but ultimately there was a feeling of like, let's let them have some absolution and let's lean into the fact that there is this sociopath who lives across the street."
16.Making Margo the real killer allowed Liz and the writers to make her even more wild and lean into the twists and turns as much as possible.
"It's so fun to be able to write a character like Margo who can say or do anything because she's that good at manipulating a situation. And as long as you kind of understand where she comes from and how she got that way, whether or not you can believe her, because, yes, she is an unreliable narrator," Liz began.
She continued, saying, "Linda is so goddamn good. So enjoyable. And at the time, we didn't even know for sure that it was going to be Linda [playing Margo]. We were just like, Is there a way that they could be wrong? Is there a way that we can absolve them and have it be this crazy thing that happened? It is definitely out there in terms of things that can happen, but it's also something that can happen. Listen, when you're in the twists and turns business as I am, sometimes it's really hard to resist one that even surprises me."
17.Liz originally had "an entirely different ending" for Carla and Dennis that didn't include Dennis secretly taking the money from Carla's father. The original ending would've apparently "required a little bit of a darker turn."
"I realized, yes, they both have secrets, but their secrets were a little less edgy, and so I was like, It's time. It's time for Dennis to make a bad decision. He has to make a bad decision. It just was too fun not to do that. It's sort of easy to imagine how that happened because he knows that Carla would never accept that money from her father. And he did finish his second book. And we don't know. Maybe he did sell a third book. Maybe he didn't. Maybe he got a big advance. Maybe it wasn't as big as he said it was," Liz explained.
She added, "But the way the rules work in my head is as long as you can understand why a character is doing something and that we've set that person up to make those kinds of choices, then I'm all for it. Dennis knowing that clearly the fact that Carla's father is so wealthy has been an issue for her, and has created trust issues with her, especially with men, totally understandable. And there, he has sort of unwittingly become her trust issue."
18.Liz didn't initially have Leslie and Sarah ending up with the Morgans' house in the end.
Liz explained, "I had a whole other thought about what happened to the house, and then the writers were like, 'Can't somebody have a happy ending?' I'll just say that because the show was inspired by my wife and me buying the house that I am currently sitting in, I think the feeling was we wanted to give them a happy ending, but we also liked the idea that we were giving the house to someone who knew the real truth of what had happened there."
She added, "Although all the characters start from a place of secrets and lies, the house does end up with the family that knows it best, which feels satisfying on some level. Also, that queer families deserve happy endings, too."
19.Production designer Nina Ruscio found the exterior for the Morgan house, which is a real home in Los Angeles. Liz said, "In the script, I described the house as sort of like this old Hollywood starlet. She has that kind of gravitas."
"There was a ton of care and consideration put into all of the homes, but especially the home that is for sale, which is the Morgan house," Liz began. "Nina also actually lived in Los Feliz, so she was intimately familiar with this kind of architecture that we were going for with this very particular kind of old Hollywood Spanish-style home that is really prevalent on the east side of LA."
She continued, saying, "I knew that when I saw the house that was going to be THE house, I wanted to have an emotional reaction to it. And I did. Silver Tree, who is the producing director, who I worked really closely with, we had this concept that we wanted the house to feel like it was opening its arms to you, like giving you a hug. And then we saw this house, and we're like, 'It's doing that.' Nina really beautified the outside of it even more. Even though it's already a very beautiful house, she added a lot of incredible details."
20.And while the exterior really exists IRL, Nina built the interior of the Morgans' home on two sets — one was the downstairs and the other the upstairs — and everything inside really functioned.
Liz explained, "Nina was able to literally build that from scratch. She built that interior entirely from her imagination. It is not at all what the house is actually like on the inside. The scripts were written in a way that made you feel like you were in a house because you're going from one room to another, and we knew we wanted to have a lot of movement with the camera and stuff.
So, in her mind, she had to build a house that functioned as a house where you could go from room to room. You feel like you're in a house the entire time you're in that set. And then she did that for the second floor, too, on another stage. So we had an entire house, and it functioned. Like the faucets worked. It was incredible."
Liz added, "Just my utter gratitude goes to Nina because she had that incredible vision to just be able to create a home where every detail is so specific that it has to be real. People are shocked when they find out that that's a set."
21.And no, the Morgans' house in No Good Deed is not the house from 90210 or Mitch and Cam's house from Modern Family.
Liz told BuzzFeed, "The architecture is so specific to LA. I think people are only familiar with that architecture from television because most cities don't have that."
22.In terms of the other houses in the show, Liz and the production team wanted each one to speak to "who the characters were and who they were in the moment that they moved into those places."
Liz explained, "So the bungalow that Leslie and Sarah live in is very much like the bungalow that my wife and I lived in when we were looking to move. And we found this incredible home that we barely had to do much to, because it just was so cute, and we wanted it to already be a great house. But you could see why they were aspiring to this bigger, more family-oriented home.
And then with Carla and Dennis. We wanted it to be that Dennis had moved in with Carla to the apartment she'd been living in. And because she's an architect, Nina thought, Well, she would have some sort of architectural interest in her apartment. So she found this incredible kind of vintage building and really leaned into the cool architectural elements."
23.One moment Liz enjoyed building to throughout the season was the scene when Margo takes off her makeup and you see what is underneath the facade and the person she puts out into the world.
"We were almost building up to that moment the whole time. I was like, 'I want to see who she really is,'" Liz told BuzzFeed.
She added, "Linda's so game. Like, the crazier, the more out there her character and the story became, the more into it she was. And then I was, like, pitching her on the phone, I'm like, 'And then you'll have half your face burned.' And she's like, 'Fantastic.'"
24.Liz said one of her favorite memories from working on No Good Deed was seeing how excited these veteran actors were to work with each other. In particular, Lisa Kudrow being excited to work with Linda Cardellini.
Liz recalled, "I'll never forget the first time I sat down with Lisa, and I think Linda had already signed on to do it. And Lisa was like, 'Would I get to work with Linda?' And then I told Linda, I'm like, 'Lisa's so excited to work with you.' And Linda was like, 'I'm so excited to work with her.' It was really sweet.
[Lydia and Margo] are so different, and it was really fun to play with that very awkward juxtaposition between this uptight, very guarded, hurt mom and this, you know, gorgeous monster. They played off each other beautifully. I think we had a lot of fun those days that we were working on that."
25.And finally, Denis Leary was a big fan of Dead to Me and Linda Cardellini's work as Judy, too. Liz called it "incredibly validating" to find out these actors were a fan of the show, but also Linda.
"It's such a weird experience to make a show that people see, but you don't know who watches your show, you know? Especially because Dead to Me existed for so much of its life during the pandemic. I had no concept; I knew a lot of people watched it, but I didn't know, like, WHO watched it," Liz began.
She continued, saying, "I remember the first time I chatted with Denis Leary about playing Mikey. He was going on and on about Dead to Me. And I was like, Denis Leary watched Dead to Me?! He was like, 'Oh my god. Linda Cardellini!' It was amazing. It was really incredibly validating that all of these wonderful actors had seen the show and that they were so excited to work with Linda.
She has been around forever, and she's done amazing shows. I mean, she was in Brokeback Mountain, for crying out loud. She's incredible in that. And, of course, like Freaks and Geeks, and everybody knows her from Scooby Doo. She's so versatile. I'll take her with me wherever I go."
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No Good Deed is streaming now on Netflix.
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