BuddyTV interviews Rina Mimoun, the executive producer of Privileged.

Rina Mimoun is my favorite person in Hollywood right now.  I think she's a genius.  I've been a long-time fan of hers ever since her work on seminal WB shows, such as Dawson's Creek, Gilmore Girls, and of course, Everwood.  Now, she is the brains behind my favorite freshman series this year, Privileged.

I was fortunate enough to talk to her about her new show, and I learned that she is not just a talented writer and executive producer, but she is also so energetic and passionate about her work.  She really believes in what she does, and it shows on screen every week.  Talking to her, I found her to be immensely down-to-earth and relatable.  At times, talking to her felt more like gushing with a fellow fan-girl rather than interviewing a successful executive producer.  But I guess that's how she is able to hit the exact tones in her storytelling to really make us care about her characters.

I promised her that I would do what I can to get the word out there, so here it is, folks.  Watch Privileged tonight, on the CW at 9pm.  And then watch it next week, and the week after that, and the week after that.  Don't stop watching this show.  I promise you, you will not be sorry.

This is Debbie at BuddyTV, and today I'm talking to Rina Mimoun, the executive producer of the CW's Privileged. Hi, Rina. I'm so excited to talk to you because I am a huge fan of all of your work.

I already love you. This is my favorite interview yet.


Oh, great! Let's talk about Tuesday's episode. I've read that "noted fashion photographer," Nigel Barker, will be a guest star. Can you give us a preview of what's going to happen?

Yes, well, Laurel Limoges is going through a crisis in her company, and so they decide to incorporate the girls based on one of Megan's ideas. The girls get incorporated into her campaign, and from Megan's point of view, it's a way to try to get this family closer because she sort of sees them as problematic, to put it mildly. It all kind of falls apart and becomes a bigger rift between Laurel and her girls. And Nigel Barker is way hot. I don't think it's full explored on Top Model, but we were all very impressed.


How about the relationship between Megan and Sage? Are there going to be any new developments in that episode?

Their relationship, for me, is one of the long-term dramas of the series. Hopefully, it'll become more and more – it'll deepen and becomes more and more emotionally charged, as Megan's relationship with Rose gets closer. She does become exactly what Sage feared in the pilot, which we set up, which is the whole reason that she is as guarded as she is and as tough on Megan as she is because she's afraid that this girl is actually going to destroy her best friend, her best friend with her sister. In some ways, that is starting to happen, and in this episode, it definitely does take it to the next level, and Sage really does see. It gets darker and for the first time, Megan is really starting to understand Sage in a different way, so that as their relationship takes new turns later on, which it does in [episodes] 9 and 10 and as we get deeper into the series, we're starting to understand Sage a little bit more and how she's not just this horrible, bitchy girl with an agenda to kill Megan. There's a lot of pain and real stuff that's going on underneath. But of course, she's just fun to watch because she's got the best zingers.


Oh yeah. I think Sage is probably, after Megan, my favorite character.

Oh good. Me too. I love Sage. We think there's going to be a lot of Sage costumes for Halloween, especially on Santa Monica Boulevard this year. That's what I'm thinking.


Oh awesome. How about Megan and her romantic entanglements?

Well, [this] week is a big explosion of romantic entanglement number one, with Mr. Jacob Cassidy. It sort of comes to a head in a most unfortunate way. Which is the most I can say about that. We've had the three sharks circling, between Jacob and Will and Charlie. Megan's got a good life in that respect. But yes, [this] week, you're definitely going to see some sparks flying.


Oh great. I realize that you have a lot of say with what goes on with Megan's romantic entanglements, but do you secretly root for one of the boys over the others?

So funny. We have definitely created teams in the writers' room. There is Team Will and Team Charlie. I'm supposed to remain impartial, but right now, I must admit, I'm a bit of a Team Will. But there's a lot of people overriding me because Team Charlie is very, very strong. When I look at them and I think of them in real life, as these types of relationships present themselves as they always do, I think there's really positive things to both of those guys as what they represent to her. I think Will, in so many ways, is a lot like Megan in that he is an ambitious guy, and he is creative and he is passionate and he has a lot of drive to him, which is very much similar to Megan. Whereas Charlie represents this really lovely safe space, and the person who knows you, and your best friend who knows everything about you and loves you for what you are.

So it's like, where do you go? You're in different places in your life from your teens to your 20s to your 30s to when you finally decide who you're going to settle down with. I think you're always looking for different things at different points in your life. So for right now, I feel like both of those guys – and Jacob, who I feel like represents in many ways the thing that makes the most sense on paper. They're both academic-related and they have the most in common in many ways. But it's, where do you want to go? It's the Ben-Noel crisis, it's the Pacey-Dawson. There're so many roads to travel.


I just wanted to ask you. So, in the last episode, Lauren Conrad made a brief appearance, and then we'll be seeing Nigel Barker. Are there any other guest stars that we should look out for this season, and also, if you could get anyone to guest star on the show, who would it be?

Ooh, Meryl Streep. No, I'm kidding. We actually have a lot of really fun guest stars coming up. We have Kathy Najimy who is fantastic. She plays a publicist for Sage and Rose, and she's coming up in episode 7 and we have her for a little bit. We've got Perez Hilton, who I was so excited to get and he was awesome. He was so great. He plays himself, and he was so much fun and did such a great job. That was a really, really fun episode. I'm trying to think who else we have. I'm going through it in my mind. We have John Allen Nelson who's coming in, playing Megan's dad.

Truthfully, my secret fantasy right now is, I'm dreaming of Megan's mom because she comes up later, and being a huge fan of Friday Night Lights, I'm a little obsessed with Connie Britton, and I kind of think Connie Britton is so perfect for the role of Megan's mom. She's available, I don't know what's happening with the Lights, but she would be my dream mom for Megan right now.


Oh my gosh, please do whatever you can to get her.

I know, I know. And then of course, we just want to get Taylor Kitsch just because. Who doesn't want Taylor Kitsch on their show? I'm TV-obsessed . I don't even go for the movie stars. I just go for the other shows that I'm psychotically fans of. Tina Fey, if I could ever meet Tina Fey, that'd be awesome. Now it's just a wishlist of two I want to meet.


Wow, that sounds great. I hope that happens.

I know, me too.


Privileged was adapted from a young adult book series, and what are some of the difficulties or challenges that come up when you're adapting a book?

Well, with this book in particular, I really loved the book. It's different from Gossip Girl in that it isn't actually a series. When you read the book, it's just the one, and it had very much of a Devil Wears Prada kind of feel. But when you read the book, there's a very clear beginning, middle and end. So you have to see, well, how could I make this something that extends beyond what they accomplished here. Because a lot of the story they gave you is obviously: she gets there, she learns something, she goes back home and applies it to her life, and the end.

So what I had to do when I got the book, and I love it and I really responded to what was the character of Megan who I thought was just so much fun and really did, in many ways, represent a lot of my favorite characters on TV. But, as opposed to being Carrie Bradshaw in her 30s and 40s or the Tina Fey, it's Carrie in her 20s, which isn't on TV right now. So I love Megan and I loved the girls, but we had to come up with a way to make it more interesting and make it grow. The main thing was creating Megan's family, which we sort of changed completely from how it was in the book so that Megan's coming to Palm Beach, it's not just about her being a tutor because I feel that those stories might be limiting and you get a little bit repetitive. If it's a story about family, which ultimately it is, you want to see how Megan fits into the family that she's adopting and how does that relate to the family that she actually has. And these two sisters who are amazing with each other and it's a relationship that she really envies, versus the relationship she has with her own sister, which is the worst relationship she has in her life. How does she learn from them in more meaningful ways, and not just how does she learn to be a cute dresser, but how does she learn to be a better sister and what are they going to take from her.

Family dramas can go on forever. I think they're the best stories on television because everybody's got a family. That's the one thing that makes it hopefully universal and relatable. Doctors love Grey's and ER, lawyers love every David E. Kelley show, but everyone's got a family, so hopefully, everyone can tap in and see different elements of their own family dinners and families within these families. That's always the goal.


When I talked to JoAnna Garcia recently, she said that you had really fought for certain parts on the show. What's your philosophy behind casting?

Hire Patrick Rush immediately. That's my first philosophy. He's a genius casting director and he brought in basically everybody that's on the show, he brought over. And JoAnna came as literally a miracle. Before we went into production, we could not find a Megan, and that was obviously the most important part, and she has to be so specific. It was the day before, at the last point where, if we didn't find a girl, we would have to push shooting. JoAnna didn't come in until 6pm that Friday. And I remember looking at Patrick and I'm like, "Oh, this girl better be Jesus." And she came in and she was so amazingly everything. She was so funny and so natural and vulnerable and sweet and just had it all going on and was so quick. And so much of this show really is about the pacing and it's pretty verbal. She was just so winning and in five minutes, you fall in love with her. And I was like, "Oh my God, yay, we have her!"

From there it was getting the chemistry. Everyone else has to work. We found Lucy Hale, who is amazing and very specific and so wonderfully Rose. And then to find Sage was so difficult on so many levels because she really has to possess a confidence. You can't say those lines and not have the goods to back it up. And has to be beautiful and had to look like Lucy and had to have all these things. Ashley [Newbrough], we found on tape in Canada, and it was actually bizarre. Ashley was a really bizarre person to find because I had known her manager because he represented Emily VanCamp, who of course I worked with on Everwood. So I had had a relationship with her manager and he said, “I have this girl. Would you watch her tape?” She put herself on tape up in Canada, and I was like, “Sure.” We were looking at so many girls and when I saw the tape, I was like, she was so stunning and she was so natural and real. I completely fell in love with her right away. And we could never even get her down, actually. No one ever saw Ashley in person before she booked the part. And when she came in, she was so sweet. I couldn't believe it. I love the Canadians.


Yeah, yay. I'm Canadian too.

Oh, are you really? Canadians are the best, man. I have had the best luck with Canadian actors. Gregory Smith and Emily VanCamp and Josh Jackson. I'm telling you. I don't know what's in the water over there, but you really get good actors.


I wanted to ask you about the writing process. Where do you come up with ideas? How do you keep coming up with fresh ideas? Because you've worked on so many shows that I just absolutely adore: Gilmore Girls, Everwood, Pushing Daisies, Dawson's Creek.

You know, it's so much about the writing staff and the room together and how the room works, and it really is just getting the right amounts of different people who all go in and want to do group therapy. And we really do talk about, “OK, what's the worst fight you ever had with your brother? What's the worst fight you ever had with your sister? What does your mother do that made you want to kill her?” And on the flip side, I have enough bad date stories literally for ten series' worth of material. So that's always helpful.

In an episode that's upcoming, there's a whole thing about how she's getting set up, and I just used verbatim one of my worst date moments ever. And watching JoAnna do it was so funny because it was like reliving the whole experience again. I have an amazing staff and all the writers, and that started with when I was on Everwood, and how Greg [Berlanti] put together a staff and making you have really lovely people who are not afraid to tell you their most horrible, horrible moments.


So, writers often use autobiographical elements, I'm getting this?

I don't know what you do on a show like Fringe because I don't think we're normally seeing skin melting off people. But on these kind of shows, for my money, it's all about your personal nightmares, and then just continuing to spin it on its head and flip it. And then obviously, put it into context of this particular world. My problems that I had growing up, probably not the same as Rose and Sage on a superficial level, but the thing that I love about it is that, in our last episode that aired, “All About Friends and Family,” when Sage breaks out into the horrible hives, that's like every teenagers nightmare. I don't care if you have a billion dollars. Being at a party and you suddenly have a massive breakout, at that age, you want to die. It's universal, and to me, it's just always funny.


How difficult is it to have a show on the CW? Because the show is really great, but I don't think that it gets the ratings that some other shows on different networks do.

It's hard. It's one of those things where I'm used to it because the WB, it was the same kind of thing. What's amazing about it is that the fans are rabid and loyal. And again, it's these online communities and it's this stuff that we're doing right now that really… it's a different culture. And our target audience, they're online a lot and they are TiVoing their stuff. And so, I think the CW, in many ways, it's doing a lot better than people automatically think because there is this extra DVR recordings and all of that stuff, and it's hitting the audience that they want. What's frustrating is people not knowing who we are yet because we haven't been as out there right now as 90210, but I'm hoping people find us and I'm hoping people find us in time for the CW to give us our back nine. I really want to do it because we have so many good stories for the back nine.


When do you expect to hear from them about that?

I don't know. Would you call them, Debbie?


I'll do what I can do.

I really want it. Hopefully, hopefully soon. We are shooting episode 9 right now, and we are finishing the last story of the order. The writers are so great, and we're excited about the stuff that we have left to say, and a lot of the stories that we're writing right now are very purposefully open-ended so that you've got to keep going. But I have to say, the greatest thing about being on the CW is what was, to me, so much fun about being on the WB is, it's really one of the only networks that lets you tell stories about this age group. I mean, if you look at the other networks right now, you don't a 20-something lead. You don't have 16-year-old girls. And these stories are really so much fun. I mean, there's never been so much heightened melodrama than when you're that age. And for whatever reason right now, this is the only network that will tell these stories and go crazy with it and have fun. So kind of love it.


Well, I'll do my best to get the word out there because I agree. You definitely need your back nine and you need to get renewed.

I know. I mean, don't you want Megan to realize that Charlie's been in love with her forever? She doesn't know it, it needs to happen, we all need to see it. We have a great way for that to come out. Of course, it's going to be a terrible time for it to come out. You've got to see how Charlie's new lady is potentially a very bad person for him. There's all sorts of drama that we need to see play out in the back nine. Plus, you've got to meet Keith, Marco's boyfriend, for God's sake.


Yeah, Marco is such a great character.

We love Marco.


And he needs his own storyline too.

And we've got it. We really do. Again, it's so funny. There's not enough time in each episode to get to everybody. And it is so important to really connect your audience to your main people, and that does take some time. So before you can go out and then explore the world of these other characters, I feel like you really have to understand Megan, you really have to understand Rose and Sage and Will and where all these people are coming from. But we have so much stuff planned for Marco and Charlie and a lot of our characters that are currently taking a back seat.


How far in advance do you plan things out?

When we first start, we definitely arc towards the first 13 in our initial order, but about a month ago, we started to talk as a group about, “OK, what do we think the end of this season would look like? What do we want our cliffhangers to be? What do we want our big moment at the end of the year to be so that you are on the proper train?” So, at this point, we do know where the end of the season would be. We haven't written it yet, but we know where it's going. But right now, we're shooting 9, we start shooting episode 10 on Monday, and the script for episode 11 is finished, so we're really at our last scripts that we're in the process of writing right now of the initial order.


Great. Well, I'm so looking forward to this next episode.

Oh, thank you. It's a really fun one. And specifically for anyone who's really interested in Laurel, it's a big episode for seeing what's going on with Anne Archer who is, of course, unbelievable. And how amazing that Anne Archer is on the CW? Like, oh my God. We haven't made one boiling bunny joke. I'm trying to hold back.

-Interview conducted by Debbie Chang
(Image courtesy of the CW)