BAD THOUGHTS: The most unhinged show on Netflix?

Sweetshop: Can you discuss your collaboration with Tom Segura? How did your directorial perspective complement his comedic style?

Rami: I’ve been collaborating with Tom for quite a while. We wrote some projects together, then over the years, I would direct him in various shorts and specials. We’ve definitely developed a trust and rapport. He’s a great collaborator because he has no ego on set or in the writers' room. He’s always game to pivot or try new things; he trusts the process. The funniest joke always wins.

For Bad Thoughts, my goal was to create an elevated look and grounded tone for the series, no matter how disgusting, crude, grotesque, or raunchy the subject matter. Tom got behind that and trusted me to lean into this idea, which I appreciate.

Sweetshop: How did this project come about for you?

Rami: Tom approached me a few years ago and wanted to shoot a short film. I pitched him the idea of shooting a few at once and pitching them as a TV series. So we filmed “Just A Splash” (the coffee shop short), “Portal” (the alien-apocalypse short with Rob Iler, Kirk Fox, and a toilet), and a third short called “For Her”  (a story about a woman grieving her estranged father’s death in a very very weird way… I’ll leave it at that.) We showed the finished proof of concept to Netflix, who got behind the project pretty quickly.

Sweetshop: If a stranger asked your parents what “Bad Thoughts” is about, what would they say?

Rami: It would go like this…

Stranger: What is “Bad Thoughts” about? 

Parent (in broken English): What is “Bad Thoughts?”

Stranger: Uh… It’s the Netflix series your son made. 

Parent: Oh. He said we are not allowed to watch that. 

Stranger: Makes sense. Thank you for your time.

Sweetshop: Were there specific inspirations or influences that guided your direction for the series?

Rami: I’ve always appreciated the work of director David Shane. This guy puts on a clinic in flawlessly playing ridiculous ideas in the most grounded ways possible. No matter how insane each story got, I wanted to make sure to play it like a drama. I also got pretty obsessive about the genres we were parodying and got heavily influenced by specific films and techniques, which I won’t bore you with… but I definitely drove some people crazy :) 

Sweetshop: Which episode or sketch posed the most significant directorial challenge?

Rami: Time was the biggest challenge on this project. It’s especially difficult when each short is meant to look distinct. I think the biggest challenge for me was “Esther’s Throat” — both emotionally and technically. This went from a 2 day shoot to a 1 day shoot pretty late in the process.

So I had to streamline the script, and a handful of scenes ended up getting cut that I was very excited to film. Like an intimate, silhouetted “Blanket Fort” scene with Massimo and the residents. We ended up shooting something like 52 setups in 1 day… and made our day. That was the happiest I saw our AD, Jason Brown, on the entire shoot. It was a mini miracle.

Sweetshop:What’s the most unhinged note you gave an actor on set?

Rami: Have you seen this show? You’re really gonna make me pick just one?

The most unhinged direction was probably given to the elderly woman playing Esther on how to convincingly perform analingus on Massimo. Not sure we should print any of this but there ya go…

Sweetshop: The show's visual style is notably distinctive. What was your approach to cinematography and set design to achieve this aesthetic? 

Rami: I was pretty hell bent on bringing on Nicholas Weisner to be the cinematographer on this series. He shot the proof of concept, and I love that he doesn’t come from comedy. He’s shot some incredible indie films, music videos, and commercials. He has such a keen eye, is versatile, and shares my obsession with detail. This also was not a big budget project, so we had to get especially clever with decisions on lens packages, cameras, and formats, which both he and I completely nerded out on. He broke his back for this. We also had to think outside the box when it came to scouting and dressing locations given our minimal shoot days and resources. Tracy Dishman was our incredibly talented production designer. She and her team really brought it — like dressing Cyrus’s mansion to also be Rex Henley’s dining room that we had to ALL SHOOT IN ONE DAY. Bananas.

Sweetshop: When shooting parody  - what was harder to convincingly pull off - " Big budget Action" or "A24 style Arthouse"? 

Rami: Big-budget action was probably more difficult to pull off given we did not have anywhere close to a big-budget… we had little-tiny-baby-budget. That said, the A24 feature trailer was also tough cause we had to convincingly shoot a trailer that felt like an entire movie in a single day.

"I’d say 30-40% of the lines that made it into the final edit were either improvised by Tom or pitched on the day. This was the hardest I’d ever laughed on a set in my entire life."

- Rami Hachache, on Tom Segura's performance

Sweetshop: Can you share an instance where improvisation on set led to an unexpected yet successful outcome?

R

ami: I would say the day we filmed all of Brigitte’s coverage. Brigitte is the disgusting conjoined twin that Tom played. The man showed up to set locked and fucking loaded. He was born to play Brigitte. I’ve never seen him so comfortable. The absolutely vile things he was spewing came out of him so easily it was scary. I’d say 30-40% of the lines that made it into the final edit were either improvised by Tom or pitched on the day. This was the hardest I’d ever laughed on a set in my entire life.

Sweetshop: Bad Thoughts has elicited a range of reactions from audiences. How do you interpret this varied reception?

Rami: The reception has been either love or absolute hate, and I’m sort of proud of that. I feel like we made something unique. 

Both seasons of Rami Hachache and Tom Segura's Bad Thoughts is now streaming on Netflix.