Out of all of Robert’s characters, I’m curious why you chose Simon and Billy as the characters you wanted to write for your fic? Was it just that you thought they’d have good chemistry or another reason?
I’m so psyched you asked that question. I’ve always wondered whether anybody wondered that. lol My reasons are somewhere on the spectrum from not embarrassing to embarrassing. Prepare for me to take myself way too seriously.
Most embarrassing (honest) answer: Because 25 year old Rob is adjfdffjhs and very inspiring. Ep 1 of Me & Mrs Jones lives rent free, as does his delivery of that speech about what he’d be doing to Gemma if she ever frickin let him. I actually find Billy really dreamy. He’s one of my biggest Rob crushes. And because Simon / Billy / Nikolai are Rob at one of his most beautiful ages.
Best (honest) answer: I wanted to give them both backstories. They’re cardboard cutouts who just sort of sprung into being, fully formed. Everything we know about Simon Lewis’s origins: Jewish. Has a mom and a sister, somewhere in Brooklyn. Plays bass in a band. Grew up with Clary. Simon is literally defined by his proximity to her. Everything we know about Billy’s origins: Irish. Wingman. Bartender. Traveler. Catches people. Oh right, turns out he’s a chef. Who knew? (No one.)
Also because those two roles are the least developed of everyone he’s played, while simultaneously being as gorgeous as Rob at 25. They’re like blank slates, both of them the equivalent of pretty wonder bread. Benignly bland, pretty and stacked af, sweethearts with stars in their eyes. Neither one of them gets to be anything more than a category. The boy next door. The swoony Irishman. The hopeless romantics. That’s all they ever get to be. And to me, that’s sort of underutilizing Rob in a criminal way. Would it be possible to make both characters worthy of Rob’s talent?
I wanted to know why Billy was such a cipher. Why did not a single one of the characters know that Billy actually had interests in life other than taking care of everyone else? Why did none of them know he had a career? Rather than sitting with the depressing answer that the show was a throw-away with terrible writing, I wanted there to be an actual reason. It’s not only that no one ever showed interest in finding out about him. He also never volunteered the information. What if that was by choice.
And Simon is just a one-dimensional plot device in the movie. His sole reason for being is so that we will feel sorry for him. I wanted Simon to be more human than a walking friend-zone, in a love triangle trope that will only ever end badly for him. So if he was a real human, who would that be?
I also wanted to see if I could take the same Rob and turn him into two people that feel genuinely different to each other. And then stick them in an I-never-expected-to-fall-for-you story.
If you read this far, I thank you. And thanks for asking!
