Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. We have been so looking forward
Speaker 1: to this next guest Billions of Course, season five, And
Speaker 1: I got to say, for those of us who cover
Speaker 1: business news, it's always been about a game of what's fact,
Speaker 1: what's fiction? The characters on the screen who are there
Speaker 1: in real life. It's a great and popular series on Showtime.
Speaker 1: Full disclosure. Jason and I watch it. April Taylor is
Speaker 1: co executive producer and unit manager on Billy And she's
Speaker 1: also a founding member of the recently created New York
Speaker 1: producers COVID Response Alliance. It's committed to relaunching production in
Speaker 1: New York State post virus. She joins us on the
Speaker 1: phone from Montalk, and that's where we want to start. April.
Speaker 1: First of all, welcome to Bloomberg Radio. UM, I hope
Speaker 1: you're doing well. Those important to you and your team.
Speaker 1: Everybody's doing okay. Thank you so much for having me, Carol,
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm pleased to say that I am doing
Speaker 1: doing okay. And um fortunately those um in my my
Speaker 1: friends and family circles are relatively okay, and those in
Speaker 1: our production circle on our show, and so many other
Speaker 1: in our community are are managing pretty well right now.
Speaker 1: We're happy eats and not have had a major outbreak,
Speaker 1: so um well and and managing right now April is
Speaker 1: one thing. And and we do want to talk about
Speaker 1: what you're working on to sort of get folks back
Speaker 1: to work safely. Uh in many ways, you know, Carol
Speaker 1: mentioned this group that you have been a part of
Speaker 1: starting what does it look like? How do we do
Speaker 1: this in a responsible way? Because we all love these
Speaker 1: shows and maybe more importantly, they're a big economic engine
Speaker 1: for this part of the world. UM. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: we as a group of New York producers came together. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, many of us had navigated the shutdown, UM,
Speaker 1: which was a rather hectic affair and UM scary time
Speaker 1: to live in realizing that UM times we're going to change,
Speaker 1: and you know, we're all using terms like the new
Speaker 1: normal or you know whatever, UM whatever your industry is
Speaker 1: attaching to. But we realize that there's going to have
Speaker 1: to be some substantial changes to how we how we
Speaker 1: make any TV film product going forward. And we're working
Speaker 1: really closely with the industry with UM all of our
Speaker 1: partners in the industry and with the CUOMO Task Force too,
Speaker 1: have discussions that are you know, guiding us into new solutions. Um.
Speaker 1: Those discussions are you know, obviously coming from a health
Speaker 1: and safety standpoint, looking at every aspect of our industry
Speaker 1: and what we do and how we do it. Uh.
Speaker 1: Those things are unique in New York, um as they
Speaker 1: you know, are different in l A or in Atlanta
Speaker 1: or any other region. Um. We're focusing our efforts on
Speaker 1: this area that has had, you know, obviously such an
Speaker 1: tense outbreak and has this great density issue. So UM,
Speaker 1: you know, Uh, there's really not gonna be any stone unturned.
Speaker 1: And the kind of conversations we're having are ranging from
Speaker 1: the basic ppe conversations that every industry is having to
Speaker 1: you know, how do we socially distanced while filming UM
Speaker 1: actors and people who are obviously vulnerable to not being
Speaker 1: able to wear pp on on a on a set.
Speaker 1: So UM, we're just you know, going through all the
Speaker 1: factors right now. Well, and I do wonder I do
Speaker 1: wonder too, like like, well, will there be insurance liability
Speaker 1: questions that come into this? I mean, do the dynamics
Speaker 1: and the economics of the business also turn change, April.
Speaker 1: Because of things like that, I think we'd be foolish
Speaker 1: to think, Uh, any industry would not be having intense
Speaker 1: conversations with regard to insurance and risk management and um,
Speaker 1: you know how we all look at our our employees
Speaker 1: and our companies. Um, these things are you know, the
Speaker 1: insurance the insurance business and their response to a pandemic.
Speaker 1: I don't think any of us have seen really what
Speaker 1: that's going to yield yet, but certainly there are a
Speaker 1: lot of considerations for people's privacy that are now being
Speaker 1: you know, discussed with respect to testing protocols that it
Speaker 1: might be implemented. Um, and you know all of the
Speaker 1: resulting you know, medical disclaimers and comfort level that we
Speaker 1: all have to have with sharing our personal information. UM.
Speaker 1: And that's you know, that extent that is so not
Speaker 1: a production issue, that is every company's issue. You are
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business Week, excited to get back into
Speaker 1: our conversation with April Taylor, co executive producer of Billions
Speaker 1: that season five debut it is right ahead of us
Speaker 1: this coming Sunday, May third. Couldn't be more excited, especially
Speaker 1: as I feel like I've been binging all sorts of things.
Speaker 1: But it's all been leading up to this April I
Speaker 1: gotta ask. I mean, this is a show that obviously
Speaker 1: we're both fans of, me especially, and I was worried
Speaker 1: when it first came on that was going to feel
Speaker 1: like a little bit of a busman's holiday, given what
Speaker 1: we do for a living. And and yet it's a
Speaker 1: breakaway hit. I love it, so many others do. Why
Speaker 1: do you think it is? Like, what is the zeitgeist
Speaker 1: that it's capturing here? I think from the business community,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of um the writers who
Speaker 1: are really cybeless job of you know, harvesting some real
Speaker 1: life stories that kind of feed into UM into the storyline,
Speaker 1: sometimes in a in a in a real way. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they're a little bit embellished UM. And I think that
Speaker 1: the rabbitat Tat kind of Tommy Gunn New York fast
Speaker 1: talking nous of the nature of most of the characters.
Speaker 1: It a big um attraction for many of us in
Speaker 1: the New York area in particular, but I think in general, um,
Speaker 1: you know that there the fact that the character's minds
Speaker 1: all works so fast, and that they have these you know,
Speaker 1: machiavellian brains that kind of you know, out fox each other,
Speaker 1: uh at every turn, building to this intricate UM story.
Speaker 1: Every season is something that is exciting and and that
Speaker 1: is entertaining well. And I gotta say, what's entertaining for us, April,
Speaker 1: no doubt about it is we'll be like, Okay, that
Speaker 1: feels like this corporate raider or this hedge fund individual.
Speaker 1: And you know, all of us who have been covering
Speaker 1: Jason's been covering it for several decades, me too, and
Speaker 1: so it's just great to kind of, you know, compare
Speaker 1: it to you know, reality UM. I got a chance
Speaker 1: to catch up with Brian Coppleman and David Levine. They
Speaker 1: did a panel here at Bloomberg to talk about the series,
Speaker 1: and they had some great conversations about some of the
Speaker 1: real life folks that they talked to and anecdotes. How
Speaker 1: often are you guys, you know, having something from a
Speaker 1: headline or reaching out to somebody in the financial community
Speaker 1: to say, Okay, how would you guys play this? How
Speaker 1: would you do it? I think that the writers are
Speaker 1: doing that on a on a on a regular basis,
Speaker 1: and I think that a lot of the color of
Speaker 1: the show UM is having that kind of real insight
Speaker 1: that only people in the industry can grab onto and
Speaker 1: know is it is a true It's either a truth
Speaker 1: or heavily rumored um, you know truth. Um. So I
Speaker 1: think that that's something that they're they're constantly doing and
Speaker 1: looking for, you know, exciting tidbits to throw in there
Speaker 1: that they know or a wink or any you know,
Speaker 1: or any story as we call them. Well and April
Speaker 1: one of the other interesting things. And I think, just
Speaker 1: sort of going back to our broader conversation about New York,
Speaker 1: is New York is really a character in this show
Speaker 1: in many ways. And I know that. I mean there
Speaker 1: was I believe it was the season premier last season, um,
Speaker 1: where Chuck is sort of going from place to place
Speaker 1: to place, and it was almost this treasure hunt through
Speaker 1: New York City and you know, this restaurant and this
Speaker 1: place and this building. It feels like you guys invest
Speaker 1: pretty heavily in this notion of making the city and
Speaker 1: its environs sort of a character fair. Oh, extremely fair.
Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the you know, major
Speaker 1: appeals as a producer on the show. I think it's
Speaker 1: so appealing that we, you know, get to go to
Speaker 1: all these great places, and that the writers you know,
Speaker 1: and the creators of the show, Brian and David, are
Speaker 1: New Yorkers, and that there is a real love of
Speaker 1: the New York News that surrounds all of these people
Speaker 1: and that helps to find them and and you know,
Speaker 1: color there their world, you know, the Upper East Side
Speaker 1: of you know, Chuck Senior, and you know the cool
Speaker 1: Bobby acts Rot and you know, the different kind of
Speaker 1: environments they find themselves in, and Chuck being part of
Speaker 1: this sort of you know, a lot of the old
Speaker 1: guard and riding the middle to a certain degree, UM
Speaker 1: is just you know that it gives us a lot
Speaker 1: of opportunity, UM, to really showcase New York. And that's
Speaker 1: a lot of the reason why, you know, as as
Speaker 1: a passionate producer, you know, I was one of the
Speaker 1: people that jumped into this, you know, early effort to
Speaker 1: start make sure that we were going to revitalize New
Speaker 1: York film production as soon as we can. I have
Speaker 1: to say, right is somebody who's you know, lived um
Speaker 1: worked in New York for such a long time. It
Speaker 1: is like such a wonderful postcard UM and and it
Speaker 1: reminds me of sex in the city a lot in
Speaker 1: that you just went to the hotspots, the places that
Speaker 1: everybody was talking about or would be talking about as
Speaker 1: a result of including them in the show. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean I worked on Sex in the City for a
Speaker 1: season many years ago, and I my background is actually
Speaker 1: from locations, so I have a particular passion with respect
Speaker 1: of this subject. Um. But it was the first instance
Speaker 1: where people would call us and say, please come and
Speaker 1: film in our brand new, very high end restaurant, um
Speaker 1: for you know, little or no money, just because the
Speaker 1: publicity became such a big part of that experience. And um,
Speaker 1: billions is not far behind that. I mean we have
Speaker 1: we really do have a lot of recognition now and
Speaker 1: people like what it says when we've come and put
Speaker 1: them on the screen. Well, and I love I will
Speaker 1: say this is I don't want to go too far
Speaker 1: down a rabbit hole here. But um, the music also
Speaker 1: is unbelievable and uh it features just a lot of
Speaker 1: great music and not you know, the the obvious music.
Speaker 1: You know, Jason Zabel, drive by truckers, things like that,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of that comes from from
Speaker 1: Coppleman especially. Um, I do have to ask you, like
Speaker 1: give us a preview of this season. What are we
Speaker 1: gonna see? We sort of saw, I believe, the sort
Speaker 1: of uneasy alliance at the end of last season between
Speaker 1: Bobby and Chuck. Am I remembering that right? Um? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it was. It was I think a very
Speaker 1: delicate a lot. And I think we see we see
Speaker 1: these two powerhouses with that are incredibly smart and have
Speaker 1: slightly different tactics and egos you know, um make their
Speaker 1: way through this complicated maze again. Um. And and you know,
Speaker 1: we have some really great new people that have joined us,
Speaker 1: new actors that have joined us this season. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: the the incredible Corey Stoul and Julianna, Margalie's and um
Speaker 1: some so we've really had some some fun introductions and
Speaker 1: it's kind of expanded our our world a little bit.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think everyone is going to find
Speaker 1: that there's um a very very fun and exciting season
Speaker 1: ahead of them. Well we just have to say, um,
Speaker 1: we are delighted to have you here with us. Good
Speaker 1: luck with the season. And I know you guys had
Speaker 1: a pause of course because of the virus, so good
Speaker 1: luck in getting production back up and running, and um,
Speaker 1: good luck with the coalition. Let us know if there's
Speaker 1: anything more we can do on that front. UH so
Speaker 1: delighted to have with us, Abel Taylor, Co executive producer,
Speaker 1: unit production manager on Billions, joining us on the phone
Speaker 1: from Lantak