John Requa & Glenn Ficarra and Us | Directors & Producers
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Who are John Requa and Glenn Ficarra?
Oh my God, welcome back to the podcast. On this, a very special day. The two gentlemen who we are welcoming into the studio today are two of my favorite members of the This Is Us family. We have Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.
Hello, welcome gentlemen.
How did John and Glenn start their careers?
Thank you so much for joining us. Pleasure to be here. These two gentlemen are a creative duo. Yes, they are. Directing, writing, producing team, who I think, I Love You Philip Morris was probably the first like- First film? Your coming out party, as it were. Our first official directing.
Directing in more ways than one. No, it was our first directing. But we've been working together as writers and making short films since college.
Wow.
That's where you guys met?
Yeah, in the 80s. The 80s.
For those listening, the 1900s were a complicated time.
I hitched my horse. There was disease. There was disease. There was. But if anybody ever asks me about you two, because I do talk about you a lot, I have a great amount of respect and admiration for both of you. I said, all you need to know about these two men is that they directed the pilot of This Is Us and Bad Santa. We wrote Bad Santa. And wrote Bad Santa. Those two projects, if you mash them together, I think are a perfect encapsulation of you two. And thank you so much for joining us today.
Our first produced screenplay was a talking animal movie.
Which was what?
Cats and Dogs. I saw Cats and Dogs. Glenn Ficarra was the voice of the Russian kitty. Stop it. Wait a minute. Breaking news, hot take. I think about the baby puppy.
Get out of here. Wow. Okay, so wait. You guys started, I'm always sort of fascinated by this. Hold on, let me give a little bit of backstory. I'm talking again. A little backstory of like how I met these guys.
Someone off the podcast told Sterling that he talks too much on the podcast. And now he has like a thing. And we want him to erase that from his memory.
That's what I said. I was like, that's certainly Ryan. So check this out. I'm the one who told you guys this. I was in New York City doing a play by Susan Laurie Parks. It's called Father Comes Home from the Wars 1, 2, and 3. And Tiffany, the casting director, who I came in to see these guys for a movie that they were doing with Tina Fey called Whiskey Tango, Foxtrot. Yes.
Great movie.
So I go in. I audition for these guys. They wind up putting me in their movie. Got a small part, but a cool part. It was a lot of fun, right? Then I was doing OJ, which is 20th Century Fox, which is our studio, which is also the studio for This Is Us. And I don't know the exact, so you guys can fill in for me. And they're like, oh, this guy's playing Darden. We should bring him in for This Is Us, whatever. Untitled Dan Fogelman project. His name's Sterling Brown. And the guys, it was the first time walking into a room where they're directing the pilot. And I'm like, oh, they're friendly faces. Yeah. It's nice to have like people know you. The studio is sort of like excited about you. You know what I'm saying? Like to have buzz.
I don't know, Mandy Moore, you've had buzz for a long time. Come on down. You're Mandy Moore.
You're Amanda Lee Moore. You didn't have buzz your whole life.
So it was a really interesting sort of experience to come into the room and have like people that you've seen before that know your work, whatever, that are excited to see you. Like, cause most of the time you're just in there singing for your supper, trying to be, hello, my baby, doing your own jazz hands type thing.
Let's not get the WBM.
Let's not do that. That's a good one. I appreciate that. But so you guys also, so everybody knows, had worked with Dan previous on Crazy Stupid Love, which my wife and I watched and we were like, oh snap. Like these are the same people that directed and wrote that thing. Like this show has to be good. I was just excited to have the meeting. You guys. That's it. That's all I wanted to say.
From our perspective. Yeah. So we're trying to cast this part of a gunnery sergeant for this Whiskey Tango Foxtrot movie. And we're not really finding anybody. And Tiffany says, I got the guy. He has been in jail, basically, working in North Carolina.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who are John Requa and Glenn Ficarra?
0:08–0:31
2
How did John and Glenn start their careers?
0:31–4:31
3
What is the directing style in This Is Us?
4:31–10:37
4
What unique experiences did they have on set?
10:37–10:53
5
How did This Is Us come to them?
10:53–18:22
6
What behind-the-scenes secrets did they share?
18:22–30:27
7
How do they blend comedy and drama in their storytelling?
30:27–32:29
8
What challenges did they face directing intense scenes?
32:29–1:08:14