Thomas Middleditch (right) and T.J. Miller go over their lines for the final scene of the HBO comedy's second season, which was two episodes longer than its eight-episode freshman run. "We're all drinking and high," joked Miller. "We've already been celebrating the death of it." He then relayed a message to the cast and crew from his new wife, yelling: "Kate says congrats on finishing up season two, guys!"
Read more On the Set of 'Silicon Valley'
It seems as though there is a constant dialogue throughout the filming process on the show. "Play up the 'oops' line a little bit," executive producer and director Alec Berg (center, right) instructs Middleditch, to which he responds: "Well, do you want the kerfuffle-ily kind of stuff at the end? How quickly do you want us to get out of our rejoices?" A discussion ensues about how much ad-libbing the scene requires in its final moments, and co-stars Martin Starr and Kumail Nanjiani weigh in, too.
Middleditch and Miller have been friends for over a decade from when they used to do a two-man improv show in Chicago called "Practice Scaring a Bear" back in 2003. (Miller says that Judge had no idea the two knew each other when he cast them both.) The pair do their best to incorporate their improvisational chops into the series whenever possible. "There’s a great foundation, but we try to elevate the material as much as we can," notes Miller, "but sometimes we can’t because the script is f—ing perfect.”
The series has seen its fair share of cameos from real life tech players. The first season included appearances by Google chairman Eric Schmidt, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington and Re/code editor-in-chief Kara Swisher, while season two saw guest spots by the Winklevoss twins and Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel. Who's next? Miller says he'd love to see the designer of Forvo, a crowed-sourced pronunciation guide, on the show. "Or the guy that does the "What What in the Butt" song [Samwell] because he has this app called Shaky Advice," he said.
Because of the subject of the show, the cast and creators often gets invited to real life tech conferences and events. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington moderated a panel last year with Judge, Berg, Middleditch and Miller at Disrupt NY, Re/code's Peter Kafka interviewed Judge at the 2014 Code/Media conference, and Miller hosted the Crunchie awards earlier this year (and stirred up controversy when he called Uber founder and CEO Travis Kalanick's girlfriend a "bitch" in one of his bits.) But just because the show centers around the start-up culture, the actors don't think that means they're responsible for knowing what's actual Silicon Valley happenings. "We kind of got lambasted for going to this SF Sketchfest and not knowing enough about Silicon Valley," said Miller, "but I think that it helps having an outside perspective to make fun of these people."
Co-stars and close friends Woods, Nanjiani and Starr relax between scenes, discussing the series' past Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. "We don’t think of them as nominations. We think of them as awards we lost,” deadpanned Nanjiani. “Like empty places on our mantels," Starr, also straight-faced, added. But Valley is off to a good start this year as the show took home two trophies at the Critics' Choice TV Awards, one for best comedy series and another for supporting actor Miller.
The show might have taken the song it used in its season 2 promo video ('Smokin and Drinkin' by Danny Brown) a little too seriously. The set reeked of weed for most of the shoot, thanks to Miller's blowhard entrepreneur character, Erlich Bachman, and his bong (the role recently won him a Critics Choice TV Award.) Though he smoked it every take, the crew didn't seem phased by the overwhelming scent. The drinking, however, was almost certainly saved for after the team wrapped in the evening.
Series creator Mike Judge, whose credits include Beavis and Butt-head, Office Space and King of the Hill, was overseeing a couple pick-up scenes with Middleditch on another sound stage on the Sony lot in Culver City, Calif. "Are you really typing that fast?" Judge, coffee in hand, asked the actor incredulously about a scene that involved him texting underneath a table. "Yeah baby!" affirmed Middleditch, to which judge replied: "Badass. Now that was some damn good thumb acting."
Berg (center, left) alternates directing responsibilities with Judge every two episodes. The former helmed the final two of the season. Unlike last year, the show didn't bring in any outside directors, a decision that Berg began to regret near the end of the four-month-long shooting period. "At a certain point, ten episodes is just few enough shows that you sort of delude yourself into thinking you can do everything, and it’s just enough shows that you really can’t do everything without really risking your health," he said, noting: "We’ll have to have a discussion about how we do it next year."
The network employs Jonathan Dotan as a co-producer and lead technical advisor on the series to ensure that the writers get all the nitty-gritty tech and business details right. "Because we had a good reception in the Valley last year, people wanted to work with us more," he said, using a start-up analogy to explain the shift from the first to second season. "Season 1 was basically a seed round for us, and now we have our series A." Dotan went from having 12 people helping him with the show's technical material last year to now working with 65 people on a regular basis. He estimates that more than 170 people haved consulted for the show in some way or another in its second run.
The five main actors pass time on set by horsing around and playing FIFA on the Xbox One they have in their trailer (Nanjiani, Middleditch and Starr, in particular, are big gamers.) To hear Middleditch, whose known for his silly voice impersonations on set, say it: "We’re all goofy gals that just like to joke around, come up with bits and make each other laugh."
After the cast and crew wrapped the day's shoot, the last of the season, the boys took off for a no-girls-allowed "slumber party" at a nearby hotel. "We’re going to spend all night together tonight," said Woods, joking: "We've been shooting since September, so the fact that we don't detest each other is really a miracle."