THE OLD MAN – Season 2 Key Art | ©2024 FX
In THE OLD MAN, which has its second-season premiere on FX Thursday, September 12 (with episodes available the following day on Hulu), Jeff Bridges stars as Dan Chase. In Season 1, Dan was a retired CIA agent suddenly being pursued by both his own former colleagues and unknown attackers.
In Season 2, Dan must team up with CIA Assistant Director Harold Harper, played by John Lithgow, to find the missing agent Angela Adams, aka Emily Chase (Alia Shawkat), Dan’s daughter and Harold’s protégé, Emily has been kidnapped and taken to Afghanistan.
THE OLD MAN was adapted for television by Jonathan E. Steinberg & Robert Levine, based on the 2017 novel by Thomas Perry. Bridges, Steinberg and Levine are all executive producers on the series.
Warren Littlefield and Dan Shotz are also executive producers on THE OLD MAN. Shotz has previously been a producer and/or writer on series such as SEE, BLACK SAILS, HARPER’S ISLAND, and JERICHO, and is an executive producer, along with Littlefield, on the new feature film WAR GAME.
Littlefield served as President of the NBC network from 1991 through 1998. Some of the shows he helped develop during his tenure there include THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR, MAD ABOUT YOU, FRASIER, FRIENDS, E.R., and 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN. As an executive producer, Littlefield has won Emmys for FARGO and THE HANDMAID’S TALE; he was also Emmy-nominated for DOPESICK.
After a Q&A session for THE OLD MAN hosted by FX at the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour, Littlefield and Shotz make themselves available for a follow-up discussion. This interview combines that conversation with comments they made on the panel.
As Littlefield has run a network, which has multiple shows on at once, what is the difference between that and being an executive producer on multiple shows at once?
“This is more satisfying,” Littlefield replies with a laugh, “because it’s a deeper level of involvement. I actually get to spend a lot more hours and days and nights with Dan Schotz, with Jon Steinberg, with Jeff [Bridges] and John [Lithgow]. It’s the level of engagement that is wonderful. At a network, it was great, but the higher you go, the further you’re away from the creative process. I love being right in the middle of it.”
Shotz notes, “I have not run a network.”
“Not yet,” Littlefield qualifies.
“It was very fortunate that we get to work with people that have the experience, like Warren,” Shotz continues, “who brings so much to it. To have a producer like Warren is one of the best experiences we’ve ever had. So, no joke, all real.”
As executive producers on THE OLD MAN, what is the division of responsibility between Littlefield and Shotz?
“We’re very collaborative,” says Shotz, “so it’s been an amazing partnership. I’m on the writing side, and I’m also on the day-to-day producing side, so overseeing the whole operation of what this is.”
“Dan Schotz is the glue,” Littlefield elaborates. “And I love that I can make a significant contribution, but all the light in our stratosphere, it all comes together because of Dan, honestly.”
Shotz accepts the praise modestly. “Thank you. And there’s nobody who works harder or protects this show more than Warren. He looks after us, he looks after everyone, makes sure the show is delivering on all aspects, and it is pretty remarkable to watch him work.”
Jeff Bridges as Dan Chase in THE OLD MAN – Season 2 | ©2024 FX / Kurt Iswarienko
Of Bridges and Lithgow, Shotz says, “Watching these two guys rehearse, a lot of times on a TV show, you don’t have a lot of time to rehearse, you’ve got to get right to [shooting]. But on this show, we take the time to rehearse each scene, and watching these two guys explore these roles, these moments, and giving them a chance to just go for it and not be afraid, these are the most fearless actors I’ve ever witnessed in my life. They take the time to just want to make it special. I don’t even want to say ‘get it right’ – they want to take the time to see what are all the possibilities, and then keep tweaking it and keep trying, and that is what is remarkable about watching them work together.”
Littlefield credits Bridges and Lithgow with helping keep everyone around them energized. “There are long days and nights, there’s no question about that, where I think all of us, if we were honest, we would feel a little bit of age and the wear and tear of the process. But I will say that the Zen of this show is a playful spirit. And it comes because of these two men, and everyone, our entire crew, what that set feels like, is this kind of playground. And that just doesn’t get old.”
Continuing, Littlefield observes, “I think we feel – I’ve certainly done this [make TV series] a lot – this feels quite special and unique and, for us, it doesn’t feel like a long day or night of work, it feels like we’re in the sandbox.”
Shotz also wants to give Shawkat her due. “We didn’t get to talk about it enough on the panel, but there is a tour de force performance by Alia Shawkat in this season, and I cannot wait for everybody to see it. She just brings such an A game of figuring out who she is, grappling with her three identities, and what that causes for her is pretty special.”
Littlefield concurs. “We have some pretty awesome talent, but wow, does she carry that torch. Thematically, it’s a season about identity. And so, Alia’s character Emily becomes Parwanna. And what starts with a journey of two guys who consider themselves her father. They go to rescue her, and they find a new woman there. She has become a new woman. And so, her identity has completely changed from the environment that she’s in, and her understanding of her back story. And that feels pretty epic for us.”
While both men are understandably excited about the storytelling and their expert cast, they also take great pride in getting the details of physical production just right.
Littlefield relates, “One of the questions that came up earlier was, ‘So, where do you shoot this?’ Our Afghan village is in Santa Clarita. We built that on a hillside from scratch. And it is an entire Afghan village that is a character and part of the show. I was just going back through our cuts over the [Fourth of July] holiday, and of course, visual effects adds to the mountains, but that world when we’re in it feels incredible.
“So, when I look at those cuts, I feel like our blood, sweat, and tears went into building that world. And I’m gushing over how that looks onscreen. And so, that’s really satisfying, to have started with a hillside, and that’s all it was, and created a world. And so, that’s producing for us.”
Shotz agrees. “It’s a very cool project, which you can see, and so having to create a lot of different environments, different cities, different places to go to throughout the whole season was an awesome challenge.”
Given that THE OLD MAN deals with geopolitics, and that the real world has changed notably since the series premiered in 2022, are there real-world elements that have either been incorporated into the show, or plot points that have been excised?
Littlefield responds, “I think it’s a really unique aspect of the show. John certainly gets help from our CIA consultant [Christopher Huddleston], but it’s really created a historical fiction using everything that we know about the world that we’re living in, and then finding the dramatic possibilities for these characters. And I think particularly in Season 2, that’s why it will resonate, because we will feel that these situations are very, very plausible, and hopefully the way we present them, they feel very real for the viewer.”
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