On a recent humid July day, the crew of the Hulu TV series, “Shrill,” packs up lights, cables and gear as filming on Season 2 wraps up for the afternoon. Before heading out, Max Handelman takes a seat on the patio of today’s location, the Northeast Portland midcentury modern house that “Shrill” viewers would recognize as the home of Vera (Julia Sweeney) and Bill Easton (Daniel Stern), parents of the lead character, Annie (Aidy Bryant).
As an executive producer of “Shrill,” Handelman is up from Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife, actress, producer and director Elizabeth Banks. The couple are partners in Brownstone Productions, where their projects include not just “Shrill,” but also the “Pitch Perfect” movie franchise, and the upcoming reboot of “Charlie’s Angels,” which Banks wrote and directs, in addition to playing the role of Bosley.
Handelman isn’t just visiting Portland. For this week, anyway, Handelman is back where he grew up, and graduated, from Catlin Gabel school in 1991.
“I’m staying at my parents’ house as of right now, with our two little boys,” Handelman says. While Banks is putting finishing touches on “Charlie’s Angels,” Handelman and the couple’s two young sons are in Portland, where his parents moved with the family when Handelman was, as he recalls, three or four years old.
“I loved growing up in Portland,” Handelman says. “I’m a very proud Portlander, and even though I’ve lived in L.A. as long as, if not longer, than I lived in Portland, I still think of myself really as being from Portland.”
Though he left Oregon to attend college, earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, then an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, Handelman has remained, he says, “a diehard Portland Trail Blazer fan, as my wife will grudgingly concede. For my birthday, she very nicely, as a surprise, got me tickets to Game 3 of the Trail Blazer/Nuggets series, second row, for that historic quadruple overtime game” during the NBA playoffs.
His Portland roots, Handelman says, made him particularly happy about “Shrill” being set, and filmed, in the Rose City.
The series stars Bryant, best known for her “Saturday Night Live” sketch comedy work, as Annie, who has writing ambitions that go beyond her duties as an assistant calendar editor of a Portland alt-weekly.
In Season 1, Annie struggled with her own lack of self-esteem, and challenges involving relationships with her parents, her boss, her best friend, an online troll, and a frustratingly immature boyfriend.
Though it’s inspired by Seattle-based writer Lindy West’s memoir and essay collection, “Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman,” the Hulu series doesn’t take place in Seattle.
There are a couple of reasons for that, Handelman says.
In Season 1 of the Portland-filmed "Shrill," Aidy Bryant stars as Annie, and Lolly Adefope, right, plays Fran, Annie's roommate and best friend. (Photo: Allyson Riggs/Hulu)Allyson Riggs / Hulu
“The truth is, when you’re putting together a show like this, at this budget level, the natural inclination is to go to Vancouver, B.C., where tons and tons of shows are shot,” he says. “At the time we were looking at going into prep, Vancouver was overrun with shows, and Warner Bros. (Television) had a real concern that there was not going to be any crew available. So, that opened a window of us not going to Vancouver. There were several of us on this show who were very excited by that.”
Seattle, however, was never a serious contender for location shooting, Handelman says.
“Without casting aspersions, Seattle is not a prominent place to shoot,” he says. “Once Vancouver started to look a little shaky, between (production company) Broadway Video having done ‘Portlandia’ up here, and having their considerable crew already installed, and one of the other producers – in this case, me – being from Portland, and saying, ‘Hey we should go to Portland,’” the Rose City won out.
“It was a great decision,” Handelman says, “both for personal, and professional reasons.”
Aidy Bryant as Annie, in the first season of "Shrill." (Photo: Allyson Riggs/Hulu)Allyson Riggs / Hulu
Its Portland setting gives “Shrill” a distinctive identity, Handelman says. “I think the tone and vibe of Portland is absolutely part of the DNA of the show.”
When you watch “Shrill,” Handelman says, “You don’t feel it could happen anywhere else other than Portland. This is just a very seamlessly Portland show, without having to call it ‘Portlandia,’ or ‘Shrillandia.’”
Now that Hulu has renewed “Shrill” for a second season, the show has been able to construct sets on a stage in Clackamas, which provides flexibility when Portland weather proves unpredictable.
Beyond confirming that Season 2 will consist of eight episodes (an increase of two over Season 1) and will pick up right after the final episode of the first season, Handelman is mum about what to expect in “Shrill” Season 2, scheduled to premiere in 2020.
But he will say he was pleased by the response to Season 1, which drew generally strong critical response, and generated vigorous discussion online.
Luka Jones as Ryan, and Aidy Bryant as Annie in "Shrill" Season 1. (Photo: Allyson Riggs/Hulu)Andrew Eccles
“I think it far exceeded anything that we could’ve hoped for,” Handelman says. “I think a lot of people, particularly women, really connected with the characters, and with Annie’s journey. There’s nothing more rewarding as a writer/director/producer than for people to say, ‘It felt like your show was speaking directly to me, and telling my story.’ I don’t think we sought at the inception to make this considerable cultural splash, but I think we did.”
Season 1 of “Shrill” is streaming on Hulu
-- Kristi Turnquist
kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist
Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.