‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’ Author: Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes Casting Was a ‘Miracle’ (Exclusive)

Fleishman Is in Trouble author Taffy Brodesser-Akner didn’t picture “anybody” while penning her critically-acclaimed 2019 novel chronicling the unraveling marriage of Toby and Rachel Fleishman – but the award-winning journalist zeroed in immediately on Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes as the titular Fleishmans when she began adapting the book into a limited series for FX on Hulu.

Brodesser-Akner opened up to PopCulture.com about taking her novel to the screen ahead of Fleishman Is in Trouble‘s Nov. 17 premiere on Hulu, calling it a “miracle” that Oscar-nominated actor and Emmy-winning actress signed on to play Toby and Rachel Fleishman, as well as Lizzy Caplan, who plays Toby’s old college friend and series narrator Libby and Adam Brody as Seth, Toby’s womanizing friend who desperately wants to settle down.

“I didn’t picture anybody while I was writing the book, but once we started the adaptation process, actually I was pretty lost about it,” Brodesser-Akner told PopCulture. “But then the pandemic happened and a year went by. Then when I was thinking about it again when I had more time with the scripts, I had no doubt – I knew who every single person should be played by. And they agreed.” 

Throughout the production process, Brodesser-Akner knew she was “absolutely right” about the casting, noting that she was perhaps “so insistent” on her dream cast because of how “specifically rendered” they were towards the characters she had created. She continued, “People tell me every day, people at the network, people at the studio, my partners, they say this never happens. It happened and it’s a miracle. These are the only people we wanted.”

Taking an introspective story like Fleishman Is in Trouble off the page and onto the screen would have been “very intimidating” without Brodesser-Akner’s producing partners Sarah Timberman and Susannah Grant. “The great thing about the book existing is that the big decisions are made,” the writer reflected. “I think that if I was just asked in some weird universe to write a TV show, the entire world is too big. But the only goal of this was, just write the scripts that reflect [the book] and make it episodic. And that’s hard enough.”

Introducing her story about marriage, divorce and the shifting narratives that surround relationships to a new audience, “I hope that everybody takes away the idea that we all are human,” Brodesser-Akner reflected. “We all have a side of our story that is legitimate, even if it hurt other people, even if we weren’t our best selves.” FX’s Fleishman Is in Trouble premieres on Hulu on Thursday, Nov. 17.