‘Physical’ Creator Annie Weisman Reveals Why She Was ‘Scared’ to Write About Apple TV+ Series (Exclusive)

Apple TV+ debuted its newest dark-comedy series Physical earlier this month and viewers have been loving every minute of it. Now, creator Annie Weisman is detailing her “journey” through scripting the show, revealing how the “subject matter” is something she was initially “scared to write about.” Speaking exclusively to PopCulture.com, Weisman, who previously worked on shows such as Desperate Housewives and The Path, shared how the new series is essentially a culmination of nearly 40 years of her life.

“It was subject matter that I was scared to write about and didn’t really know how to write about,” she said. Eventually, Weismann teamed up with Tomorrow Studios and “got an “opportunity to take some time and write a script about something that was really personal” to her. Revealing how Tomorrow Studios asked her to “write what [she would] want to write,” the Los Angeles-based writer and producer admits it’s how Physical finally came to fruition. From there, it was a “journey” to get the project in development, and “miraculously, it got made over at Apple on this level with these collaborators,” she said.

The acclaimed producer called the project “a once in a lifetime opportunity…to make something that was really outside the box, really dark.” She added that this is “not something I would have gone out and pitched or had a thought to sell as a concept.” Nonetheless, it is something that she is “really proud” of in how it turned out.

Physical stars Rose Byrne as Sheila Rubin, a former academic and ballet dancer whose unfulfilling housewife life is turned upside when her disreputable husband, Danny (Roy Scovel), is fired from his college teaching job and decides to run for local political office. The show deals with the couple’s unbalanced relationship, as well as Byrne’s eating disorder, and an inner monologue that more often than not is working against Sheila. Regarding the tone of Physical, which is as funny as it is emotionally heavy, Wiesman explains that “it’s dark in a very specific way.”

“I think it tells the truth about what’s dark about women that you might not expect,” she said, further offering an example of how she perceives the show’s tone. “I think I felt like one of the impulses in writing it was to really look at how it was to really be honest about how different I felt on the inside from what I projected on the outside.”

The first four episodes of Physical are now streaming on Apple TV+, with Episode 5 debuting on Friday. For more on the series and all your Apple TV+ programming, stay tuned to the latest from PopCulture.com.