The AMERICAN AUTO Team Previews 'The Letter' - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

The AMERICAN AUTO Team Previews ‘The Letter’

February 28, 2023 by  

American Auto abortion The Letter

AMERICAN AUTO — “The Letter” Episode 206 — Pictured: (l-r) Harriet Dyer as Sadie, Ana Gasteyer as Katherine, X Mayo as Dori — (Photo by: Greg Gayne/NBC)

On the Tuesday, February 28 episode of AMERICAN AUTO, Katherine (Ana Gasteyer) has to meet with the Payne Motors employees when it’s revealed the company has donated money to pro-life politicians.

“Yes, abortion, is that the topic that it deals with, but we didn’t come into it thinking, ‘We want to explore abortion and do an episode about pro-choice or pro-life or any of that,'” AMERICAN AUTO creator Justin Spitzer acknowledges to Give Me My Remote. “I think, thematically, it’s an episode about generational activism. How we deal with it when you’re CEO, you’re management, and employees have an issue that’s very, very important to them. A generation ago, employees left their personal feelings at home [than] even in the last 10 years. This generation feels like they need to be activists at work—and what that frustration would be like for Katherine.”

“We say in the episode that Katherine, herself, is pro-choice, but she finds herself being harangued by younger pro-choice workers,” he continues. “And she has this now old-fashioned attitude of, ‘Well, I leave my personal feelings at the door and that’s just not what this is about.’ The A-plot really is about that and abortion was the topic that let us explore that issue.”

As the Payne Motors employees try to contend with the controversy, “people are on sides that you wouldn’t expect them to be on sides of,” Tye White, who plays Jack, explains in the video below. “So there might be some switching of sides in Dori’s character, in the male cast’s characters. So I’ll just leave it at that…there are unexpected alliances.”

“Subverting expectations, for sure,” X Mayo, who plays Dori, adds. “And I think it’s reflective of our world…People are nuanced and complex and can change their minds based on the data that they receive at that time. And I think, all in all, I’m just so happy that we didn’t try to treat it like a PBS after-school special. It’s still very much a hard, classic, Justin Spitzer comedy. And I love that we’re going to hear from the Gen Z’s perspective versus millennial versus Gen X. You get to see like all those different tiers of people, their opinions, and POVs.”



American Auto abortion The Letter

AMERICAN AUTO — “The Letter” Episode 206 — Pictured: (l-r) Humphrey Ker as Elliot, Michael Benjamin Washington as Cyrus, Jon Barinholtz as Wesley, Tye White as Jack — (Photo by: Greg Gayne/NBC)

Things are also complicated as the men of the office are tasked with solidifying Payne’s policies regarding abortion care and aftercare for its employees.

“Whenever you let men speak for women, it is probably not going to go well,” Michael Benjamin Washington, who plays Cyrus, acknowledges. “Or at least it’s going to be funny as hell watching them try to do it. So if that [humor] happens, I think the gentlemen of AMERICAN AUTO achieved our weekly objective. It is an episode for the women. It is featuring the women. It is about the women. And the women do their thing.”

Watch the video for more from the AMERICAN AUTO stars…

AMERICAN AUTO, Tuesdays, 8:30/7:30c, NBC

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