What did Widow’s Bay creator and showrunner Katie Dippold see in Matthew Rhys as Tom Loftis, mayor of the New England island town plagued by a historic curse? “He’s actually very good at swearing,” Dippold jokes. Add that to his comedic timing while being a dramatic actor, and Widow’s Bay perfectly blends humor with horror — something that was very important to Dippold, who says her initial idea leaned too much toward comedy and made her rethink the entirety of the show. Stephen Root and Kate O’Flynn also star in the series that led all new shows with a staggering 19 nods when the Emmy nominations were announced July 8.

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Dippold (Parks and Recreation, Ghostbusters, The Heat) reveals to THR why Widow’s Bay was so hard to write and where she broke some of her self-imposed rules.

Your initial idea for the show was much different from what we see on TV today.

The heart of it is the same. It was much more comedy-focused, and I still think of this as a comedy, but I don’t think you would ever be scared or tense in that original version. I don’t know that I would have watched that show because, as a horror fan, I just want the horror taken seriously.

The show balances horror and comedy very well. How did you walk that line?

It’s being really hard on the humor because there’s stuff in the writers room that will make me laugh so hard, but I’m like, we cannot do that because you just won’t take anything seriously. But sometimes, we’ll break our own rules — like, the bogeyman is kind of ridiculous. I try to let the scary be scary and let the humor come from character, and a big goal of the show, between the cast and the direction, is treating it very seriously. You’re never treating it like a joke. This is life and death to the characters. Everything should feel high stakes, and then finding moments of humor throughout that … it’s constantly making sure these two things are feeding off of each other and not undercutting the other one, and that also means doing horror that doesn’t get too bleak. You don’t want the audience to feel too bad, so then it’s hard for them to come back around and laugh.

How much of the humor was written in the script versus the actors’ delivery?

That’s honestly what was the scariest thing about this show, is that it really needs all of it. It needs the scripts to be very tight. This show really does not allow much room for error. I’ve written many broad comedies, and you can get away with stuff, but this show, if there’s a moment that feels too broad or unearned, or you don’t buy it, it takes you out of it immediately. So I find this very hard to write for that reason. But you also need really good dramatic actors to sell these absurd, absolutely ludicrous situations.

One of the scenes that made me laugh out loud was when Warren and Loftis were on the boat and Warren is asking to be let out of the coffin, and when Loftis says no, Warren’s like “Well, fuck you then, and he’s like, “Fuck me?”

You know, that was a last-minute change. The “fuck you” part of that exchange wasn’t scripted, and then one of the writers on set, Neil Casey, pitched it to me, and I was like, “Oh God, I don’t know if I can pitch that to them right now.” And then I was just debating it, and Matthew was looking at us and said, “What? What is it?” And then we went over and pitched it, and they’re like, “Great!” And then they did it, and it became my favorite thing, and I kept it in edit.

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What did you see in Matthew Rhys for the role of Tom Loftis?

It was a real swing and a lucky guess because I had never seen him do anything comedic before. But I know he’s an amazing actor. I pitched him how the season would go, and he just seemed to get it. There’s something about him. He’s my favorite kind of person, which is a spicy, kind person.

Episode four was one of the most beautifully shot episodes I’ve ever seen on TV. I was wondering how that was like filming it because it was so unique.

Something I really have loved about television is the joy of collaboration. In the script, we had this idea that Patricia would be hosting this entire party, everything is going well, but you know something’s off. As she’s giving her toast, the camera pans over to her, and as it pans over to her, you just catch a split second glimpse of the mirror that shows all their mouths hanging open. It’s like a very blink and you miss it kind of moment, and so I was really hell bent on holding it until that moment, and then the director Sam Donovan was pitching seeing the glimpse in the dance sequence when she’s dancing, and because in the script she’s dancing and having the time of her life, we were talking about what kind of music would be playing then, and I thought, if she was in high school, what’s something she would have listened to while driving by a party she wasn’t invited to? “The Rhythm of the Night” is a great dance song, that’s so something from that time period, but I thought it’s perfect. Sam had the idea of that shot in that moment, and it seemed like it was going to be one or the other, and I was really torn. And Sam said, “let’s just get both, and then we’ll decide later.” But then in the edit, you realize, oh, this actually builds really nicely. Just catching a glimpse of it in the dance sequence, and then you really land it when she’s giving this speech. It was a real group effort, which really delighted me.

While I was watching the series, I noticed a lot of horror movie references. Obviously the boogeyman episode is very Mike Myers-coded, from surviving the craziest stuff to she’s running for her life, he’s casually strolling, and also Loftis, the name, reminded me of Loomis from Halloween, Scream and Psycho. Was that a bit of an Easter egg, or am I completely hallucinating that?

No, you’re not. Sometimes when I’m writing is, I hate to say this, but you’ll just start writing things down, and you’ll just like write a name, and I think to me, my heart felt like something [like] Loomis [from] Halloween. It was just helping me get started, but then I just got used to that name. So that happens to me all the time. Like I’ll just put a name and just get used to it. And then I’m like, well, I can’t change it now. That’s their name. I don’t think anyone else has clocked that, which I’ve been relieved about. But you finally got me.

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

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