'Looking' Exits. Talking With Creator Michael Lannan & Director Andrew Haigh

It's time to take one more look at "Looking."

The series about a group of gay men living in San Francisco only produced 18 episodes since it premiered in 2014 on HBO and while there were strong fans of the show (this writer among them) and others who didn't love it as much, it got everyone talking for a short time.

Thankfully, HBO didn't just cancel the show after its second season but gave creator Michael Lannan and director/executive producer Andrew Haigh a chance to wrap up the stories in a final film, which airs on HBO on July 23.

The short review is if you loved the series, you'll love the film as it takes us back to San Francisco where Patrick (Jonathan Groff) has been away for awhile but returns to face not only some demons about his life choices but also the romances that he left behind, namely boss turned BF Kevin (Russell Tovey) and his ex, Richie (Raul Castillo). Thankfully, the film isn't merely about Team Richie or Team Kevin but manages to smartly say so much more.

EDGE's Jim Halterman was in San Francisco during filming of this final chapter and sat down with Lannan and Haigh to talk wrapping up "Looking," what they wanted to say and how the experience may have changed them as artists.

Completing the story

EDGE: Tell me about when you found out you were getting the final movie because HBO just could have easily said, 'okay, we're done, thank you.'

Andrew Haigh: I think they always wanted to make sure that it was completed, the stories I think. I don't think they ever wanted it not to be that way, so I think it was always like the minute we decided that it would not be a third season, it was always it was going to be a movie to end out.

Michael Lannan: It was heartbreaking not to get the third [season], but great to get a chance to wrap up some of the stories and send the characters on their way.

EDGE: What were the challenges for you both in figuring out where you'd have everybody end up.

Andrew Haigh: Yeah. It's definitely difficult. We didn't want to end it to be completely all tied up in a neat bow at the end. We didn't want it to be like that so it's just as Mike was saying. You get into a certain stage where we feel like they've developed and got to a place that they're happy with.

I think the main focus of the film is Patrick's story. I feel like he's always been the center of the show and so it's important to bring him to a place of some kind of closure and some place where he's in a better place than he was back in the woods at the beginning of the first episode.

A real arc

EDGE: The entire show is only 18 episodes long but so much has happened from that first episode...

Andrew Haigh: I feel like an enormous amount has happened and I think by the time we end the film you will see there's a real arc for Patrick and for all of the characters. I feel that they're all at a much better place now where they understand what they want and what they need more than certainly did at the beginning of the first episode.

EDGE: There is some sex, of course, and you've never been shy about including that in the show and now the movie and maybe it's even taught people a thing or two about sex between two men.

Andrew Haigh: It's weird. For us it was never about educating. It's more just like that's what people talk about. Gay friends talk about that stuff, gay people do that kind of thing and I think always for both of us it's more what is the character's perspective and what do these characters want? This is their lives. It's not about making any kind of grand statement about gay life or such. It's about what do these three guys want and what's true to them and what's right for them.

A big difference

EDGE: You also say something in the film about the younger generation of gay men coming up and a gay man in his 30s like Patrick. It's a subtle point but it's really relevant to the next generation coming up.

Andrew Haigh: Look at him in the beginning of the series, he could barely have sex with anybody without having some kind of crisis about it and he's certainly not in that place anymore. He's not. He's been around the block a few times and he knows more of what he wants in life. I think it was interesting to have a younger character with Patrick just to see that kind of difference between people that are 21 and people that are 30. It doesn't seem very big but there's a big difference. I think Patrick looking at someone who's 21 and incredibly confident about their sexuality hits Patrick a little bit, I think, knowing that he certainly was not like that when he was 21 and, to be honest, he's maybe not fully like that now, so it's just interesting playing with those different age kind of dynamics.

Michael Lannan: I think when we met Patrick he was sort of playing the good boy part, which was such a part of his own sort of how he thought of himself but was also one of his biggest problems. Just for him to see that he's not the little boy in town and that there are people younger and that the world continues to change, I think all taught him some interesting lessons in this film.

EDGE: Talk about what you guys wanted to do with Dom in the film. He's also gone through a lot since that pilot episode.

Andrew Haigh: It's interesting with Dom. I think for me, it's great that finally his career is up and running and doing well and how he feels about that and if he feels like it's where he wants it to be and if he's going to lose it and what he has to sacrifice and compromise to get that. I think that's become his driving goal and driving obsession almost. He has to work out a little bit what it is that really makes him happy like is this goal the thing that's going to make him happy or are there other things.

I think Dom and Doris have both gone off on their own little separate ways a little bit, which is inevitable. You get older, you meet people, you forge relationships, you separate a little bit and then I suppose it's them navigating that a little bit and finding a way to still be with each other and be close but know they're on their separate lives.

Michael Lannan: Developing their own lives, they say they need to break up at the end of Season Two and they do that but I think you see in the film that they're still people with so much history they'll never be anything but family. They know the root of each other's problems in this film and they can help illuminate each other.

An emotional journey

EDGE: How emotional has it been for you both of you in shooting the film?

Andrew Haigh: Just here for the paycheck, always have been. [laughs] It's emotional. We've all worked together for three years. The crew, the cast and apart from a few other people, it's the same crew as what we had when we started the pilot so it is emotional. It's been a really incredible time that we all spent together so it's inevitably sad that this is the last chance we get to do it.

Michael Lannan: This was so different for so many of us. It was kind of like the first time most of us had done anything like this.

EDGE: How do you think this experience has changed you as artists? Do you think it's changed you?

Michael Lannan: Good question, Jim.

Andrew Haigh: I don't know if it's changed me. Every day you shoot something you learn something different and you try different things and you see what works and doesn't work. I think if anything you've just got to still just try and, this sounds like a horrible clich�, but it's truth in the work and just keep trying to be as truthful as you can without worrying about what too many people think.

Things change?

EDGE: Do you think like shooting so many episodes, like so many little stories, has changed the way you directed?

Andrew Haigh: Not really. I prepare less, that's for sure. Definitely the more I've done I prepare less. You don't have time and that's fine. Doing a film is so different than doing a TV show because you come back and do a season then we're doing this movie now everybody knows what they're doing. A film is a whole new different experience, but you know you learn lots of things.

EDGE: Michael, do you think you've changed?

Michael Lannan: I've changed completely I think in many ways. I've learned so much from Andrew, from our writers from the fundamentals of storytelling to how to make decisions about wardrobe and...it was a huge education.

Looking: The Movie airs July 23 on HBO.