That openhearted approach, Scott said, comes directly from Waller-Bridge herself. “Were both very big old romantics. Phoebes not afraid of the grand gesture. There are paintings falling off walls and foxes following men of the church around. There is a strange poetry to this work.”
The show also takes seriously the priests commitment to God—a subject often ignored, or poorly dealt with, onscreen. “It does feel like one of those things—there are still remaining taboos, especially in comedy,” Waller-Bridge said. “You cant talk about those things. Were precious and delicate, and dont want to offend anybody.”
That taboo, of course, is also what gives Fleabags will-they-wont-they its compelling crackle. “The dangerousness of writing that stuff was to push those boundaries,” said Waller-Bridge. The shows most sexually transgressive (if not its most sexually explicit) scene takes place inside a church confessional, when the priest blurs the vocabulary of BDSM with that of religious rites when he commands Fleabag to kneel.
Scott, who grew up in Catholic Ireland, is aware of the damage the Church has done historically, but also wanted to treat this subject with respect. “We were both really, really concerned with the idea of somebody who is a good priest, who is good at his job, and who gets a lot of peace and joy from it,” he said. That the character is so thoughtful, soulful, and good at his job makes him a “genuine threat” to Fleabag, Scott added. But like Fleabag, hes also got quite a bit of darkness and damage to him—something the audience observes in his relationship with alcohol. Scott was disinclined to put a label on that aspect of his character, but it was equally important to him that the Hot Priest have his own human struggle.
“I certainly dont believe that you can desexualize any human being completely,” he said. “So to really try and show the human being behind the robes, and just that hes allowed to be flawed in the same way that Fleabag is, we wanted his character to be in some way a match for her, just someone that she cant dismiss easily. Its no less deep because its messy and conflicted in some ways, and damaging. But I think its true for more of our romantic relationships than we might admit, certainly on television.”
In the end, the Hot Priest chooses his love of God over his love for Fleabag. “I love you,” she says as both their eyeballs gleam with unshed tears. “Itll pass,” he assures her, even as no one watching believes him. “I love you too,” he then tells her, more believably, before he walks away, seemingly for good. Its a bittersweet ending that also feeRead More – Source
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Vanity Fair
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