Bill Lawrence Left His Comfort Zone With ‘Bad Monkey,’ And The Risk Is Paying Off

Before Bad Monkey, it had been a while since award-winning writer, producer, and director Bill Lawrence felt nervous about bringing a television show into the world. The creator of beloved series like Scrubs, Spin City, Cougar Town, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking is known as a certified hit maker, but since his new Apple TV+ series strays from his typical comedies, he braced for the possibility that everything could go wrong.

Spoiler alert: It didn’t.

Based on Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 novel of the same name, Bad Monkey tells the story of Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn), a suspended Miami PD detective turned health inspector who investigates a suspicious death in hopes of earning his old job back. While Vaughn and Bad Monkey’s stacked cast deliver lots of laughs, the series also explores drama in ways Lawrence hadn’t previously encountered in his career.

“The most interesting thing for me is I’ve spent my writing career surrounded by comedy writers, and I’m so old that when I started, you were either a multi-camera sitcom writer or a drama writer — and they didn’t let you talk to each other, much less work together,” Lawrence told Decider in a Zoom interview. “My fear was I wanted to make the show good for Carl, the author of the book, because he’s a hero of mine. But it’s staffed with half comedy writers and half drama writers, and watching each side teach the other — to be a TV writer for this many years, I didn’t know the terms ‘body drop’ or ‘clue trail.’ It was like going to college and learning a whole different skill set. It was really fun.”

Despite Lawrence’s fears, Bad Monkey currently has a Certified Fresh Tomatometer score of 92% from 59 reviews, with critics agreeing that Vaughn’s sharp, wisecracking character is one of his greatest roles in years. Bad Monkey features other big names including Meredith Hagner, Rob Delaney, Michelle Monaghan, Jodie Turner-Smith, Crystal the Monkey, and more. But it also stars a special model, singer, and songwriter in her television debut: Bill Lawrence and Christa Miller’s daughter, Charlotte Lawrence.

“What’s funny is I was never ready for young actors and artists these days [being] multi-hyphenates. Every singer is an actress. Every actress is a director. Every director is a writer,” Lawrence said, taking a moment to praise Charlotte’s friend Kaia [Gerber] for her “amazing” book club.

After learning that so many friends were auditioning for the role of Caitlin Stripling — a rebellious teen, former model, and recovering addict who’s convinced her evil stepmother Eve (Hagner) murdered her father — Charlotte decided to stealthily throw her hat in the ring.

“It all started because Charlotte was ridiculously annoyed because the part was for early 20s, kind of a rock star-ish type that used to be a bit of a party girl, and Apple and everybody was like, ‘Let’s look for someone with a big social media following,’” Lawrence explained. “The funniest thing was Charlotte’s like, ‘I shouldn’t have been thinking about it,’ even though she’d been studying acting for a while and working on it. But then every friend of hers was calling her up going, ‘I’m auditioning for your dad later, what’s he like?’” 

When Charlotte’s FOMO reached unbearable levels, she reached out to her dad’s assistant (also her friend and roommate) to get the Bad Monkey tea, then read the script, rehearsed, sent a tape to the casting director, and wound up in the top picks — much to the surprise of her dad.

“Basically, people that worked at Doozer [Lawrence’s production company,] said, ‘Hey, this is a good audition.’ And it was, by the way, really good. It was much better than it had to be for me to hire my kid and have an excuse to get to hang and work with my daughter for three weeks in Miami,” he said. “But one thing we did before we hired her was I just told her the truth, which is social media’s toxic. I’m Teflon at this point, but it still sometimes takes my breath away. I said, ‘As long as you know you can handle it, I’d love you to do the gig.’”

With Miller starring in several of Lawrence’s shows over the years and Shrinking featuring Charlotte’s single “Bodybag,” the family has had open conversations about nepotism for years, so the proud girl dad knew his daughter was up for the challenge. “I went back and watched some interviews of her that she had done without me being around on the nepo baby stuff, and she seemed so skilled and honest about the right way to handle it. And she’s good! So I said why the heck not?” Lawrence recalled. “I would say this: Anybody who gets the chance to hire their kids, if you can in this world, go for it. What’s the worst that could happen? You could spend time with them.”

When Decider reminded Lawrence that he also got to spend time with his son, Zach Braff, on this series, he indulged in a hearty laugh, saying, “That was really funny. My son — I’ve got to tell him that immediately.” In Bad Monkey, the Scrubs star — who’s teamed up with Lawrence over the years to direct episodes of Ted Lasso and Shrinking — plays Israel O’Peele, a surgeon battling substance abuse issues and withholding valuable information related to Yancy’s investigation.

While Braff may not appear in many Bad Monkey episodes, we’re sure to see him in front of and behind the camera of future Lawrence projects. “I have either a good habit or bad habit. When I work with people and they’re talented, I try to work with them again and again. It’s no different than hiring your daughter,” Lawrence said. “Sarah Chalke was in Cougar Town. Every Spin City cast member was in Scrubs. And, I never stopped working with Zach… But I think people forget that he’s a really good, funny actor. I think people are really gonna dig [him in Bad Monkey], because I’m like, ‘You’re a doctor again, but not in the same way.’ It was a dark character. And what I really like is when Zach does stuff like this — this is gonna sound way too corny — but he has kind of a sadness behind him when he acts. But man, what a treat. I’m gonna work with that guy as long and as often as I can.”

Bad Monkey airs new episodes weekly until its October 9 finale, and before you even have time to miss Lawrence, Shrinking Season 2 premieres October 16 on Apple TV+. Also on deck is Lawerence’s new comedy starring Steve Carell coming to HBO, and he’s tirelessly asked about the return of Scrubs and Ted Lasso, so there’s always a chance we’ll see more of those fan-favorite shows in the future. The man is booked and busy, and if everything goes his way (as is typically the case per his trusty motto), there will be more seasons of Bad Monkey on the way as well.

“Vince and I went into this and we sold to Apple saying that we’d love to do three [seasons]. We have a three-season arc in our head. The next book, Razor Girl, we own it. And Carl’s such a good writer. I don’t think he’s — rarely, if ever — written sequels to his novels. And that character stayed alive,” Lawrence said. “The only thing that makes me nervous is if we do three seasons, that means I have to make up one on my own. And Carl, he’s a high bar man.”

New episodes of Bad Monkey premiere Wednesday on Apple TV+.