‘The Flight Attendant’ EP Steve Yockey Isn’t Opposed to Another Season

One of America’s sweethearts is about to emerge like you’ve never seen her before, and it’s all thanks to HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant. Starring Kaley Cuoco, the new thriller follows a party-loving airline professional by the name of Cassie. Her entire life is defined by drinking and glamorous international parties until a one-night stand in Thailand brings that all to a screeching halt. After waking up next to a dead body (Michiel Huisman), Cassie now has to clear her name of murder.

The Flight Attendant is an addicting drama on its premise alone. But what elevates it from good to great is how the series handles Cassie’s inner demons and the laundry list of lies she’s told herself over a lifetime. Translating this internal struggle to television was a challenge for executive producer and series developer Steve Yockey. Ahead of The Flight Attendant‘s three-episode premiere Yockey spoke to Decider about how he captured these difficult moments, utilizing Cuoco’s natural charms against the audience, and if this HBO Max miniseries has a future past its eight-episode run.

Decider: The Flight Attendant feels like another Greg Berlanti project, YOU. Did you take any inspiration from that?

Steve Yockey: I think they both come from a thriller place. But our inspiration was more Hitchcock, De Palma, those types of thrillers. What would those be, putting a woman at the center? And a woman who is an unreliable narrator? That was more of the inspiration., although I really enjoy YOU a lot.

That’s interesting. Which Hitchcock and De Palma movies did you draw from?

I’m obsessed with North by Northwest… Vertigo. Then Dressed to Kill. De Palma, obviously, was an influence.

[Executive Producer] Susanna Fogel and I had a lot of conversations about the use of split screen and how you can open it up so it’s not just two people on screen talking. You’re actually getting a piece of their world on the side of the screen, more depth and character exploration in the actual scene of it, as opposed to what they’re saying or how it’s juxtaposed against what they’re saying. That inclusion in the script then led to the tiling sequences that run through the series — really embracing the 1960s, 1970s thriller kind of feel. But then it’s also meshed up with dark comedy. I love doing genre blending. It creates a unique tone. Some people love it, some people are probably challenged by it. But I think it’s a lot of fun. And I think Kaley [Cuoco] is one of those rare actresses where you can say, “Here’s something complicated. Can you please make it look easy?” And she does.

YOU comes to mind, but also so does Search Party. They are three thrillers that are compelling, genuinely thrilling, but also really fun. It’s such a cool blend.

I’m happy to be in that company.

The Flight Attendant is based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian. How closely did you want to stick to the original, and how much did you want to deviate?

I was very lucky because after I pitched my take and was hired, I got to talk to Chris a little bit — Chris Bohjalian. He was so incredibly supportive of do what you need to do, do what you want to do or what’s right for the series. Instead of locking myself up in shackles and being like, “I need to have this whole fidelity to the book,” I sort of said, “I’m going to have whole fidelity to this character that he created, Cassie.” Then I’m just going to blow out her journey into an eight-episode television series as opposed to the book, which would make a really great two-hour movie, I think.

There are inherent challenges in adapting a book that you see people handle in a bunch of different ways. One of the big things of The Flight Attendant is, Chris does this amazing job of creating this very tense, anxious energy. Her anxiety is growing and burning, and you feel very claustrophobic because you’re trapped in it with her. I really wanted to stay in Cassie’s point of view. But when you translate that to screen, it’s like watching someone sit on a hotel room bed and fret. You want to see something. I was like, “How can we illustrate what’s going on in her head?” Then I took the most literal approach and just illustrated what’s going on in her head, in this mind palace conceit that we created, where she keeps returning to the hotel suite and to Alex [Michiel Huisman] over and over again. Then, letting the actual hotel suite itself and the character of Alex grow and change and evolve as she learns more about who the real man was.

I noticed that this version of Cassie seems to be a lot more hectic and a little less self-deprecating than the book version.

Because the book is truly a character study. It is a thriller, in the classical sense. It’s taut, and there’s the mystery. But it’s very much a study of this woman who already recognizes that she has some issues. In a television series when you have eight episodes to fill, you want your main character to have the longest journey possible because then the audience can go on the longest journey possible.

I started Cassie at a place where she’s actually kind of fooling herself into thinking that she has this really fantastic life. When really, her entire life is designed around avoiding things. Whether that’s closeness with other people, whether that’s facing truths about her own behavior, whether that’s recognizing things that happened in her past that she remembers in a different way or doesn’t want to remember at all. She’s built her life around running away from people. She even acknowledges in the first episode, when she’s sitting with (Alex) in the pool, right before she says it’s a lot of first dates, she says, “Being a flight attendant is not really getting to know people. You’re always on the move.” That comes out to be a big part of the series.

And the other line in the series: “What happens when you have to stop lying to yourself?” That’s reflected in a bunch of characters. It’s reflected in Megan’s [Rosie Perez] journey, it’s reflected in Annie’s [Zosia Mamet] journey. It’s reflected in Miranda’s [Michelle Gomez] journey, who, you don’t know that much about her yet. But really Cassie singularly identifies what that can do to someone and the downward spiral you can go on when you’ve been really good at fooling yourself. It’s not even about fooling other people, you know. She’s been lying to herself.

That comes across. In Episode 1’s first scenes you see how cool and glamorous her life is as a flight attendant because of all the club scenes. You buy into this whole facade along with her, which is interesting storytelling.

Oh, thanks! I think we all do it, though. The reason she’s so relatable is because — yeah, obviously it’s much bigger when you wake up next to a dead body and try and clean up the crime scene and escape to another country — but it’s blown out because it’s television. We all have these sort of narratives about ourselves or these stories we tell ourselves about who we are, and how we handle things, and how things work for us. Every once in a while, you hit a speed bump in life where all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh, god. I think all of those things, but that’s not actually how I handled this. Oh no!” You’re forced to face the idea of yourself, versus what you actually do.

It’s what makes it relatable. You just fall in love. First of all, when you have Kaley Cuoco, it was almost instantaneously. I think it’s safe to say she wasn’t performing, she was just being herself, having a conversation with me. She is so charming. The energy is palpable. The openness that she gives people — which, if you know a lot of celebrities, they can be tremendously guarded because so many people want so much of their time. She isn’t that. It’s probably because she’s been on TV since she was four, but she just knows how to keep that part of her life separate and still be an open person. You’re sitting across from her, and you’re thinking — if you’re a writer like me, you’re thinking, “Oh, wow. I can make this character as dark as I need to, because it is going to be played by Kaley. The friction of her natural charm and natural inviting energy up against these terrible decisions that Cassie’s making is going to create this real — that’s where some of the fizz from the show is going to come from.”

Some of the fun of it is, you’re watching this woman, you understand why she’s doing what she’s doing. But also, don’t do that! Do something else! Don’t go to his memorial service, that’s stupid. That’s stupid. I want people to be looking at the screen being like, “Why would she do this?” But then watching her do it, watching it just get worse and worse because of her own decisions.

Oh, absolutely. I know that this was originally meant to be a miniseries. But is there any potential for it to become a multi-season project?

Here’s what I’ll say: These eight episodes of television have a beginning, a middle, and an end that are very clear. Everyone gets to have a complete story. I think that’s important. In a season of television that’s important, but I thought it was important for this.

Obviously Kaley and I had conversations. There are little breadcrumbs along the way that could be picked up and rolled right into a second adventure for Cassie or a further adventure for Cassie. That’s always out there. The things that we’ve discussed are kind of laced through it but in a way that no one’s going to be like, “What are all these unanswered questions?” If we do get another adventure with The Flight Attendant, we’ll be able to use them so the story can feel like it grows out of this story, rather than hard cut, here’s a whole new thing.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The first three episodes of The Flight Attendant premiere on HBO Max Thursday, November 26. Episodes 4 and 5 will premiere on December 3. Episodes 6 and 7 will premiere on December 10. Finally, the final installment, Episode 8, will conclude on December 17.

Watch The Flight Attendant on HBO Max