‘Awful anxiety’: ‘Laid’’s Michael Angarano and Andre Hyland reveal what they would do if death came knocking

Peacock’s new show, Laid, is perhaps a little morbid, but that’s also exactly why it’s so funny. We Got This Covered got to chat with the cast about all things death, including what they would do if they were suddenly in Ruby (Stephanie Hsu)’s exes’ shoes.

Hsu’s lovable yet flawed protagonist is forced to rethink her approach to life and dating when her exes begin dropping like flies, one after the other, for an array of reasons, from sports injuries to car and plane accidents. Her true-crime enthusiast best friend AJ (Zosia Mamet) jumps at the chance to help her, in the process reevaluating her own love life with deadbeat boyfriend Zach (Andre Hyland).

The sequence where the duo agonizingly approach all of Ruby’s past flings who are miraculously still breathing to let them know what’s coming is one of the funniest in the whole show. So, we wanted to know what the men in the cast — Hyland and Michael Angarano (who plays one of the men affected by Ruby’s curse) — would do if they were ever in that same situation.

“Would I wanna know [if I was going to die soon]? Not really — if there was nothing I could do about it. (…) I guess I would rather not know,” Hyland reflected, adding that death does, in fact, come for us all, so there’s no point dwelling on it.

Angarano, on the other hand, thinks he would be consumed by anxiety. Somehow, their approaches to this impossible situation perfectly reflect the personalities of their characters — talk about spot-on casting.

I think it could go either way. I think it could either, you know, depending on the person, it could be a really helpful thing to know, and you could really take that and live your best life, or it could be like Final Destination, and you, like, live in a padded soundproof-wall room for the rest of your life, scared to do anything.”

“You could either make the most of it, or just be filled with awful anxiety,” Hyland agreed. The Oppenheimer actor thinks he might be the latter, and we can’t help but relate.

What’s so fun about Laid is that it operates within this duality between total freedom and all-consuming anxiety, reflected in the tug of war between comedy and death that drive its unique tone. “The funniest thing about death is that we’re all going to get the punchline at some point,” Hyland mused. “Yeah, that’s amusing! The sooner you can laugh about that, the more enjoyable life you’ll lead,” his co-star echoed.

Laid‘s writing, Angarano says, did a great job at mixing comedy with surprise. “Each script [from a team of writers led by showrunners Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna] was really funny,” the actor explained, “But I feel like it also did a really good job of keeping you on your toes, like never being too predictable, never really knowing what was going to happen to whom, or how and when.”

The causes of Ruby’s problem are a complete mystery for most of the show, though there are a few events that begin drawing a semblance of a rule book for who dies and who survives. Angarano’s character is a crucial piece of that puzzle. In that sense, the show might be plagued by death, but the search for answers is intrinsically fun and engaging.

Angarano concluded by saying that “By nature, [the writers] treated it with a very good touch. They didn’t go too heavy-handed in the macabre, they also kept you guessing a little bit.” Hyland, meanwhile, found a good way to summarize the singular frequency Laid operates in. “I feel like they keep it light and bright, so that way they can go dark.” Laid lands on Peacock, Thursday, Dec. 19.