Chris O'Dowd has spoken about the free-form style of his upcoming HBO comedy series Family Tree.
Family Tree is being helmed by legendary comedy filmmaker Christopher Guest and centres on a man (O'Dowd) unraveling a family mystery.
The actor disclosed to Vulture that the show follows closely the format of Guest's largely improvised films Best in Show and A Mighty Wind.
"It's totally improvised: essentially, you go into each scene with a paragraph of story, but there's no dialogue written down. It's very exciting, but it's hard, I'm not gonna lie," he explained.
He further commented: "It's a tricky skill to improvise while also getting all that story across, but I'm enjoying it. I have to say, I'm really excited for January because we're bringing in some of the guys who've been in his troupe for so long.
"It's been all English people up till now, but Fred Willard, Ed Begley Jr and Chris Guest himself come into the show in January, so I can't wait for that."
Guest recently confirmed that the BBC will broadcast Family Tree in the UK, while HBO is expected to air the series in the spring in the US.
Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
