Phoebe Waller-Bridge seemed to come out of nowhere when the second season of her series Fleabag drove us all into a heated frenzy, spiked internet searches for “hot priest,” and earned her three Emmys in one night (Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series).
But Waller-Bridge has been a course charted cunningly over the past decade, from her one-woman show Fleabag slaying at Edinburgh Fringe Festival and landing her the first season of her television series of the same name, another show simultaneously called Crashing—both of which she wrote and starred in—to writing and executive producing the hit drama Killing Eve, and co-screenwriting the James Bond flick, No Time to Die (2021).
In that time, Waller-Bridge has established herself as an innovative thinker who whips up deliciously addictive scenarios for her characters. It’s difficult to look away from her projects because it is exceedingly difficult to guess where she will take her viewers. Let’s get into a few of her trademarks to understand how she does it.
1. Unique (and Unflinching) Characters
Phoebe Waller-Bridge excels at creating messy characters that are still loveable and compelling. Take Fleabag herself, the titular character of her Olivier Award-nominated, one-woman show and Emmy-winning television series.
Fleabag is the character’s name. We never know what it says on her birth certificate. She is named for her lowest traits, a woman who, when we first meet her, is grieving and selfish and self-sabotaging and reckless. But she is genuinely trying to make her way through, and somehow we want to root for her, even when she makes mistake after mistake.
The entire cast of Fleabag is comprised of complicated folks, from a father who doesn’t know how to hold space for his mourning daughters, a stepmother who swoops right in to replace their dead mother, a controlling and uptight sister, her tone-deaf husband, and his clingy and odd son. That’s just Season One.
The second season, well, I don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it, but Andrew Scott gives an unforgettable performance as the family priest.
Whether her characters are serial killers (Killing Eve) or twenty-somethings living in an abandoned hospital debating when it’s racist to use different accents (Crashing), Waller-Bridge knows how to create unforgettable characters and launch them into absolute messes. It’s delicious.
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‘Fleabag’
2. Humor, Humor, Humor
It’s hard to convey a joke to someone without context, so let’s break down Waller-Bridge’s comedic style and see where we go from there.
First, she’s not afraid to shock her audience. In the first five minutes of Fleabag (the play), her character has eaten a slutty pizza and had “a horrible wank” to “just the right sort of gangbang.” In the first five minutes of Fleabag (the series), her character has panicked over the notion that she might have a “massive arsehole.” All of these punchlines come out of the blue and are delivered with deadpan sincerity.
Waller-Bridge is also excellent at absurdist humor. The entire concept of Killing Eve asks for suspension of belief: a detective and an assassin play cat and mouse while falling for one another. Jodie Comer’s Villanelle character was cocky, ostentatious, vicious, playful, and unphased by violence. Wrapped up in bubblegum pink couture, she was not what one might expect from a trained assassin. Her interactions with children are a great example. Watch the clip below to see how Villanelle subverts expected behavior:
It’s almost as if Waller-Bridge makes a list of ten funny things that can happen or be said at any moment and selects the most unexpected one from the bunch, but she does it so effortlessly that I can only imagine it’s second nature to her.
3. Amusing Situations
Waller-Bridge excels at creating entertaining scenarios for her characters to muck their way through. In Crashing, a young French artist sets her sights on an older divorcé and pursues him relentlessly, much to his confusion. It’s wildly precious to watch.
In Fleabag, her character breaks an inexpensive award moments before her sister is meant to present it, and she must find a replacement. What would your character do? In season two of Fleabag, there is an episode involving a haircut that could have been a standalone short film that I would have given an Oscar.
She is the queen of avoiding boring two-shots or simple walk-and-talks—she creates entertaining scenes for her characters and then finds the most surprising reactions and choices for those characters to make. It makes for very memorable storytelling.
‘Crashing’
4. Chemistry
Each pairing in Crashing is delightful to watch, especially the forbidden attraction between Lulu and Damien Molony’s Anthony. The chemistry between Eve and Villanelle in Killing Eve is deadly and undeniable. And then there’s the entire second season of Fleabag, which brings viewers to a fever pitch. Oh, Andrew Scott.
Friendships, family members, intimate partners, and even co-workers are given depth, compassion, and deep and complex connections in Waller-Bridge’s worlds. Those connections make her stories compelling and impactful.
5. Heart
Even when she’s making us laugh, Phoebe Waller-Bridge knows how to make us cry. Perhaps this was a skill built during her playwriting days when she and her fellow writers set out an evening of stories in which the audience fell in love or made them hate a character. She was specific in her missions and thus honed her abilities to get specific in her more formal work.
In Fleabag Season One, Fleabag grieves, makes mistakes, injures those she loves, and must grapple with her guilt, pain, and isolation. Her relationships with her family expand throughout Season One and Season Two in very touching ways.
In Crashing, her characters find their way through rejection, abandonment, grief, coming out, and even homelessness. Though her stories are funny, there is true depth to them, which is what makes them so compelling.
‘Crashing’
Conclusion
Phoebe Waller-Bridge has a masterclass on creativity, humor, and meaning in her body of work. She blends them all with unforgettable moments, heartstopping connections, and quotable dialogue. Whether you’re a drama writer or a comedy writer, she’s worth studying.
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