With ‘The Mysterious Benedict Society,’ Tony Hale Delves Deeper Into Family Programming

I was doing a play in San Francisco right before COVID happened, and I got a call from my agency, and they put me in contact with the creators, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, who told me a little bit about the story before I read the books.

I think, honestly, what attracted me the most is: these kids didn’t have magical powers — didn’t have these crazy superpowers — but they they use their intellect, their creativity and their empathy.

Reading the books and just how affable Mr. Benedict is — he comes from a place of compassion and love.

So, it was fun to work with wardrobe designers and obviously with Phil and Matt on the scripts.

I love just doing it, and the kids are kind of like, “What the heck is this?” Just those different colors that Trenton Stewart added to the series.

It’s funny because when I was doing “Veep” for seven years, my daughter was 4-years-old when I started the show.

At the end of the show, when we finished shooting, the crew gave me a book that had a picture of them with masks and pictures of them without the mask throughout this book.

And doing this series of Archibald, this little chicken who sees the best in everyone and the best in every situation.

And when you’re a kid, it’s just like, “All right, what am I going to do today? That person’s not being nice? So let me try to be nice.” It’s all day-to-day stuff that I need to remember.

Dave Mandel and Armando Iannucci, what they did on “Veep,” and Mitch Hurwitz, what he did on “Arrested” — to be able to do that writing is crazy.

“Forky Asks a Question,” these are questions like, “What is love? What’s a friend?” These are questions that adults need to be remembering.

That’s a side I haven’t seen.” She’s watched a couple of episodes, but she just got through watching “High School Musical,” so she’s enjoying that a little more.

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