Note: This interview was conducted prior to the release of a Hollywood Reporter piece detailing HR complaints against The Other Two’s creators.
It’s a funny thing, interviewing Drew Tarver and Heléne Yorke about their show The Other Two for Vogue; the HBO series has skewered this publication on more than one occasion, including through a plotline that had us host a party unveiling “the new Hadid sister.” Yet over its three seasons, The Other Two has established itself as one of television’s sharpest and most provocative examinations of what it means to be young (-ish), confused, a tiny bit mean, and hungry for fame—while also reviling it as a concept.
Tarver and Yorke’s characters, sibling duo Cary and Brooke Dubek, may be what the kids these days call “toxic”—all the more so in the show’s third and final season, in which they find success outside of their younger brother Chase’s Justin-Bieber-style music career—but in real life, the actors share Cary and Brooke’s charming chemistry while leaving their neuroses at the door. On the occasion of The Other Two’s recent series finale, read our conversation with Tarver and Yorke below.
Vogue: This might be corny, but I would love for you two to summarize each other’s The Other Two characters in a word.
Drew Tarver: I think Brooke is bold.
Heléne Yorke: I guess “desperate”? Cary Dubek is desperate?
DT: They’re both bold and desperate at times. Brooke is more bold than Cary, she’s walking headfirst into things and then being like, “Oops, I messed up,” whereas Cary is a little more on his heels and expecting to mess up.
HY: When I read the scripts for this season, I felt that Cary’s journey was so sadly relatable—maybe because I’m an actor. I just watched Episode 8 again with my husband, and watching him reply to Instagram stories while driving...my friend posted a video of me on the show, and I was like, I’m Cary Dubek. I’m reposting things, being like, “What? So sweet!” [Laughs.] These two characters are pieces of all of us, in a way. That’s what makes them work, is that whether you like it or not, you relate to them in a way that’s probably really embarrassing.
DT: There’s an element of Brooke that’s exploring, Why do we do anything? Why do we work? I really love her storyline this season, because it kind of dives into our purpose in a greater sense. It’s so well done and funny, but it’s that existential question of, Should I be doing more to help?
This is something I’ve been thinking about; are Brooke and Cary technically nepo babies, now that their mom Pat (Molly Shannon) is so famous?
DT: I think they’re “new nepo,” as in old money versus new money, because they were in their late 20s by the time fame hit their family.
HY: I think they’re sort of trying to piggyback off fame as it’s happening in real time, and what’s been fun about the three seasons is watching them grow. You know, they go from the first season, where Brooke is squatting and Cary’s got this shitty apartment with his straight roommate, and they’re trying to make literally anything happen off of that; they just want to go to parties and premieres in dresses and tuxedos and shit when everybody’s in jeans. They slowly but surely find their way to some semblance of success, but I don’t know if it’s nepotism; maybe it’s nepotism-adjacent. It’s so funny, because my mom was a homemaker and my dad sold computer software, and Drew came from Candy Daddy...
DT: My dad’s in the candy business, so if I wanted to get into caramel-making, I could have made it happen pretty quickly, I think. Sometimes when I do an audition and I biff it, I’m like, “I’m sick of this. I’m going to go learn to make peanut brittle.”
I would love for you guys to dream-cast each other. What would you like to see one another in?
HY: I want to be in L.A. and see Drew’s face on the side of a bus. I want you to be like Steve Carrell on The Office; I want to see you in your own vehicle.
DT: I want an ad campaign where when people see me in person, and they go: “I don’t think that’s him. That’s not him—he wouldn’t be in a Jack in the Box at 3 a.m.”
HY: I want to drag your ad campaign to absolute hell. I want to expose you.
DT:: Well, I hope that campaign would involve you as well, because I wouldn’t know what to do if you weren’t in it.
Do you have any parting words of wisdom for Cary and Brooke?
HY: Brooke, girl, cut it out.
DT: Cary, call your insurance company and see if there are any therapists in your network. They’ll give you a SuperBill if necessary, and you can submit it to your insurance.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
