“[It’s] a work in progress that is really organic, that is real, that is inspired,” Sabrina Impacciatore says. How much of The Paper is improvised? The cast and creators explain the evolution of a scene “[It’s] a work in progress that is really organic, that is real, that is inspired,” Sabrina Impacciatore says. By Wesley Stenzel :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/WesleyStenzelauthorphoto32b61793a2784639af623f2ae091477e.jpg) Wesley Stenzel Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at . He began writing for EW in 2022. EW's editorial guidelines September 9, 2026 10:00 a.m.

“[It’s] a work in progress that is really organic, that is real, that is inspired,” Sabrina Impacciatore says.

How much of The Paper is improvised? The cast and creators explain the evolution of a scene

“[It’s] a work in progress that is really organic, that is real, that is inspired,” Sabrina Impacciatore says.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

EW's editorial guidelines

September 9, 2026 10:00 a.m. ET

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Ramona Young, Oscar Nuñez, Domhnall Gleeson, and Alex Edelman in ‘The Paper’. Credit:

John P. Fleenor/Peacock

- Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Eric Rahill, and more of *The Paper* cast reflect on the improvisational style of the show.

- Co-creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman explain their improv philosophy.

- “Our cast improvises toward story and towards realism in a way that I think is very helpful,” Koman says.

It is 5:30 p.m. on a Thursday at Universal Studios, and Domhnall Gleeson is barking like a dog.

The *Ex Machina* star is beginning the 10th take for an early scene in season 2, episode 8 of *The Paper* when the animal sounds begin. For a few hours on an April afternoon, ** is visiting the set, which is a lot chillier than it looks — a purposeful choice by the producers, as lower temperatures keep the cast and crew on their toes to maximize comedic creativity.

Gleeson’s barking stands out because it only happens once. He begins every take of the scene with a different anxious vocal stim — whistling, clicking, water droplet noises, an “ay-yi-yi!”

In every iteration of the scene, Gleeson’s character, Ned, approaches the desk of disaffected accountant-slash-journalist Adelola (Gbemisola Ikumelo) at the *Toledo Truth Teller *office to inquire about the mysterious death of a waiter at the Glass Club, the exclusive upper-class organization that Ned has suspected of wrongdoing all season.

Domhnall Gleeson on ‘The Paper’.

John P. Fleenor/Peacock

“You know what they were looking for at the top of the scene? They asked for Adelola to be under pressure from Ned — that he was staring at her and making her feel weird,” Gleeson tells EW in a follow-up interview in August. “So I was just looking for ways to make her feel weird.”

Every take hits most of the same major beats: Ned makes a weird noise, wanders over to Adelola’s desk, continually presses for more information about the Glass Club fatality, resists admitting to his curiosity about the club, and eventually calls a meeting that includes Oscar (Oscar Nuñez), Detrick (Melvin Gregg), and Travis (Eric Rahill).

But the connective tissue between those beats and the individual decisions from each actor are strikingly different from take to take. The dialogue changes dramatically, to the point that Ned’s description of the waiter swings between polar opposites — at one point, he’s a large man, and at another, he’s quite small — and actors who didn’t have any lines in the first six or seven takes suddenly start chiming in on take 8 to ask Ned if his impromptu meeting is about the Glass Club. “That was really funny. Everyone question him,” the ep’s director, Claire Scanlon, tells the cast, prompting the actors to repeat their ad-libbed inquiries in subsequent takes.

From the first take to the last, the scene evolves quite dramatically, and the final take is the one that most closely resembles the scene in the finished episode (though, sadly, Ned’s introductory muttering seems to have been cut for time).

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“When I think about that scene, I think about how much it changed,” Gleeson reflects. “Somewhere in the middle, there were bits changed. The picture of the waiter in the computer, what the joke was, whether he was actually a big guy or a small guy — that took up a lot of time on that one, and then how far into the comedy we were leaning.”

The *Star Wars* alum says that the cast “added in everybody asking him” about the Glass Club on a later take because he “wanted Ned to feel under more pressure at the end.”

He adds, “I think that worked out really well. They ended up using that, which was cool. That was all the cast together coming up with that sort of stuff, which was cool. I like it when that happens.”

Domhnall Gleeson, Chelsea Frei, and Eric Rahill on ‘The Paper’.

John P. Fleenor/Peacock

It’s clear that *The Paper* cast enjoys this kind of creative freedom on a regular basis. The shifts from take to take aren’t always as dramatic — “A lot of the scenes we do, the changes will be minimal,” Gleeson says, noting that most scenes don’t typically exceed five takes apiece. But the cast and crew of the show all indicate that improvisation is a key weapon in the actors’ arsenal that’s strategically deployed to complement the work of the writers.

“I feel like it’s 90-10: 90 percent script, maybe 10 percent improv,” says Rahill, who also writes for the show. “It depends on the scenes. I always feel like some scenes are ready to go, and then some have been written the day before and need to get on their feet to figure out what the dynamic is. But it’s pretty agile. If something’s not working, you just gather everybody up and the writers are on set and they’re like, ‘Let’s just try this.’ And everyone’s so down to just try out another avenue.”

Gregg says that the cast doesn’t rehearse much together ahead of time. “We try to get what’s on the page first, and we’re finding it as we go because we don’t have rehearsals,” he explains. “So the first take is kind of the rehearsal and trying to find a frame of what it is, and we’re getting different notes and trying to give the directors and the producers what they want.”

Domhnall Gleeson, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, and Eric Rahill on ‘The Paper’.

John P. Fleenor/Peacock

The *High Flying Bird* star says that once the cast has nailed the scripted version of the scene, “then we can try to have fun and improv, but we still got to keep it within the realms of what the scene is about.” Deviating too far from the arc of the scene isn’t usually wise, though. “If you go too far up, it’s never going to make it because it’s not in line with the story,” he says.

“We keep exploring,” adds Sabrina Impacciatore, who portrays the narcissistic Esmeralda on the series. “This show is a living theater that we keep exploring with genuine listening to each other. And so it can happen that things come out in a different way. And I think this is one of my favorite parts of this show: the way we work is a work in progress that is really organic, that is real, that is inspired. It’s very special, I think.”

Showrunners Greg Daniels and Michael Koman help foster that creative environment, as they want the best ideas to come through, even if they don’t arrive until after scripts are finished.

“You should refine things as you go, and you drop things that aren’t necessary for the scene,” Koman says. “Our cast improvises toward story and towards realism in a way that I think is very helpful.”

Domhnall Gleeson and Allan Havey on ‘The Paper’.

John P. Fleenor/Peacock

“We’ll give them the scene on the script, and then we’ll have something that I call the ‘candy bag,’ which is alternates that the writers have generated that aren’t in the script, but could be used if something isn’t working,” Daniels adds. “And then there’s this sort of middle zone of the process where the director and the cast are finding the scene, and they’re changing it, and they’re adding to it, and they’re getting to understand it, and hopefully they’re shooting the original scene as well.”

Of course, there are also ample opportunities for Daniels and Koman to stitch multiple distinct takes together in the editing room. “It’s great that they’re putting out different things and then we get to see everything that comes in and how it should work,” Daniels says.

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Alex Edelman, who portrays Adam on the series and writes for the show, says that improv comes naturally because “story is already so in the bones for Greg and Michael,” which gives the cast the space to find the funniest possible version of every moment.

Chelsea Frei on ‘The Paper’.

John P. Fleenor/Peacock

“If something doesn’t work, there are a lot of dads and moms there to make it work,” he says. “You tend to get a sense that things are going right. And if they’re not, you don’t move on. I’ve been in scenes where I’m thinking, ‘Man, there’s something just not right here.’ And before I’ve ever had to be like, ‘Do I say something?’ someone comes in — it’s usually the director or Greg or Koman or the onset writer —and it gets fixed pretty lickety-split. And none of the actors are shy about going, ‘Hey, this isn’t feeling right.’”

Chelsea Frei, who plays ambitious reporter Mare, says figuring out scenes in real time is one of the highlights of working on the show. “There’s nothing more fun than when a scene isn’t working and you’re all kind of coming together,” she says. “It’s a little stressful because if the writers come in, you know you’re not doing great. And then you all really band together and think: okay, how do we make this work?”

She adds, “To me, those are the most fulfilling moments on set, where it’s like: We found this together.”

*The Paper *season 2 is now streaming on Peacock.

Original Article on Source

Source: "EW Comedy"

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Source: Comedy

Published: September 9, 2026 at 05:39PM on Source: MORNING MAG

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