“The Other Two” star Drew Tarver hopes the HBO Max comedy series goes on for a long time.
The actor, who co-headlines the inventive and comically genius show alongside Heléne Yorke, told TheWrap that the creative force of co-creators Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider could keep the Dubek family’s adventures going for years, finding new ways to explore the machinations of the entertainment industry in the process.
“I feel like every season has been such a fun level-up for the sad people that are these characters,” Tarver said. “I would love to see these characters go for, you know, 25 seasons (laughs)… I also obviously love everybody on the cast. Any time we spend time together, my life is happy.”
“I hope I haven’t been too desperate in this answer [but] please let us do more!”
Certainly more charming than desperate, Tarver is equal parts giddy and humble when discussing his breakout role of Cary Dubek on “The Other Two.” Cary and his sister Brooke (Yorke) are the two older and less successful siblings of the overnight teen sensation ChaseDreams (Case Walker), whose sudden rise to fame propels his entire family toward careers in Hollywood. By Season 3, airing new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max, the Dubeks have all reached an impressive level of success — even without the nepo-adjacent leg up.
An aspiring actor since the start of the series, viewers watch as Cary goes from auditioning for the role of “guy who smells fart” in a commercial to starring alongside Beanie Feldstein in a pandemic-produced movie. What Tarver finds the most interesting about playing Cary, though, is how not even some success satisfies him.
“[We see that] Cary is a decent actor. The movie ‘Night Nurse’ is good. People like it, then what?” Tarver said. “I really liked the end of Episode 1 where he’s just quietly scrolling and you can hear traffic in the background. He’s just sadly trying to get more validation. Why wasn’t that [win] enough? Why am I not OK now? I think that’s the idea the third season is tackling: What happens when you start to do well and it’s still not enough?”
Through Cary, “The Other Two” has poked fun at multiple facets of pop culture and the entertainment industry. From reenacting the end credits sequence from “Call Me By Your Name” to navigating meetings with problematic publicists, Tarver helps ground the most outrageous of spoofs with his performance. In Season 3, the jokes get smarter and more fantastical.
“We’ll come up with specific storylines because we’re like, ‘Oh, this would be fun to see Drew do’ or, ‘I think Drew would be humiliated this way and it would be funny,’ ” Kelly joked. “We gave him a big musical number this season because someone told us he could sing and so we were like, Let’s see, live on television!”
“It’s exciting to watch Drew’s trajectory. I’ve known him for a decade, so it’s been fun to watch him be just so good on the show,” he added.
“The Other Two” Season 3 releases new episodes Thursdays through June 22.
