Mark Duplass (‘The Morning Show’) on Chip’s ‘borderline pathological’ obsession with Alex and ‘self-sacrifice’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
While discussing Season 1 of “The Morning Show” with Gold Derby, Mark Duplass described his character, Charlie “Chip” Black, as a person who’s “struggling towards integrity.” After sexual misconduct allegations against co-anchor of the show’s titular daily morning news program Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) come to light, Chip, the executive producer of the program at that time, is forced to reckon with his own complicity in fostering a toxic culture at “TMS” by turning a blind eye to some of the illicit behavior that had been happening behind the scenes. When Season 3 opens, in 2022, a few years have passed since the events of Season 1, so how much progress does Duplass believe his character has made on his journey toward integrity?
“I think it hasn’t been a linear path. Most human beings don’t operate on a linear path, and it’s certainly that way for Chip. It’s more of a sine, cosine, geometric wave of ups and downs on that path,” the actor argues during a recent webchat with Gold Derby (watch the full exclusive video interview above). “But I think what has been particularly interesting for me, looking at Chip in Season 3, is that I think that while he has set a very high bar for himself, for moral and ethical integrity, particularly as it relates to the news, which he sees as a dying animal that he needs to fight for, I think what’s happened is he’s realized, to a certain extent, there’s a very dangerous Achilles’ heel for him in that journey, and that is his relationship with [Jennifer Aniston‘s] Alex Levy. I call it relationship, some might call it obsession — whatever you want to call it. So that has been the real fun thing to be able to play for Chip, as someone who [is] in a sea of questionable moral activity.”
A lot has changed for Chip throughout the Apple TV+ drama’s three seasons: He’s gone from being an EP of “TMS” to working at a local TV station to now serving as the producer to Alex, who in addition to co-hosting “TMS” also hosts her own variety show podcast, “Alex Unfiltered,” in Season 3. Not to mention, he’s had a change in romantic partners, having seemingly parted ways with his fiancée, Madeleine (Duplass’ real-life wife Katie Aselton), before embarking on a relationship with Alex’s assistant, Isabella (Hannah Leder). But one of the character’s standout qualities has persisted through all of it, Duplass maintains. “I think he’s obsessed. I think he’s obsessed with news, I think he’s obsessed with Alex Levy,” he says. “And that really is my North Star when playing this character.”
Indeed, despite being routinely abused by Alex and having practically become her “whipping boy,” as Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) puts it in Season 3, Chip has remained by her side, not the least due to his lasting affection for her.
“I think it’s borderline pathological at this point,” Duplass says of Chip’s obsession with Alex. “I think that he is the whipping boy, for sure, but I think that there’s also this sense that he thinks Alex is good for the news. And he thinks if Alex needs a whipping boy, so be it, so that she can have what she needs to make the news. And then I think that there’s another element that I’ve been thinking about lately, particularly with this season: As the news starts to crumble around him… Chip, I think, feels like, ‘I have no children, I have no wife, I have no friends, my job is in trouble. Where am I possibly important and needed anywhere in the world now?’ Well, Alex needs him! And as much as she treats him like s—, a lot of times, he’s needed. And I think, in some ways, it’s like the terrible behavior that a parent receives from their 16-year-old. But they get addicted to it, because at least they know they’re still needed there. So I think that’s a big part of what keeps [Chip] ‘attracted to’ [Alex] or keeps [him] coming back to her.”
Tensions between Alex and Chip fly high in the eighth episode of the third season after Alex’s intended interview with the legal department head of Planned Parenthood to discuss the overturning of Roe v. Wade doesn’t come to fruition. Chip finds a fill-in who subsequently grills Alex on air about her relationship with tech billionaire Paul Marks (Jon Hamm). Alex rips into Chip afterward for not doing enough to prevent the on-air snafu from happening, but he refuses to take the blame. Instead, he defends the interviewer’s talking points, arguing they’d be of interest to the public, and chides his boss for creating her own messes. This leads to him and Alex taking shots at each other about their respective relationships with Isabella and Mitch — with Chip accusing Alex of “f—ing up” his with Isabella — and Alex eventually firing Chip.
“I think what’s happening there is, in my opinion, Chip has always been right in the perfect spot for Alex Levy, right where she needs him: to whip him when she needs him. And he removed himself from that spot when he decided to have a relationship with Isabella,” Duplass states about the heated exchange between his and Aniston’s characters. “And as much as [Alex] wants to tell herself, ‘That doesn’t bother me. It’s fine,’ she lost something in Chip’s dedication to her in that process. And then I think when Chip saw he lost the object of his affection and obsession to Paul Marks, it created this rift between them. So they can argue all they want that this is about work, this is about this, but a lot of it is that subtext of ‘Chip, you’re supposed to be the puppy dog pining for me constantly, and you didn’t do that’ and Chip thinking [about Alex], ‘You’re supposed to be an object of my affection that’s always a possibility. And if you move towards Paul Marks, that’s going to make me upset.'”
With little left to lose after already losing his relationship to Isabella, his job and most importantly, his proximity to Alex, Chip then goes for broke in the Season 3 finale when he decides to expose Paul’s plan to liquidate UBA, should his deal with the network go through, during a live interview on “TMS.”
“He realizes the element of self-sacrifice that is going to be required in order to do this,” Duplass says of his character’s game-changing decision. “And I think that, at this moment, he’s feeling like, ‘I think I just need to air this whole thing out, I think I need to be willing to make a potential buffoon and fool out of myself on national television. Let everyone who would potentially hire me in the future know that [you] can’t trust this person. And [you] can’t hire him because there’s no way he’ll be a company man if he’s gonna be willing to come out and out people like this on national television.’ So he essentially assassinates his career on national television in order to save what he thinks is important and do his part.”
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