Paul Dano, Donald Glover’s Mom and More

As John and Jane’s nosy neighbor, Paul Dano steals the screen in one of the series’ most captivating performances. But it took a while for Sloane and Glover to cast the part. “In the scripts, the name of the character is literally Hot Neighbor. So, I think a lot of people expected a Marvel actor with abs of steel to play that part,” Sloane says. Along with casting director Carmen Cuba, they auditioned and screen-tested a “conveyor belt of hunks” with “big, buff muscles and crazy hair” before arriving at Dano, who, of course, is “an attractive guy” — he just didn’t fit the prototype they had in mind. Ultimately, Dano “played the part so fucking well” that Sloane and Glover rewrote scripts to turn his one-episode cameo into a multi-episode arc.

Inspired by his co-star, Erskine, casting her own mother in her Hulu comedy “Pen15,” Glover called upon his mom, Beverly Glover, to play John’s mother in the season finale. “She was great at sticking to the script, but she was also the queen of improv,” Sloane says, noting that Beverly knew exactly how much to baby the John character. “She was one of the best actors we had.” Sloane was also taken by watching Donald direct Beverly: “The tenderness that he had toward his mom… Donald is a naughty comic, but around Beverly, he is such a good boy. He directed her as such a good boy.” Beverly isn’t the only blood relative to cameo in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”: One of Donald’s sons had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance as John’s ex-girlfriend’s kid in the farmers market scene.

While many of the guest roles were malleable, Sloane and Glover dreamed of casting Sarah Paulson as John and Jane’s marriage counselor from the beginning. “We wanted the therapist to be really intelligent but also say some cringeworthy things where you almost miss it,” Sloane says. “You want her to be funny — but accidentally funny. And Sarah is so good with nuance in that way.”

When casting the creepy art enthusiast and real estate mogul Eric Shane, Sloane and company knew they needed an actor whose face alone conveyed “they have skeletons in their closet.” Enter John Turturro, who “knew how to play unhinged beautifully.” The only problem: When shooting a bizarre scene in which Eric orders John and Jane to get on all fours and act like dogs, Sloane says the cast and crew struggled “to stop ourselves from laughing too much.” “Once we got through our fits of giggles, we were sort of able to get through it,” Sloane jokes.

To film the ski resort-set in the third episode, the crew spent months living in the Italian Dolomites, an experience that started to feel like “The Shining,” Sloane says with a laugh. But despite the close quarters and high altitude, Billy Campbell (Parker) made the most of his surroundings. “Every single day he would wake up at the crack of dawn with a smile on his face, hike the Alps and come back,” Sloane says. “He was this beam of sunshine all the time.”

To cast the sought-after target Toby Hellinger, whom John and Jane must transport across Lake Como, Sloane looked no further than her own father-in-law, Ron Perlman. “Ron has played all of these roles as a badass and gangster and bad guy,” Sloane says. So, she was attracted to the thought of him “playing a blubbering baby-man who’s in distress… and commenting on how aging happens backwards once you get to a certain point.” Still, the role is by no means an easy one, as Toby must keep up with John and Jane by running from gunfire and jumping over ledges to evade their pursuers. “Ron’s such a pro, but I thought he was going to kill me,” Sloane says. “We really put the guy through the wringer.” Sloane adds that one scene in which Toby tells John and Jane a joke at the dinner table was inspired by countless meals she’s had with Perlman in real life. “I’ve been with his son for 11 years,” she says. “So, I’ve sat around many tables with Ron telling jokes with such charisma.”

Casting Other John and Other Jane, Sloane and Glover brought in some of that classic sex appeal from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s 2005 film adaptation. They needed to cast characters that John and Jane would idolize, and, in turn, Sloane and Glover found actors they themselves looked up to. “Wagner Moura would tell these stories where everyone was just mouth agape, totally charmed and hanging onto every word,” Sloane says. “Donald fell in love with him.” As for Parker Posey? “I’ve idolized her since I was a preteen. She is the ‘It Girl’ for me.”

One of the trickiest guest stars to wrangle was Chi-Chi, who plays Jane’s cat, Max. While the crew attempted to shoot a short scene between Erskine and Dano, Chi-Chi went rogue, jumping out of Sloane’s arms and burrowing under the set. “We all should have been stressed because time is money, but instead we all turned into naughty school kids during a fire drill,” Sloane says. As Chi-Chi went into hiding, the cast and crew began playing Never Have I Ever and “acting like 13-year-olds” until the cat began to cooperate. While the incident provided a moment of levity on set, Sloane admits Chi-Chi was, consequently, written out of some future scenes.