Tanya Schevitz, Chief Innovation and Communications Officer at Reboot, spoke with Stav Idisis, writer and creator of Bloody Murray, a light-hearted, witty take on the romantic comedy that has become a huge hit in Israel and that is coming to America July 19 on ChaiFlicks. 

Bloody Murray follows Murray, a cynical film lecturer in her mid-30s who teaches romantic comedies but cannot quite make romance work in her own life. When her best friend and roommate Dana falls for a man Murray accidentally hit with her car and flees, Murray slowly convinces herself that he may actually be meant for her. 

What makes this series special is that it is not built around politics, crisis, history or conflict. It is a sharp, funny, contemporary comedy about friendship, work, romance, family pressure and the gap between the lives people imagine for themselves and the lives they actually end up living.

It is a highly relatable comedy about women trying to rewrite their lives in real time. Its Israeli setting and Jewish cultural texture are part of what make it distinctive, but its emotional appeal is much wider.

Watch the video or read an edited version of the interview below. Watch Bloody Murray starting July 19 on ChaiFlicks!

Tanya Schevitz: We’re so excited to talk about Bloody Mary with you today, Stav Idisis . Thanks for joining us.

Stav Idisis: Thank you so much.

Tanya Schevitz: I watched the series, I binged it over the past week, and I just loved it. So what’s the origin story of Bloody Murray, the moment, sort of, you realized this particular friendship and love triangle needed to be a series?

Stav Idisis: Well, I took a piece of this story from my own life, a very little, a small piece. It was me and my best friend. We met this guy together, and first he started to talk with me. And when he heard I was with a boyfriend, he talked with my girlfriend, and I broke up from my boyfriend, and then I realized he is the best guy ever. And, you know, I didn’t fell in love with him, and my best friend is still my best friend, but this idea came from this. And I think fear. So to be in a triangle like this with my best friend is where it came from, and of course I took this little piece and made it bigger and, you know, more dramatic.

Stav Idisis: But, this is the beginning, this 1st season. Because we have another season. Did you see that?

Tanya Schevitz: Not yet. I’m dying to see the second season! I can’t wait. So did they actually start dating? Your friend and the guy? 

Stav Idisis: Yeah, they. And they are married. They have three, three children.

Tanya Schevitz: Oh, wow.

Stav Idisis: I love it. They know that this story is about them, they know.

Tanya Schevitz: Oh, wow. Oh my gosh, that’s terrific. That is so funny.

Stav Idisis: Well, it’s not really about them, it’s not exactly. I didn’t really fall in love with him. It was a fear of mine.

Tanya Schevitz: And what do you mean by that fear? It was a fear that you would be alone, sort of, as comes out in this show? 

Stav Idisis: Yeah, I am still single. I’m a mom. I’m a single mom. I have a lot of adventures in this life, but I’m still single. I have a boyfriend now, but this fear was when I was 30, 32, 35. It was a very big fear of mine to to be alone, to to do it alone. So this funny series is coming from a very deep and scary place that I managed to do it, to break through this fear and do it. I have a great life today. And my fears are gone. But it’s a very serious problem. I think it’s an international problem. It’s also a problem, who you are in this world, who you think you are supposed to be, and who you are.

Tanya Schevitz: Yeah, absolutely. Do you think that writing the series helped you sort of get over that fear and do the single parenthood and like take steps on your own? Do you think it helped you process that and move?

Stav Idisis: Of course, yeah. I wanted to be a creator. I wanted to be a writer. It’s very, very hard to do it, to do a series, to do a successful series. So when I did it, when I make my dream come true, it felt like I am what I think I am. So this part is very, very important to me, to who I am and to process the singlehood. I didn’t want to say something big. But I did want to say that to be a single woman is is not a shame, because I was so ashamed that I am a 38, 40 years old single woman. And so I think that I took Rotem Sela and Nomi Levov, two beautiful actresses, to show these smart and beautiful women. We have so much, so so many women. They are single. So that helped me to complete the idea.I am in a relationship today but I am single, and my daughter is only my daughter.

Tanya Schevitz: I think you’re bringing up, like you said, a very universal issue, even though this started as an Israeli series and it’s just now coming to the United States, this is something that people everywhere, not just Israel and the United States, are dealing with. Women, especially. I don’t know if you have heard, there’s sort of this crisis with men, young men, especially, where they’re not getting out of the house, they’re not getting jobs, they’re not approaching women, which creates, then, a crisis for women, because there are fewer men out there.

Stav Idisis: And also, you know, how can it be that every woman is getting married in her 20 to 30, you know. I think today women and men are not going to marry, just to get married. I wanted to be very much in love, and also, and this is important to be with a man who , I think is the one and that I wanted that my children to grow up with. So this combination is very hard to find. And I think it’s very possible that a lot of men and women don’t really find this creature. That is, you know, we can find it at a very late age, and it’s okay, and we can find it for 5 years, and then for another 5 years with another man. We’re not like the other generation. We’re more, I think, open to the idea that it is okay, and it is okay to wait.

Tanya Schevitz: Yeah, well, I definitely think that generations, I mean, even my generation, but the generation before, for sure, felt like you had to get married, you had to have, you know, this family unit. And so they did make concessions. And I think the younger people are seeing the implications of that and are like, no, I don’t want that, and like you said, they’re not just settling. Not that I’m saying I settled. I’m just saying in the ’50s or something, there was very much the family pressure.

Stav Idisis: Also in my generation in Israel, we have a lot of pressure to get married.

Tanya Schevitz: Do you feel like there is any sort of difference between the U.S. and Israel at all? 

Stav Idisis: I don’t really know because I don’t really know the U.Sk. pressure, it’s not, you know, religious pressure, but I have to get married because this is the normal thing to do when I’m 30, you know.

Tanya Schevitz: I know, like, for instance, in Germany, my dad lives in Germany, and we know so many young people even of my generation who, and several of my cousins, who didn’t get married, had babies with partners, but didn’t get married and are still together with their partners, but did not get married. And I don’t know if that’s sort of a different cultural thing in Germany. In Israel, is the pressure to get married to have kids? 

Stav Idisis: Yeah, we’re not, we’re not getting married today in Israel. My brother didn’t. A lot of young people don’t get in married today and also they are. It’s I think it’s 50 50.

Tanya Schevitz: In the, in the series, because you talk about your best friend getting married after meeting this guy, who at some point you thought was amazing, and, you know, Murray starts to cry, her sister’s getting married, and she comes home, and she’s, like, crying, they’re like, what’s wrong? My sister’s getting married! 

Stav Idisis: I didn’t cry, but it’s a true story. My sister, she’s 6 years younger than me, and she got married like, I don’t know, like 10 years ago. It was very difficult. I felt embarrassed to be the big sister, the single big sister. Today, it makes me laugh, but these are very true feelings I felt. And today my lesson is to know about true strong feelings I feel that it’s okay. Tomorrow I will feel different.

Tanya Schevitz: That’s a great, that’s a great lesson. So you, you learned that through life. We talked about how the series helped you process that, but like putting that into the series, that particular scene also, did that help?

Stav Idisis: It’s already happened, and I already felt those feelings. But yes, it helps to laugh about it and to laugh about it with my sister, because back then I didn’t laugh about it with my sister. I love her and I was a very good big sister, but I felt inside of me a shame.

Tanya Schevitz: I’m sorry that society’s put that on women, you know. You’ve said, and I think in other interviews, that both characters represent you. So if you think about Murray as your alter ego and Dana as your different possible version of you, sort of what parts of each character are the closest to your life and what are pure invention?

Stav Idisis: Well, I’m very, I’m very Dana because I’m very workaholic and I know what I’m doing and I’m very strict. I could be a doctor if I In another life. And in my head, sometimes I’m worried (like Murray). I don’t really say and do the things she is doing but I feel and think like she does.

Tanya Schevitz: You’ve talked about bringing almost no filters to the experience of single women in their 30s, which you experienced. What were the biggest moments where you sort of refused to soften or prettify that reality?

Stav Idisis: Well, everything I thought that is dramatic enough to be in this series. So I put it in. No one knows what’s real and what’s not real. So I don’t really care. And also I’m not feel ashamed anymore. It’s okay to be weak. I think it’s it’s it’s stronger to be weak because we’re all human, and we are all weak, and we’re all stupid. 

Tanya Schevitz: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. We need a series like this for men. I’m obsessed with this topic because I have a 17-year-old boy, and I’m obsessed with this topic of men not being able to express their emotions or show that they’re weak. And I’m always talking to my son about that being important, that you need to show that you’re weak, you need to be able to talk to your friends about emotional issues, and this really dives into that, like, showing it’s okay to be weak, it’s okay to rely on other people, and, so I think your show is very universal to women all over the place, but I think that the ideas are universal to everyone, to all humans, to men, women, and I think men need to see that more as well. And maybe that would help with people getting together if men were more vulnerable. 

Tanya Schevitz: The show engages with topics like casual sex, egg freezing, and the emotional cost, as we’ve talked about, being late to traditional life milestones. What did you want to most normalize or destigmatize by putting those issues on screen, or was that, I mean, was that intentional?

Stav Idisis: All of them. It wasn’t intentional, but in my perspective. It was great to put it on a successful show to show it and to show that egg freezing, it’s only for your best if you will use these eggs so great, if not so even greater. So it wasn’t intentional, but I am glad that I put it on TV. For people to see.

Tanya Schevitz: That’s terrific. Yeah, so important. The central betrayal in Bloody Murray isn’t just romantic, it’s about friendship. How did you think about the rules of best friendship, which you’ve had as well, like this really strong friendship, and where the show sort of intentionally breaks them?

Stav Idisis: I think that the main thing is in Murray’s head. She feels like that but truly, she’s doing nothing. But I think that the value of the friendship is very, very high level in this series, and also to Murray and Dana, and I think it showed that value of a good friendship. Best friends are forever. A man goes and and comes, but friends, best friends, are forever. So it’s a very, very important relationship in a woman’s life, in a man’s life. Everyone is very important.

Tanya Schevitz: At some point Murray is wearing a t-shirt, that says “Being friends never ends.” And so that is because of this message that friendship is one of the most important things that never really should end. That is like the thing that is sustaining you even with all these highs and lows.

Stav Idisis: Yeah, yeah. Murray is a good friend. That’s what I wanted to show. She can think and she can, you know, feel things, but in the end, she’s a best friend.

Tanya Schevitz: Oh, that’s very sweet

Tanya Schevitz: It made me laugh so hard when the friend in the hospital says to Dana, “Do you think you’re going to live like Bert and Ernie the rest of your life?” That was a very funny reference. I assume you have Sesame Street in Israel too. So the reference was universal?

Stav Idisis: Here it is Arik and Bentz. They have different names.

Tanya Schevitz: Oh, well, good. It’s universal, but just different names. 

Tanya Schevitz: The series is not overtly Jewish, it’s more Jew-ish. What is your religious background, and what was sort of the significance of slipping in a few references to Jewish beliefs, like when Murray and Attias are getting ready to eat pizza and he says he has to wait because of the Kashrut rules, or he talks about his kippah, there were things that came up. The mikvah, things like that. But otherwise this show could have been placed in America.

Stav Idisis: Yeah, yeah, I thought it funny. I’m very, very not religious at all. I’m not coming from any background of it. But I know some people, and I have one friend who is very, very religious. He’s keeping Shabbat, you know. And it’s funny to me, and I wanted to say some things about that. Murray is laughing about this guy. And I think the rules, the rules of the religion are kind of ridiculous, and I wanted to say that. It makes me laugh.

Tanya Schevitz: When he says, yeah, I can’t eat it (pizza because he had just had meat), and then he breaks the rules, and I wasn’t sure if it was a commentary on religion or if it was a vehicle for you to talk about how the rules are meant to be broken, because they also are sort of in the show breaking the rules of romantic comedy and of, you know, relationships.

Stav Idisis: It’s very nice what you said. I didn’t think about it. No, it was just just to talk about religion a little bit.

Tanya Schevitz: The fact of where you are and who you are is what makes the show Israeli, not so much the frame of the show or anything like that, right? Do you think that there is any Israeli frame to it or any Jewish frame to it in any way?

Stav Idisis: Only the religion stuff, but we can talk about Jesus (instead). I’m not feeling very Jewish. I’m living here in Israel, but I feel like a person on this planet, you know. I’m talking Hebrew, but that’s all. But I know that there is more but maybe it’s not religious stuff. It’s much more cultural stuff, maybe. AndI hope that we can one day be in a world where we are just people on this planet, and we don’t argue, argue about the stupid things, like land and religion. I think it’s stupid.

Tanya Schevitz: So, like, I was all over the place during the show. First, I really disliked Murray, did not like her at all, and then I started to dislike Dana, and then sort of root for Murray. And during the show, I wanted different relationships to work out. You know, first I wanted Dana to be with Lior, and then I wanted her to be with Attias. And I mean, I was just all over the place. And I felt like it was sort of intentional on your part that I, as the viewer, was part of it, like, was on this love-hate journey with them.

Stav Idisis: Exactly.

Tanya Schevitz: So it was intentional that people would really be on the journey and feel with them?

Stav Idisis: Yeah, I wanted you to finish this show, like, you know, “What, what a journey I felt in my brain.” My father is my script editor and in the very beginning, I told him that’s what I want the viewers to think. I didn’t have a very strong idea, but I wanted the viewers to love Murray, and then hate her, and then love Dana, and then hate her, yeah. So I’m very glad you said it.

Tanya Schevitz: That’s great. You did an amazing job with it. Really, I just felt like whiplash all the time, but in a great way. And, you know, in a traditional rom-com, audiences are trained to sort of pick teams. And were you hoping that viewers would choose between Murray and Donna, or were you more interested in showing how impossible that choice is?

Stav Idisis: No, I wanted to show great friendship. And I wanted to show that life is complicated, and And we can understand Murray also. And we can understand Dana, and we can understand everyone if if we look in hard enough. We can understand that our great enemy, if we we will want to.

Tanya Schevitz: Great. That was terrific. And how have fan reactions been to Murray and Dana? Has anything surprised you? And is there a particular message that you got or a particular encounter with a viewer that stayed with you?

Stav Idisis: I haven’t been surprised. But a lot of women are talking to me and they’re feeling the same. With Murray and Dana, I help them to love themselves and to feel okay. And I’m very glad that this is what came up. With the show, I was a little surprised when a lot of people said that they didn’t love Murray, but you loved her in the end.

Tanya Schevitz: In the end, yeah.

Stav Idisis: I think Murray is very hard to ingest, but in the end, she’s a true, honest woman and so how can you not love her?

Tanya Schevitz: Yeah. And you also see her vulnerabilities and everything she does comes from that. I mean, she does love Dana and she is trying to do the right thing and she’s just seeking love. Like every time you’re like, Oh God, no, don’t immediately jump in. But so you feel, you feel for her and certainly can relate.

Stav Idisis: She’s hard, but she’s softened on the inside. And it takes time to see. And it takes time to show from her perspective. But I think in the end we can see her heart, her good heart.

Tanya Schevitz: Yeah, absolutely. This isn’t part of the show, but you personally having a baby on your own, now that you’re sort of a more public figure, do you think that’s also inspirational to women who are watching the show, who then see you in real life having the baby on your own?

Stav Idisis: Yeah, I’m sure because when I did it, you know, women search for a woman like me. So I’m sure it’s empowering for another woman. And also they are talking with me, they talk with me and I always answer.

Tanya Schevitz: So women are reaching out to you, that’s terrific. So it’s helped other people on their journey.

Stav Idisis: Yeah, I hope so. Yeah.

Tanya Schevitz: That’s great. How do you define the sort of female gaze in Bloody Mary compared to the way romantic comedies usually frame women and desire. Romantic comedies often come from the male gaze. And you framed it very much from the female gaze. This was almost more about the women than about the romantic relationships.

Stav Idisis: It’s first of all, because I am a woman, so I know my side. And also, I think in the end, it’s not very much a rom-com, it’s breaking the rules of rom-com. It’s laughing about rom-com, but in the end it’s a story about two friends in their thirties, late singlehood. It’s not really a romcom in the end, because who do you want to be with this man, Murray or Dana? You don’t know. You don’t really know. So it’s not a romcom.

Tanya Schevitz: It’s about the friendship.

Stav Idisis: Yes.

Tanya Schevitz: I thought it was so funny in the scenes where Murray is teaching and she would say something about, you know, romantic comedy or a scene that she had created. And then her students would argue with her about it and she would get so angry because like, she’s like, no, this is how it happens because this had happened to her. But it was just hilarious how you put that, how you made that.

Stav Idisis: Yeah, Murray’s perspective is funny and it’s not. I needed to build her perspective. It’s not really things that I thought about in the past but when I thought about those perspectives it was very funny to me. I had to put it in.

Tanya Schevitz: And, at one, at what point did Naomi Levov come into the picture for Murray, and how did casting her, and then later Rotem Sela, change or redefine your understanding of who these characters are, or were you really looking for people sort of that matched you and your friend, or how did you decide on the casting, and how did it change the script at all?

Stav Idisis: Well, those two actresses are very, very famous in Israel. So I met them already, and knew who they are. I think that in the moment Naomi did the audition. I thought, that’s it. I found my Murray. She’s perfect. She’s very, very sharp, and a smart actress. And it was exactly what I dreamed of. About Dana, it was a little bit hard to get a huge star like Rotem. Rotem is the biggest star in Israel. So it was a little bit of problem to me. And also she’s so beautiful and she was too perfect. But in the end she did an amazing 2 or 3 or 4 auditions and I didn’t have a choice. And to see those two women together, Murray and Dana, Rotem and Naomi, it wasn’t a question.

Tanya Schevitz: They were terrific together! You’re saying to get a big star is difficult for a series that’s just coming, being developed. Was it the script that spoke to her to get her to do this? I mean, do you, did she say anything about the script speaking to her?

Stav Idisis: Yeah, she loved it, she wanted the part. And I wanted maybe some non-familiar actress. But in the end it didn’t really matter. I’m very glad they are in the roles. Having them didn’t change the script.

Tanya Schevitz: They really just fit it, obviously, because they’re perfect for both of them.

Stav Idisis: Yes. 

Tanya Schevitz: That’s great. And how did you come up with the title Bloody Murray? 

Stav Idisis: Well, I went to Italy with my friend, and he gave me to drink Bloody Mary, which I didn’t understand how you can drink tomato juice. And then I had one sip, and it was amazing. Here in Israel, they don’t know how to do Bloody Mary, but in Italy, they know what they’re doing. So I fell in love with this drink, and then I have this character named Murray. It just clicked. That’s it. And it’s also bloody murray like hell. I don’t know how to say it. So here in Israel. It’s also getting a few things on your mind when you hear this name. 

Tanya Schevitz: Yeah, absolutely. And then I saw that you put the reference in there where Gur says, “Tuesdays with Bloody Murray.”

Stav Idisis: Yeah. Just one more reference.

Tanya Schevitz: And as someone who started writing partly because you weren’t getting the acting roles that you wanted, how does it feel to now be the creator whose scripts are redefining the kind of roles that women get? 

Stav Idisis: Yes, I also directed the second season, so it’s great. I wanted to play Murray in the beginning, and the network didn’t agree. But I’m very glad about my new career to direct. It was a wonderful experience, and if there will be a third season, I’m thinking about it right now, so I will direct it again.

Tanya Schevitz: Great! So when you finished writing the first season, did you already know where Murray and Dan were headed next? Or did the second season story grow out of audience reactions?

Stav Idisis: I didn’t know. I thought that there is only one season and that’s it. I needed to think hard and a lot of time to break the second season.

Tanya Schevitz: Were you going to end the whole series on that last scene before you decide? Oh, God.

Stav Idisis: Yeah, I thought, what do I need to say more? But my life took another interesting turn, and I had to write about it. So this is the second season.

Tanya Schevitz: Oh, the second season comes from your experience as well.

Stav Idisis: Yes, the girl that wanted to be a mom and then their journey.

Tanya Schevitz: Oh, terrific. Oh, I can’t wait! And if someone has never watched an Israeli series, why do you think that Bloody Mary is a good place to start?

Stav Idisis: I think it’s a true, honest and funny story about people, about women, about friendship, about me and you. And even if you are 50 years old, and even if you’re 80 years old, I think you can relate to this nice and funny story.

Tanya Schevitz: And even if you’re in Israel or America or anywhere else.

Stav Idisis: Yeah, I’m sure.

Tanya Schevitz: Terrific. Well, thank you so much. I guess we’ll end here unless there’s anything else you’d like to add about the series.

Stav Idisis: Just, I hope you will watch it and love it!

Tanya Schevitz: Terrific. We’re really excited about this. Thank you so much for joining us.

Stav Idisis: Thanks so much.

*This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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