“They incorporate our personality traits into the character and that’s certainly not always the case. Sometimes you’re just embodying what the writer has imagined in their head,” Faxon says. “This is a collaborative environment – they might have a preconceived rhythm to how a character will talk, but they take our personalities and write to our strengths and infuse the characters with something specific to us. When you have five characters who are unique then the pairings become richer because you know how these people would react to something.”

One of the surprises of the first season was that Arthur emerged as a genuine love interest for Molly. The pair had a genuine connection, even if Arthur was hesitant to act on his feelings because Molly was his boss and palled around the billionaire charity circuit. The first season ended with a setback for the number cruncher, and the new instalment takes its time restoring his confidence.

“We had conversations about the character and where he would go before the first season, and we did the same before the second season where Alan and Matt brought me in and we sat down with all the writers,” Faxon says. “It was a discussion about playing into his growth as a character and he was certainly left vulnerable at the end of season one because he’d finally got the courage to tell Molly how he felt and that didn’t work out for him.”

The will they/won’t they tension between television characters is one of the medium’s enduring mainstays. When I mention Pam and Jim on The Office, Faxon adds Sam and Diane from Cheers. It’s a finite plot point that can only build to a finale once before the ground rules change. The looming romance between two key characters has to be genuine, witty and a just a little tense.

“If it doesn’t feel relatable an audience will revolt against you,” Faxon says. “It’s a tribute to Matt and Allan and the writing staff that they’ve been able to ride that line. You want to create some drama and some excitement for the audience, you want to give them enough to keep watching but not too much so that the case is solved in the first three episodes. It takes a deft hand to calibrate that.”

The twist in this collaboration between Faxon as an actor and the show’s creators, is that he’s the one with an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2011 Faxon and his long-time writing partner, Jim Rash (aka Community’s madcap Dean Pelton), took home an Oscar alongside director Alexander Payne for The Descendants, the bittersweet Honolulu comedy where George Clooney played a husband thrown into bewildering circumstances.

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Faxon and Rash went on to co-write and co-direct a pair of Hollywood feature films in 2013’s The Way Way Back and 2020’s Force Majeure remake Downhill. Their ongoing collaboration stretches back to the Los Angeles improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings, where Faxon not only worked with Rash, but also his Loot co-star Rudolph. Turns out the chemistry between Arthur and Molly was forged by live sketch comedy routines that lived – and sometimes died – before a rowdy audience.

“It really adds to our relationship on screen. Having known Maya as long as I have, it only benefits us when we’re sharing scenes together on camera,” Faxon says. “There’s familiarity, there’s comfort, there’s trust, there’s joy in being able to say this is an old friend of mine that I can act with and whatever I do I’ll feel safe.”

Loot (season 2) streams now on Apple TV+.

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