Despite being rooted in surrealism, Government Cheese has more real-life factors in it than meets the eye!
In fact, the new Apple TV+ series, while not a true story, is loosely based on the life of one of its creators and writers, Paul Hunter. David Oyelowo’s character is modeled after Hunter’s father, who also went to prison and returned home as a completely changed man.
According to an official synopsis, “Government Cheese is a surrealist family comedy set in 1969 San Fernando Valley that tells the story of the Chambers, a quirky family pursuing lofty and seemingly impossible dreams, beautifully unfettered by the realities of the world. When Hampton Chambers (David Oyelowo) is released from prison, his long-awaited family reunion doesn’t go quite as he’d planned. During his absence, Hampton’s wife, Astoria (Simone Missick), and sons, Einstein (Evan Ellison) and Harrison (Jahi Di’Allo Winston), have formed an unconventional family unit, and Hampton’s return spins their world into chaos.”
Is there a character in the show inspired by Paul Hunter himself?
Hampton’s children, Einstein and Harrison, stem from Paul and his real-life brother. Ellison and Winston said knowing this personal connection helped to inform how they stepped into the characters.
“That was one of the most helpful aspects of Paul being so heavily involved and having spent so much time with these characters, so much time conceptualizing and just taking pieces of his own life and putting them into the story,” Winston told Blavity.
He continued, “Any time I had a question about something, anytime I wanted to understand more about the origin of something, we had the reference right there in front of us. And actually, we were blessed and fortunate to have Paul’s brother come to set a couple of times and hear his take on things, and him saying, ‘Like, oh yeah, that’s really how our house is, that’s exactly how we were. We are.’ It was really just beautiful and a great responsibility that you feel depicting such a singular and special part of someone’s life. It was an honor.”
Ellison added, “I feel like Paul was the biggest resource for me, specifically because I think Einstein was a little more — I know they’re like a mix and match of both Paul and his brother, but I think Einstein was a little more for Paul, I think, and not even telling me about it, but just seeing how he moves and how he gets excited or has a thought or just even walks in his presence. I think I was trying to kind of spy on that a little bit and just kind of use as much as I could to put that into Einstein.”
Playing on the theme of absurdism and heartfelt family dynamics
For Government Cheese showrunner Aeysha Carr, it was all about playing off of Paul’s shooting style to keep the character’s curiosity going.
“I think the North Star — especially because Paul Hunter’s shooting style is just so big and beautiful, and really shooting absurd things in real-time, so it has like a groundedness — was just making sure the story always made sense, making sure that everything always intersected with the story, and that we were never doing anything that kind of looked cool but didn’t really impact the story.”
She concluded, “The North Star was always, ‘Where are these characters going? What do they want? How are they affecting each other?’ And I think once you keep to that road, you can do wild things with those parameters.”
Government Cheese is now streaming on Apple TV+.
