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Aziz Ansari’s slice-of-life Netflix comedy Master of None spends a lot of time exploring, in specific and excruciating detail, the pitfalls of modern dating. An early episode of the show’s second season sees Ansari’s Dev on a series of first Tinder dates: some of them pleasant, a few of them soul-destroying, all of them ultimately fruitless. But Season 2 also introduced a new element of romantic wish fulfilment in the form of Francesca (Alessandra Mastronardi), a free-spirited Italian beauty Dev meets during his pasta-making apprenticeship in Modena.

Francesca is more or less perfect—witty, sweet-natured, in love with New York City, always eager for a whimsical adventure with Dev—and she’s also engaged, which of course only makes Dev want her more. Fittingly, even Mastronardi’s audition story has a touch of fairy tale about it: the actress was initially told she had missed the audition window. “I thought I lost this chance,” she recalls, until her agent called to say that Ansari had missed his flight back to the US, meaning there was still time for a last-minute audition. “It was a little bit of a miracle.”

Below, Mastronardi speaks to us about Season 2's ambiguous final scene, learning improv from Ansari, and why Francesca is more than a Euro manic pixie dream girl.

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Ansari hadn’t yet fleshed out the character of Francesca when he cast her, meaning that Mastronardi had a hand in shaping her.

"It was the first time I was able to participate actively in the construction of a character."

“Francesca wasn’t a real character in the beginning, so much as an idea. Aziz had in his head the kind of story he wanted to tell, and then we created the character together, step by step. For me, it was the first time I was able to participate actively in the construction of a character, especially because Aziz told me he’s been based in New York for a long time, and didn’t know what kind of feeling you could have the first time you arrive in this massive city. [Francesca’s impression of New York] is based a lot on notes from my personal life, because when I arrived from Italy for the first time at 19, it was a kind of magic moment.”

Mastronardi is conscious that Francesca could be viewed as an impossible ideal—and that’s deliberate.

“I think Francesca is being shown to the audience from Dev’s point of view, and it’s the view of someone in love, so he probably doesn’t even see that there are shades to her. I don’t mind if she seems perfect, and like a fantasy, because that is exactly what Dev sees in Francesca. I would have loved to see more of Francesca, and have the time to explain her and explore her, but that would have been a different show.

“I think Francesca and Dev are more similar than you would think. I don’t know if you have a term for this in English, but they see each other, they feel for each other. It’s hard to explain, but the way I always thought about them was more of a feeling. And because she was engaged when they met, she wasn’t looking for anything more than friendship, so she was completely honest with him.”

"I don’t mind if she seems perfect, and like a fantasy, because that is exactly what Dev sees in Francesca. "

In the season’s penultimate episode, cracks finally begin to show in Francesca and Dev’s relationship when she’s surly towards him at a party.

“That was a really important moment, and a point where we wanted to give Francesca another shape. She’s not always 100% happy, and though she’s having fun with Dev she has to go back home and confront the reality of her life, which is that she is engaged. In that scene, she’s having one of those kind of days where you don’t know what’s going on, and you don’t feel good, and you don’t want to be with anybody. Similarly at the end when she and Dev fight, she’s not nice at all. I like her anger.”

Netflix

Mastronardi viewed her time on Master of None as improv school.

“Aziz doesn’t like to say ‘stop’ when the scene ends—he likes to see where you can go, because when you’re in the character you can keep playing it as long as you want. For me it was an amazing class—it was like school—just to explore that kind of method. I usually have directors that don’t even want me to change one line, not even a comma, and you follow the script as a bible. One of my favorite episodes is 'New York, I Love You,' because it sums up this approach of showing people doing exactly what they do in their real lives. It was a completely new way to work.”

" I would have loved to see more of Francesca, and have the time to explain her and explore her, but that would have been a different show."

The finale's surprising last moment—in which Francesca and Dev are suddenly, abruptly together—is not a dream sequence. But that doesn't make it a happy ending.

“It’s not an end. It’s clear that Francesca is not wearing a ring, so she has left Pino, but it’s not clear what’s next, and for me that’s honest storytelling. When you make a decision that big, you don’t know how you feel, and to me Francesca is terrified. Even if you think you’ve made the best choice, it’s still massive, the risk that you’re taking. It’s not a happy ending, and it’s totally ambiguous. I know a lot of people are annoyed about that, because a lot of them want a happy end, or a bad end, but it’s too simple. I prefer this kind of choice.”

Netflix

Emma Dibdin Contributor Emma Dibdin writes about television, movies, and podcasts, with coverage including opinion essays, news posts, episodic reviews and in-depth interviews with creatives.

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