Jemaine Clement on who is actually mature In Alice And Steve
Jemaine Clement has built a career around characters who can be strange, charming, awkward, confident, and deeply unpredictable, sometimes all at once. In Hulu’s new six-part Original series Alice and Steve, that skill is used in a much more grounded way.
Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+, Alice and Steve stars Nicola Walker as Alice and Clement as Steve, longtime best friends whose bond explodes when Steve begins dating Alice’s 26-year-old daughter, Izzy. The setup turns a close adult friendship into a messy feud built around betrayal, love, family, revenge, and the uncomfortable truth that age does not always come with emotional wisdom.
In a conversation with Nerdtropolis, Clement opened up about the emotional chaos of the series, where Steve lands on his personal “chaos scale,” and why the younger characters in the story may actually be more mature than the adults around them.
What Is Alice And Steve About?
Alice and Steve follow Alice, who is devastated when her best friend Steve starts dating her 26-year-old daughter, Izzy. For Alice, the relationship threatens two of the most important connections in her life. She feels like she is losing her best friend and her daughter in one move.
As Alice tries to break them apart, Steve proves he is ready for the fight. What begins as a close friendship turns into an all-out feud, with love, resentment, and revenge pushing everyone into emotionally messy territory.
The series is described as an anti-romantic comedy about friendship, love, and revenge. It asks how far someone would go for love, and how far someone else would go to get revenge. It also raises bigger questions about whether Alice can forgive Steve, whether Steve and Izzy’s relationship can actually survive, and how one bad decision can reshape an entire circle of people.
The cast includes Nicola Walker, Jemaine Clement, Joel Fry, and Yali Topol Margalith, along with Tyrese Eaton-Dyce, Marcia Warren, Eilidh Fisher, and Ebony Aboagye.
Jemaine Clement On Who Is Actually Mature In Alice And Steve
One of the funniest and most uncomfortable parts of Alice and Steve is that the adults do not always act like the grown-ups in the room. They have more life experience, but they also carry more history, more ego, and more emotional baggage.
When asked if anyone in the story is actually emotionally mature, Clement pointed to Izzy, the younger woman at the center of the conflict.
“The woman that Steve gets involved with, Izzy, who’s also the daughter of Steve’s best friend, she’s significantly younger than Steve, and she’s probably the most mature in this story,” Clement said.
He also singled out Joel Fry’s character, Daniel, as another grounded presence in the show.
“Daniel, who’s really hilariously played by Joel Fry, is mature to the point of almost too mature,” Clement said.
That answer gets to one of the sharpest ideas inside Alice and Steve. The younger characters are going through some experiences for the first time, while the older adults bring decades of feelings, mistakes, and defensiveness into every conversation.
Clement Says The Series Deals With “Carousels Of Baggage.”
The tension between Alice and Steve comes from more than the age gap between Steve and Izzy. The bigger emotional trigger is the betrayal Alice feels when someone she trusted deeply crosses a line that changes their friendship forever.
During the interview, Clement joked that the characters are not just carrying baggage. They have “carousels of baggage.”
That phrase fits the entire show. Alice and Steve are not blank slates. Their friendship has history. Their choices are shaped by old feelings, old patterns, and the comfort of knowing someone for a long time. That makes the fallout even more complicated.
Clement said adults can get lost in the weight of a situation, especially when love, friendship, and conflict are all tangled together.
The series plays with that idea by showing people who may understand life in theory, but still struggle when their own emotions take over. It is one thing to give someone else advice. It is another thing to follow it when your own relationships are falling apart.
“I can think of friends of mine who give great relationship advice but are not great in relationships,” Clement said.
Where Steve Fits On Jemaine Clement’s Chaos Scale
Clement is best known to many audiences for Flight of the Conchords, the HBO comedy series and music duo with Bret McKenzie. He also co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in What We Do in the Shadows, which became a major cult favorite before expanding into a hit television series. His screen work also includes voice roles and performances in projects such as Moana, Rio, Men in Black 3, Legion, Time Bandits and Avatar: The Way of Water.
Because so many of Clement’s best-known characters live in strange, surreal, or heightened worlds, Steve stands out. He is chaotic, but the chaos is more human than supernatural or absurd.
When asked where Steve lands on the Jemaine Clement chaos scale, Clement said the character was clearly drawn on the page.
“He’s quite well described in the script,” Clement said. “He thinks he’s shit, but he also thinks he’s the shit.”
That split is key to Steve. He is caught between two versions of himself. Sometimes he believes he is confident, attractive, and in control. Other times, he is painfully aware of his flaws.
“He’s living between these images of himself, where sometimes he can be very confident and sometimes not at all,” Clement said.
Clement added that he can relate to both sides of that feeling as an actor.
“I can relate to both those positions, and I need to, I think, to be an actor,” Clement said.
Why Alice And Steve Feels Different From Clement’s Usual Work
Steve may be chaotic, but Alice and Steve are not built like some of Clement’s more surreal comedies. The series has big emotional swings, but the world itself feels recognizable. The damage comes from choices people make, not from vampires, aliens, or fantasy settings.
Clement said that is part of what makes the show different for him.
“He gets into a very chaotic situation, but this is probably more grounded,” Clement said. “What people have said to me about it is it feels quite real, this situation, even though it’s quite dramatic.”
That grounded quality is important because the premise could easily become broad or cartoonish. Instead, the show leans into the uncomfortable truth of the situation. Steve’s relationship with Izzy does not just create romantic tension. It damages trust, changes family dynamics, and forces Alice to confront how much of her identity is tied to her friendship with Steve.
Clement said he does not usually work in this kind of realism.
“I don’t usually work in that realism,” Clement said. “I’m not usually in things that are realistic at all. Not usually. Sometimes.”
He noted that he has done indie films that live closer to this kind of world, but Alice and Steve still push their characters to extremes.
“This is also extreme,” Clement said.
The Real Friendship Behind Clement’s View Of Alice And Steve
At the heart of Alice and Steve is a friendship that has lasted long enough to feel almost permanent. That is what makes the betrayal hurt more. Alice is not simply angry because Steve is dating Izzy. She is angry because Steve is supposed to be one of her safest people.
When asked if he has an Alice or Steve in his own life, Clement shared that he still keeps in touch with his first girlfriend.
“I make sure to always catch up with my first ex, my first girlfriend,” Clement said. “I still catch up; we hang out a couple of times a year.”
He joked that their real-life dynamic is not as chaotic as what happens in the show.
“We don’t go partying and do cocaine on a regular basis or at all,” Clement said.
Still, that friendship helped him understand the long-running bond at the center of the series.
“I thought of her a little bit when I’m thinking about this friendship for Alice,” Clement said.
He also said he feels lucky to have friends who can reconnect instantly, even after time apart.
“I’ve got some besties who, no matter how long you’ve been apart, will always feel like you’ve just been hanging out,” Clement said.
Why Jemaine Clement Fans Should Watch Alice And Steve
For longtime Clement fans, Alice and Steve offer a different side of his work. The timing is still funny. The awkwardness is still there. The strange confidence is still part of the character. But Steve is not living in a purely absurd world. He is a man making messy choices that affect people who truly love and trust each other.
That makes the series a strong showcase for Clement’s ability to play comedy through discomfort. Steve can be charming and frustrating in the same scene. He can seem confident one moment and lost the next. He can understand the emotional stakes while still making things worse.
The show also gives audiences a major pairing with Nicola Walker, whose Alice becomes the emotional center of the fallout. Together, Alice and Steve are not a clean romantic pairing or a simple friendship story. They are two people with years of shared history, unresolved feelings, and enough baggage to turn one bad decision into a full-blown war.
Alice and Steve is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.
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Sean Tajipour
Sean Tajipour is the Founder and Editor of Nerdtropolis and the host of the Moviegoers Society and Reel Insights Podcast. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association. You can follow on Twitter and Instagram @Seantaj.
