For some years now, putting “Phoebe Waller-Bridge” and “Amazon” together in a sentence would only provoke feelings of sadness and disappointment. After all, in 2019Waller-Bridgesigned (and re-signed, and re-signed again) a $20m-a-year deal to develop shows for the platform, without a single project ever making it to screen. But that ends now.
On Thursday, Amazon Prime Video will release Octopus!, a two-part documentary about some octopuses, narrated by none other thanPhoebe Waller-Bridge. And while it does in fact look like a very good documentary about some octopuses – it’s part-animated and seems to heavily feature Tracy Morgan as a talking head – it arguably isn’t what Amazon had in mind when it paid Waller-Bridge $100m for content ideas.
Still, forget that. If Octopus! is a success (and, sincerely, I hope it is), then it might spawn countless other species-specific underwater Waller-Bridge documentaries. Perhaps there’ll be Seahorse! or Jellyfish! or Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker! Maybe several decades from now we’ll exclusively think of Phoebe Waller-Bridge as an ocean documentarian and forget all aboutFleabag, the same way that we forget about David Attenborough being the man who first televised snooker.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time this has happened. For example, Harry Secombe spent his 20s and 30s working with Spike Milligan. As a founding member of the Goons, he was a pivotal figure in the history of British comedy. Without Harry Secombe, there would be no Monty Python, no Reeves and Mortimer, no Mighty Boosh. With a pedigree like this, Secombe could have chosen to do anything with his career. And yet to anyone in their 40s or 50s, he is primarily known for Highway, an ITV show where he shouted hymns around the country for a decade.
Similarly, when Kal Penn starred in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle in 2004, he appeared to lock in a career as a comic actor who specialised in playing stoned goofballs. But three years later he fell in with Barack Obama and became a member of his National Arts Policy Committee. Once Obama became president, Penn rose even higher, becoming associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. He was the co-chair of Obama’s re-election campaign, albeit after taking a break from politics to make A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas.
Then there is Frankie Muniz. As the titular star of Malcolm in the Middle, Muniz had everything he could possibly dream of. In the Agent Cody Banks movies, he even pivoted seamlessly to movies. But then, at the height of his fame, Muniz walked away to focus on many other things. Primarily there is race-car driving – Muniz became a storied Nascar driver who has raced the Daytona International Speedway countless times and currently races trucks – but this is just the tip of the iceberg. He is also (or has been) a drummer, a band manager, the owner and operator of an independent oil and vinegar store, a spokesperson for a brand of carbon fibre wallets and the proprietor of several Los Angeles car parks.
But perhaps the most dramatic career handbrake turn belongs to Macaulay Culkin, who retired from being one of the most recognisable actors on the face on the planet in the late 90s to exclusively make a career of being Macaulay Culkin. He’s traded on his Home Alone notoriety in various adverts and cameos. He formed The Pizza Underground, a very specific New York rock band who performed cover versions of songs by the Velvet Underground with all the lyrics rewritten to reference the various components of pizza (sample lyric: “I’ve been out walking/ I don’t do too much toppings these days/ Cheese days”) and currently acts as CEO of the online publishing company Bunny Ears, which has a podcast and runs articles with headlines like ‘Why You Need To Put Sunscreen In Your Butt Hole Right Now’.
Now, will running a website about anuses makeMacaulay Culkinas rich and famous as the Home Alone movies? No it will not. But it makes him happy, and that’s the main thing. One can only assume that the same is true of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her octopus documentary. If she’s cool with it, we should all be cool with it too.