‘Platonic’ Creators On Casting Rose Byrne’s Partner Bobby Cannavale In Those Masturbating Brett Coyote Scenes: “We Needed Someone With Gravitas”

From Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings and Saturday Night Live stars like Beck Bennett to The Office alum Paul Lieberstein and more, Platonic Season 2 featured a bunch of exciting guest stars, including a delightfully jaw-dropping, NSFW finale appearance by Rose Byrne’s real-life partner, Bobby Cannavale.

In Season 2, Episode 10, “Brett Coyote’s Last Stand,” Charlie (Luke Macfarlane) finally finishes writing his epic Brett Coyote book, self-publishes it, and hosts a party to celebrate all his hard work. For a while there, however, he was having some serious writers’ block…

At one point, Charlie took a masturbation break in hopes of getting his, uh, creative juices flowing. But whenever he imagined his titular character arriving in a lobby, trying to hack a server, or commanding a board room, the Brett Coyote in his fantasy (played by Cannavale) would simply start masturbating, too!

For the straight-faced comedic role, Cannavale looked incredibly cool, donning a sharp suit and tie as Mr. Coyote and wholly committing to the masturbation bit. He flexed his dramatic skills in short bursts, then unzipped his pants and confidently stared straight ahead while imitating self-pleasure. Though he only appears in three brief scenes, the cameo is a real rush, and extra hilarious for anyone aware of his connection to the show and Charlie’s wife, Sylvia (Byrne).

“I actually wasn’t there the day he filmed, so I didn’t get to hang out with him that day. I’ve met him in the past in different situations, but I was like, ‘This is very perfect and funny for people that actually know that that’s Rose’s husband,” Macfarlane told Decider.

When asked what made Rose Byrne’s real-life partner the perfect guy for the masturbatory role with main character energy, Platonic co-creators/writers/directors Nick Stoller and Francesca Delbanco sang the Emmy-winning and Tony-nominated star’s praises.

“We needed someone who is a serious actor to hit that joke,” Stoller told Decider over Zoom. “Someone with gravitas. Someone who, if there was a Brett Coyote movie, that you would cast that person. I mean, Bobby does a lot of comedy, but it couldn’t be someone who’s primarily thought of as a comedian. And he’s also married to our star. So we asked Rose if she thought he would be interested. And we were a little bit nervous, because he’s a serious, amazing actor. And then he was totally into it. And he came out and shot one of the dumber days of shooting I’ve ever been involved with.”

“Yeah, we kept apologizing to him,” Delbanco added. “I mean, he’s like a legend of the American stage. And we had this really stupid joke.”

“And he knows so much about theater, we would be shooting him imitating masturbating, then he’d sit down and talk about some Richard III performance he saw in 2003,” Stoller shared.

With serious theater experience and more than 130 IMDb credits across TV and film, there’s no denying Cannavale’s star power, so we love the fact that no role — not even a few seconds of masturbation! — is too small for him, and that he was so game to appear on and support Byrne’s show.

Charlie may be leaving his author era behind, but Cannavale will always be the perfect Brett Coyote to Platonic fans.

Platonic Season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+.