Sharon Horgan ‘s**t’ herself when Tina Fey signed up to play Sarah in Modern Love

When Sharon Horgan was asked to write and direct an episode of Amazon Prime’s new series Modern Love, not only did she jump at the chance but she really wanted Tina Fey to play the female lead.

She wanted her to play fed-up wife Sarah so much that she said she ‘s**t herself’ when she agreed to do the role.

Exploring love in all its forms – from romantic to family to self-love – Modern Love is based on the famous New York Times column, where readers would send in their love letters.

The show stars the likes of Dev Patel, Cristin Milioti and Anne Hathaway as well as Gary Carter, Sofia Boutella, Olivia Cooke, Brandon Victor Dixon and John Slattery.

Sharon said she was a tad excited when Tina agreed to be in the series.

She exclaimed: ‘When she said yes I almost s**t myself because I thought to myself, “how can I tell this woman what to do? How can I tell this goddess how to be?”

‘But she was amazing to work with, extremely into it and up for playing around with the role.

‘She was a great person to be around, she was so funny and full of depth.’

Sharon directed and wrote the episode which saw Sarah and Dennis (John Slattery), a couple who found themselves seeking relationship therapy – but soon turned to tennis to help.

The Irish comedian wanted to adapt her usual take on love and relationships as she explained exclusively to Metro.co.uk: ‘I had a choice of so many letters but for some reason, it was the tennis that stood out for me. I ended up creating a world around this letter, but I wanted to do something I hadn’t done before.

‘There is a really beautiful part of the letter where the woman says “she doesn’t want the game to end” so I wanted to direct it and create a moment at the end of the episode for the audience that represented what the letter did for me.’

Other stars involved in the eight-part series are John Gallagher Jr, Andy Garcia, Julia Garner, Catherine Keener, Andrew Scott and Shea Whigham.

She continued: ‘It was all about love and I wanted to choose one that wasn’t a “couple’s relationship” because I have done that a lot in the past.

‘In the New York Times column, the woman talks about her family, her marriage and it was the whole repeat of them playing tennis as a therapy.  It was that image that I couldn’t get out of my head.

‘I built up and dramatised the strain of the relationship a bit and about him being an actor, and that she never felt part of his world.’

Sharon goes on to explain how she wanted to bring the key points of the letter to life.

She added: ‘In the show, the couple got to a point where they were really hurting each other. She was bored with her marriage and there were a lot of creations around the story, the real visual moments that were already in the letter.’

Modern Love is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

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