Susanna Fogel and David Iserson on ‘Ponies’: ‘We have an open marriage creatively’

Susanna Fogel and David Iserson talk about Ponies, Cold War espionage, creative partnership, and telling feminist stories through spy fiction

Ponies is a charming Cold War era spy thriller starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson as Bea and Twila, two embassy wives in ‘70s Moscow. When their CIA agent husbands die under mysterious circumstances, they convince the Moscow station chief to let them be spies as no one will consider “ponies” (person of no interest in spy speak) like them a threat. What follows is a thrilling ride packed with warmth, humour, emotion and fabulous fashion.

David Iserson, who co-created the show with Susanna Fogel, says they were interested in the aesthetic of the time and the place. Speaking from New York over a video call, David, who is also the showrunner, says, “I have been collecting things from the Cold War period in the ‘70s, like this watch,” he says pointing at his wrist and laughing.

David Iserson, co-creator of ‘Ponies’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

“I also have collected cameras and alarm clocks. When we were approaching Ponies, we read a lot of books about the era. We went through archives and collected photographs to try to capture the look and the feel of 1970s Moscow, which was far more brightly coloured than the period is often portrayed behind the Iron Curtain. We had a lot of conversations with people who lived there at the time.”

Susanna, the director, also speaking from New York, says, “We met about 10 years ago at a dinner party. We were just two writers constantly trying to motivate ourselves to get the writing done. We would sit in coffee shops, writing and talking about the business together.”

Those conversations led David and Susanna to write and direct 2018’s The Spy Who Dumped Me, starring Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon as best friends running riot in Europe after one of their boyfriends turns out to be a CIA agent. “Since then, we’ve done some writing together and some writing apart,” Susanna says. “We have an open marriage creatively.”