Gloria Calderón Kellett Talks ‘With Love’ and its Importance in Today’s Climate [Interview]

Amazon’s newest upcoming romantic comedy series, With Love, is a show that revolves around family and the importance of those connections. It prides itself on the overwhelming feeling of joy and happiness that it delivers in only a five-episode timespan.

I recently spoke with showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett about what it was like making With Love, why the show holds importance, and how she came to fill the role of Gladys Delgado.

With Love follows the Diaz family as they better themselves and figure out love during the holidays. The series will begin on December 24th, Noche Buena, and end on the same note twelve months later.

The inspiration for With Love came from the Covid-19 pandemic and its dark cloud. The isolation made Kellett long for something full of love without an excessive amount of trauma. “Honestly, this came out of the pandemic. It came out of being isolated, missing family, all of the raucous, fun, and missing the good food,” Kellett said.

“Then, watching familiar rom-coms that I love and being reminded that there are very few black, brown, queer, and Asian faces that exist in those. So, I wanted very much to rectify that. I thought, ‘Gosh, could I make something that could appeal to everybody?'”

“The goal was to make a rom-com that will appeal to everybody, but have the representation I so deeply want, but wrapped in this blanket of a warm rom-com. I wanted it to look like a Nancy Meyers movie, but just include faces you normally don’t get to see at the center of the story,” Kellett continued.

Watch the full interview with Gloria Calderón Kellett:

Kellett’s genius idea for the series was greenlit by Amazon and immediately pushed into production without hesitation.

“When I went to Amazon with that, they were like, how quickly can you make it? I pitched it in January, and we started the room in February,” she said. “I’ve never written anything so fast. The casting process was joyful. And, I just loved getting to put something, in your words, trauma-free. It was important.”

“I think after this collective trauma of the last two years, having something that was just about joy, about love, and about the evolution of conversation is needed. What happens when people have been out for ten years, but the next thing is bringing somebody home? Seeing if your family loves them like you love them, the anxieties of having a family and loving them and how sometimes that love can be disarming and wonderful,” she continued.

With Love will be a much-needed break from the daily trauma of life that most people deal with. But, Kellett didn’t just have the audience in mind when writing the stories.

“It was a joyful cocktail that I needed to be writing for my own health and well-being. Then, we just took great joy in shooting, and now here we are, putting it out into the world. So, my hope is that people feel at the end of it, um, satisfied that at least for now there are some happy endings,” Kellett said.

Kellett, being the triple threat warrior that she is, plays Gladys Delgado, one of the tías in the Diaz family. However, it wasn’t initially planned.

“I didn’t intend to write Gladys for me, per se. But as we were working on it, Andy, who was my co-writer, or my number two on the show, was like, ‘well, obviously, you’re playing Gladys’ and I was like, ‘I think I should,’ and then Amazon was supportive of it. So, that’s how it happened,” Kellett explained.

Gladys is meant to be a homage to the women in Kellett’s life that she looks up to.

“Gladys is really a love letter to all the single tías. You know, those single women that decided the road less traveled, there’s a bravery in that, for women in their mid-40s to say no, thanks. I’m okay. Marriage is not in the cards for me. And that’s okay. Babies are not in the cards for me. And that’s okay,” she said.

“These become the important uncles and aunties of the kids that are there for everybody. I have many of these in my family, and I wanted to honor them. Either they’re divorced, or they’ve decided not to marry. I think there’s a bravery to Gladys. I’ve been with my husband since [I was] 16 years old. So, I think that I just admire the women in my life who have decided to travel the road less traveled and are still super happy.”

Watch the trailer for With Love:

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With Love will be available to stream on December 17th on Prime Video.

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