When Craig Staggs took on How to Get Over a Breakup and Maintain Your Online Dignity, the only “casting couch” he used was the one he shares with his girlfriend of 4 years, Jessica Gardner. Howcast asked the couple what it was like working together on this project.

Howcast:  After making 71 animated videos for us, what made you decide to go with live action for the breakup video?

Craig Staggs: Well, my day job is animation, but I’ve always made sketch comedy videos and short films. A lot of the videos I’ve made for Howcast up until now didn’t lend themselves to live action, like How to Fight Pirates. I would have had to use some tiny, tiny boats for that. The breakup video had elements of both in it, and that’s the real sweet spot for me.

Howcast: What made you decide to star in this video with your real-life girlfriend?

CS:  Well, I’m cheap and she came cheap. And it doesn’t hurt that she’s adorable. She’s a filmmaker and videographer in her own right, but she started out as an actor, so she’s also comfortable in front of the camera.

Howcast: Jess, what was it like being directed by your boyfriend?

Jessica Gardner:  We’re both really opinionated when it comes to our work, so we’ve had to learn how to not make each other mad. Mostly we realized that we can’t work on a film and both be in charge, or we’ll fight to the death over things like camera angles.

Howcast: Did making this video bring up any awkward relationship issues between the two of you?

CS: No, but we had this strange phenomenon of friends seeing the video and thinking we had actually broken up. They were posting on our Facebook accounts, “OMG, I thought this was your breakup video.” Um, no. I will not make a breakup video.

Howcast: Do you think you’ll collaborate on more Howcast videos?

JG:  Definitely. We’ve had a number of friends breaking up, people moving around, people changing their life directions in dramatic ways. I think seeing videos with a couple like me and Craig could be kind of pleasing — sort of like, how bad could it be? Like, everybody breaks up, says dumb things to their partner, gets mad and storms around. It’s kind of calming to look at relationship problems that can seem like the end of the world and see an interpretation that feels goofy and solvable.

-Rosemarie L., Senior Writer