Not Skinny But Not Fat - Allison Williams is not Marnie (even though she kind of is)

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

I’m joined by the one and only Allison Williams, yes, Marnie from Girls, the girlfriend from Get Out, and M3GAN’s creator/mom/producer/all of the above. We talk about her actual personali...ty vs the intense characters she plays, what it was like growing up with journalist dad Brian Williams (yes we talk nepo babies), going to Yale, landing Girls, and why everyone still thinks she is Marnie.She opens up about filming those scenes, her favorite episode (yes, it’s Panic in Central Park), whether she’d ever do a Girls spinoff, and how motherhood and producing have changed her.Plus her own podcast just dropped called Landlines. Enjoy it wherever you listen to podcasts!!This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.Venmo everything with Venmo Debit Card. Visit Venmo.me/debit to learn more and sign up today.This summer, stop worrying about your hair and start making memories. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code NOTSKINNY10.Give your summer closet an upgrade—with Quince. Go to Quince.com/notskinny for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.To explore coverage, visit ASPCApetinsurance.com/notskinny.Find Simply Pop and any of its five juicy flavors by visiting us online at cokeurl.com/simplyPOP.Visit CleanSimpleEats.com and use code NOTSKINNY20 at checkout for 20% off your FIRST order.Next time you need your reality TV, go to Hulu. Hulu gets real.Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:01:20 The Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank, N.A. Pursuant to license by MasterCard International Incorporated. card may be used everywhere MasterCard is accepted. The following podcast is a dear media production. Welcome back to the Not Skinny Bonafat podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Hirsch, and I still can't believe that I get to chat with some of my favorite stars on my very own podcast, where you'll feel like you're just talking shit with your best friends in your living room.
Starting point is 00:01:57 You guys, I am so excited about today's guest because girls raised me, okay? Girls absolutely raised me. It's my Roman Empire. If I could write a show, that's the show I'd write. If I could rewatch a show and had time to add another show, that's the show I'd rewatch if there are moments, you know, storylines that I remember. It's girls. And I almost had the whole cast, if you think about it.
Starting point is 00:02:26 I had Sasha Jemima. And today I have Allison Williams, who plays Marnie on Girls, who's also in Megan. Now Megan 2.0 is coming out on June 27th. She was also in the freaking epic get out that freaking haunts me, haunted me, haunts all of us forever. Can I just tell you something like about the guest booking process? Like, okay, you know, getting Alice. on the pod so exciting right you never know like are you going to click with the person like what is she like she's not you know on social media it's not like she's influencer where you get her
Starting point is 00:03:07 face to camera all day so you don't know what to expect and then walt is in alison williams the fucking coolest most downer earth smart as fuck yet one of us like knows all the shit knows my shit knows my show like what oh you're a basic bitch too but you went to yell and you were in the best show of all time and you're just like just a phenomenal actress and these kinds of conversations like i love the reality tv stars and i love getting into the drama in the tea but like i also love to like learn from really smart intelligent people that have been in the industry and have stories to share and she's just so real like she's just so real like She brings up the NEPO baby conversation, totally fucking owns it, and which not many
Starting point is 00:04:00 Nepo babies do. Allison Williams also has a new podcast called Landlines now on Headgum. New episodes drop every Monday. So anyway, you guys are really going to enjoy this one. You're going to fall in love, okay, because she's only gotten cooler and more iconic since then. We get into her career, being a mom, how she got into also, like, producing. you guys, she's Marnie. Like, I'm sorry, Alison, don't hate you,
Starting point is 00:04:26 but you're kind of Marnie. Okay, because listen to our conversation. She's fucking Marnie. But, like, you know, Marnie had, like, moments of just being, like, a self-vision and not a good friend. Like, she's, no, Alison's not like that. But Allison has, like, the type A kind of Marnie vibe. I'm just so excited for you to hear this.
Starting point is 00:04:46 I left this interview of Beaming. I don't know if you remember my story. I posted that day and I was like, you know, when you just have a gas. Like, I was just. I beamed. I beamed because some people just really fill me up. They fill up my cup.
Starting point is 00:04:59 Oh, I know. Anyway, listen to my episode with Alison Williams. Enjoy it. Then go ahead and leave a rating and a review for the pod. Thank you. And you're welcome. How are your kids? You're so sweet.
Starting point is 00:05:13 My God. Could you deal with her? Not prepared on this day for this kind of sweetness. Are you having a day that's, I'm having a like, like get back into a day. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah, like turn the engines. Because I had a birthday.
Starting point is 00:05:28 My son turned one. It's just fucking crazy. Your son is three and a half. Three and a half. That's such a cute age. How old is your older one for? Going to be five. Going to be five.
Starting point is 00:05:40 And it's like this age where it's like, oh, like you're a fucking kid with long legs now. Not this cute, like stocky legs, you know? I know the like chunky. Yes, that's true. So three and a half you still have it. I sent a video to me. My husband yesterday of him, like, across the house. He looked little.
Starting point is 00:05:56 He was, like, in a little position, playing with Legos, doing, like, a little activity. And I sent him a video. And I was like, he's still little. Because... Is that fun? Yes, because, like, he's getting big. And there's a lot of times when we look at him and we're like, you're huge. This isn't cool.
Starting point is 00:06:11 And then... But yesterday, he looked a little for a second. But I bet those moments are, like, you know, going away. They're going away. We're starting. Even though we kind of started, right, Miles? Okay. You're an ABR.
Starting point is 00:06:21 Always be recording. I like, like, the natural, like, thing. Yeah, what if I just transformed into someone who's, like, capable of talking? Hi. That's how you know, when comedians come on my show, I'm like, make me laugh. And then they don't. No, they don't.
Starting point is 00:06:34 The whole thing is, like, I'm a sad clown. Right. And they do it almost on purpose. Like, I'm not going to tell one joke. Like, you're not going to break a smile on this hour. There are some that will deliver on the promise, but it's like, you know, they have to, like, be ready for it. And they're not going to disappoint.
Starting point is 00:06:49 If they're going on Jimmy Fallon, like, they'll. Yes. They'll get it up for... It's not the vibe. But they want to, you know, like Steve Martin, one of the deeply funniest people in the world, just wants to play his banjo. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:59 What a guy. What a guy. And what a girl. Ugh. What a transition. Do you like that? Okay, professional interviewer. Alison Williams is here.
Starting point is 00:07:08 Can I just say, and I saved this compliment for air, that you are gorgeously, divinely, stunning, and like have an age today. You know, when people say that, but like on you, it's like the dick. That's so nice. This is high praise. You're making my day.
Starting point is 00:07:26 The rest of this interview is going to be so easy. There's so much stuff happening. Like there's, you know, I'm like taught and there's bo-tots in his forehead. How do you taught? You taught. Oh my God, you like pull some stuff. There's tricks. What do you pull?
Starting point is 00:07:40 You pull, you know, you like, okay, well, I talk about this on the podcast. On your new podcast, which is so exciting. It's a thing. Do we reveal? Do we reveal? I'm looking at Jacob's responsible. Wait, you're allowed to reveal the pot. No, I'm allowed to reveal that.
Starting point is 00:07:53 I'm talking about the secret snatch, as we call it. Okay. It's basically hidden in the hair of like every woman everywhere on carpets. They just take segments of hair from behind here. I'm not going to like, I don't dare disrupt the situation. Like this kind of thing? Yeah, that thing. So a hairstylist does it?
Starting point is 00:08:10 Yeah. So you need a professional hair stylist to be taught. Or two mirrors and like a really good coordination. Or like a really good TikTok or a good spouse or a partner, whatever your flavor is your child. Just make sure your child is... Can I just tell you about Botox something? Yeah, of course. I don't know how I got targeted for this.
Starting point is 00:08:27 And this was right when I'm like... I'm still kind of breastfeeding, so I'm not going to do it yet. But I'm kind of like, I'm almost there where I could do it again. And I don't know how... You look amazing, by the way. The fact that there's no Botox in this face is... Well, there's none. And my 11 is starting to...
Starting point is 00:08:42 You can make... Look, how many facial expressions you can make? I can make so many. And I got to this Instagram, like, what do they call it? Like a TikTok hole, but an Instagram hole of no talks. It's called no talks.
Starting point is 00:08:56 Oh, yes. And they're all saying it could literally, no, but not only the what can you do with the tape, which I've tried and I look so dumb, is that it is so scary. Like, I don't want to scare people because I'm not like fear-rongering, but... Like botulism.
Starting point is 00:09:10 Right. That's what people are saying. And then all the things that people are saying had happened to them because of it. And I don't know how I got there and now I'm scared. Okay. Okay. So you have a practitioner that you trust? Yes. But what these no-tox people are saying is that it doesn't matter the practitioner. It could happen to anyone, anytime, any amount. Okay. Yeah. Scary. Well, that is scary. We're there.
Starting point is 00:09:38 Calculator. You know what else is scary? Driving. Yeah. Everyone loves that example. Well, it's a constant example. Do you drive? Yeah, all the time. It's so dangerous. It's so scary. It's so scary. I don't really not, honestly. You're not? I'm not, you know, I can say this about myself. I don't think I'm good at it. It's really important to know that about yourself. Like, I really think, like, every time I get in the mood and I'm like cruising, I'm like, this is fucking fun.
Starting point is 00:10:05 I like take off someone's mirror. I like, I'll try to park and I'll, I'm that girl. Like, I'm just not good at it. So, like, I could cruise. If I'm in the suburbs, like, I'll cruise. I probably won't hit anyone. But if I'm like parking, getting into a tight space. Oh, no, no, no.
Starting point is 00:10:22 I am like, I reserved for like a big parking spot. Like, I don't do. Could you drive in the city? Yes, but parking is an issue. Like, I can especially drive in the city if I'm in a situation where there's going to be some help with the parking. Yeah. Like a parking garage or my husband. Yeah, it's a dream to be like, you know, those girls that are like really good drivers.
Starting point is 00:10:43 It's so good. It's so hot. One of my favorite scenes in reality television ever was a thing. in the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and what's his face was parking. It was a big reveal. We watched someone like painstakingly try to parallel park a range rover and then someone's husband gets out of the car and it was like feminism, I think. You watch Salt Lake. I don't and like I get yelled at all the time.
Starting point is 00:11:04 I know. You love it? Here's the thing. It's the only full franchise I've ever watched in that. Because why you started it? Because you were like, I just filmed in Salt Lake and I was like, okay, watch Secret Lives Mormon Wives. Oh, you watched that too?
Starting point is 00:11:18 Oh, yeah, of course. I'm almost done in the second season. But then I was like, I need more. I need more of this, like, dirty Coke. Like, what's happening culturally in Salt Lake City? And someone was like, honestly, watch Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. And I was like, okay, yes. And I was like, this is a masterpiece. Some of the best television I've ever watched in any genre.
Starting point is 00:11:36 Regina says all the time, like it should win like an Emmy. Like it should. This is what we want. Salt Lake City. You're obsessed watching the beginning. Mormon wives. I'm actually having a Mormon wife later. Which one?
Starting point is 00:11:46 Whitney. Oh, my God. exciting interesting today she's going to be sitting here i know hopefully she'll be like doing something you know doing a dance like fucking doing something too i don't know how far in advance baby she was supposed part of him like a day she had like a three day old baby and went to like no i know is that okay to ask her like i was like is that mom shaming enough if i'm like is not mom shaming to be like was that when they joked about having a three day old did you actually yeah when you were on the bus working on the pole was it literally three
Starting point is 00:12:18 days after, or was it not? I just was like, I wasn't, well, I had an emergency C-section, so I was still in the hospital three days later, but also my body would have looked at a pole and been like, L-O-L for like still today, honestly, for being honest. No, no, no. I just mean like, I'm not, I'm not going to see a pole and be like, I belong. That should be an accessory and be used. Yeah. Can you like sneeze without a little P coming out? Yeah, because I didn't have that. I had the C-section. So instead I have like a- Scar tissue. Oh, my God, I didn't realize that's only if you have a bad.
Starting point is 00:12:51 It's not actually pelvic floor. That can happen if you have a C-section. It could have happened to me, but that is not my thing. Can you tell me why it was emergency? Because his heart wasn't doing well during the labor, and it was just like a very stressful thing. And I had been in labor for about 36 hours before that. No, it was just he just didn't like the stress. He just didn't like the, from the moment I arrived pre-epadural.
Starting point is 00:13:16 Every time I had a contraction. And he just was not, they're supposed to, like, ride at like a wave, I guess. And he just was not, his heart rate would go down instead of. How stressful was that for you? Huge trauma, deeply stressful. Yeah. I realized in that moment that I hadn't, I had thought, I had thought about the possibility of having a C-section, but I hadn't actually, like, thought, thought about it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:39 I hadn't pictured it, wondered what it was like. I kind of was like, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've never had surgery. I don't want to think about this. And so I didn't. And then there I was being told that this had to happen, and that was just like a profoundly scary moment where I realized like, oh my God, I'm about to have surgery for the first time. And this all just feels extremely scary and not what I was picturing. And so at the risk of like really freaking my friends out, I often, when they're pregnant now, I'm like, do you want to talk?
Starting point is 00:14:09 Do you want me to like talk you through it? Because no one did that to me beforehand, I think probably because they didn't want to like scare me. Do you wish that you knew more? I think so. Oh, really? Because in the moment where she told me it was happening, I was processing a lot of things at the same time. And one of those things would have been off the table, which was like, what's about to happen to me? What's this going to be like?
Starting point is 00:14:30 What does this mean, et cetera? And if I knew the answers to some of those things, I would just be processing like, this isn't going the way I pictured it or I'm scared or, you know, this is vulnerable, all of those other things, which is still a lot to deal with. It just would have been nice to have, like, some of those things off my, like. They really stress you out. Like, they really need to take, these doctors need to take lessons because I feel like when they come around you in that moment where like something's about to go down and you're like what's happening, they're all just like around you, like looking at you and you're like a wounded animal on the table.
Starting point is 00:15:02 And I, I preferred not to know. Like I didn't, I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't had like a vaginal birth, but I didn't want to know all the possibilities because I feel like for me personally, Like, you feel like you just need to know what would be better for your mental health. Yes, totally. It's all so dependent on that. But I did try to train my brain to say, this can go a gazillion ways. This is a wild-ass thing, which that's what I like to remind people.
Starting point is 00:15:31 Like, this is a crazy thing that we do that's like, you know, human nature and evolution and it has been done forever. No, no, no. It is still insanity. When I, after having Arlo, I like. looked around the world and was like everyone, I keep saying this, everyone got here one of two ways. There's only two ways to get here and every single person got here one of two ways, like either through someone's abdomen or through their vaginal birth canal. And I was like, that's insane. Everyone so far, other than Megan, everyone got here that way. And yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:16:09 And it's like, it just kind of blew my mind because I was like, that was hard and scary and intense. And even if it hadn't ended in an emergency C-section, it already would have been really intense. And all the women that I know who have had kids are actual, like... Superheroes. Yes, but it's seen as such a rudimentary... Yeah. Like, I'm pregnant.
Starting point is 00:16:28 Like, when I watch, like, The Bachelor or something, have you ever seen that show? Oh, my God. Listen. But do you still watch? I'm behind by a season because I've been filming, like, a crazy person. Wait, you're, like, only behind a season? I'm behind a season, a half. But yes, I am a, like...
Starting point is 00:16:44 card-carrying. I can't overstate how invested I am in Bachelor culture. What's your favorite season? Oh, I knew you're going to ask. I know how you feel about the Nema-Colon era, but I didn't love. I feel like... What? That's Matt James, Nema-a-Colon. I know. I know. How broken are you by their... My condolences to you for their breakup. I know it's tough on you. I was for her. I always felt for her, you know? I wasn't upset that like this seemingly perfect couple broke up. I was upset because, like,
Starting point is 00:17:14 You could just tell how in love Rachel was, Rachel Kirkano. I wasn't, like, a huge consumer of the two of them, but I just know that this is very important to you emotionally. And so I'm really sorry for your loss of their coupledom. My favorite season, I don't know. I loved Caitlin's. I think she, but the Emily Maynard one was so deranged. I loved that one.
Starting point is 00:17:35 I loved that era, like Brad Wilmack, Emily Maynard. Oh, that's old school. Yeah. But are you caught up like Kaylin and Dean? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. And all these Bachelor in Paradise romances and all the like... It's coming back this summer, Bachelor in Paradise.
Starting point is 00:17:48 Thank God. We need it. I don't watch anymore. I stopped at Clayton. Let's go. Also, like, where is Gabby now? Like, how fucking insane. Incredible.
Starting point is 00:17:58 A queen. A true queen. I'm obsessed with her. Insane. Yeah. But yeah, Clayton, I don't know. But I still feel like so happy and so proud that, like, I know this huge nation of people. Like, I know.
Starting point is 00:18:13 I couldn't live without knowing that, you know, Dean and Kaelin are off in Nevada, you know? Just like in a van, in love. In a van, in love. That's literal, probably. That is literal. Like, I just know, but I feel like those are the people that we should know. And whoever comes next, like, won't be that important culturally. Do you get what I mean?
Starting point is 00:18:32 Also, they, gosh, it's a real. Like, who do you remember aside? I don't know, like, how much time you want to spend on my head. I'm like, doing interview math right now. I'm like, I don't think she had allocated it. Any time. You're like, I don't think. think she's flipped a card since we started. No, but I honestly am like, well, you should do on
Starting point is 00:18:48 your pot a bachelor, your new podcast. They don't want to talk about it. They don't care about it. So I'll come on and I'll do a bachelor thing with you. They'll just sit and listen and go to school if they need to be schooled. But what I was going to say is that like it is a psychological, there's a reason that our bachelor, bachelorette people do well in the traders and all those other like reality competition shows. And it's because it's a gauntlet. Getting through that show is heart. It's a lot emotionally. I'm passionate. You are. And you love the traitors. Who knew you were such a reality TV person? Love the tradles is what I just said.
Starting point is 00:19:21 Oops. Did everybody know this? Like are you out there saying it to the world? Do you post about it? In my mind, yes. But like the world is enormous. The world doesn't. I mean, everyone over there knows. And Love Island is coming back and all will be well in the world. And you can keep up with your schedule watching Love Island. Here's the way I consume most of these shows, which is that I used to listen obsessively to news podcasts. And then for some reason, something happened in the world that made it incredibly painful to listen to the news. So I switched to watching reality TV during what, like the times when, I don't know, I'm doing my like long ass like skincare or an iPad or on my phone or whatever. I just have it
Starting point is 00:20:02 on and I'm watching it. And I love this for you. I love that you went from news to this. Oh yeah. I was like, we got to my newscast. and my news producer mom are thrilled. Somehow I still know what's happening in the world. Like, I know the facts, but I'm not listening to like seven podcasts in a row deconstructing like a Supreme Court decision. I could not do that anymore. Wow, I can't believe you ever did that.
Starting point is 00:20:25 Loved that. I was like so, but here's the thing. Well, you went to Yale. Like you're super smart. Studying that I just like wanted to be an expert on anything that could come up at any given time. And then I realized like, oh, I'm, my anxiety is not a good combination with that amount of information.
Starting point is 00:20:39 You need escapism a little bit. Yeah. This is so important, I'm so glad the world now knows, like, how in reality TV you are. Very into it. But I'm not like, I need to keep doing Real Housewives. I've known Andy Cohen forever. I emailed him after Salt Lake. And I was like, excuse me, you're a maestro.
Starting point is 00:20:56 You're like a great genius. You know, I can't believe you. This is unreal. And he was like, you finally watched one of the franchises. Okay. I was so, it is so. Are you going to start Rhode Island? There's a Rhode Island.
Starting point is 00:21:08 It's, that's the new franchise. Oh my God, I spent time on Black Island going on. Maybe I'm going to watch. Where were you? Black Island, Rhode Island. Oh, really? Really beautiful. So maybe you would know about it.
Starting point is 00:21:19 I don't want anyone, like, don't hear about it. Okay. Everyone, fast forward, rewind and then fast word over this. But maybe I'll start this franchise because I like starting for the beginning. Like I wish that I did that. Four seasons or something. It's digestible. When I look at like New York or something, even in the pre and the early and late era, like, that's
Starting point is 00:21:37 intimidating. Jersey. Those are long. Yeah. That takes like a, you know, if I, if I have another kid, which is still TBD, like, that would be the, like, those twilight months of breastfeeding and just like, that would be the watch during that time. I love how you say TBD, but you also have a plan as to when you're going to watch the show. To be honest, the first time I've talked about this plan, but it's making it, like, more appealing. I know. You're like, I could. TPD, but like when I'm going to be breastfeeding and while, like, my bottles are sterilizing. Like, I'll do that. Last time I watched Succession, which was like,
Starting point is 00:22:08 stressful. I'm sure I put there was like, you know, stress for the past the first episode because it stressed me out so much every time that I turn it off and then I would be like, I have to watch succession, turn it on, that whole hospital scene, him coming going, stopped again, like never watches. It's truly one of the greatest shows
Starting point is 00:22:24 I've made. Unfortunately, you will have to watch it. Yeah. Yeah, but it's going to be great because it's so good. And so funny. You might just need to maybe episode three you start to really get the humor of it. Get through the hospital of it all. Yeah, sorry about the hospital of it all. We'll be right back after the break.
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Starting point is 00:27:06 pet insurance.com slash not skinny. Again, that's ASPCA, pet insurance.com slash not skinny. This is a paid advertisement insurance. It's underwritten by either Independence American Insurance Company or United States Fire Insurance Company and produced by BTZ Insurance Agency Limited. The ASPCA is not insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance. Hi, everyone. I'm Peyton Sarton, host of the Note to Self podcast. Note to self is a space to embrace your unique qualities, get grounded, and ultimately have honest conversation. No topic is off limits. I began doing social media seven years ago, and since then, I've started a clothing line and this podcast. Note to Self is a place where people from every stage of life can come
Starting point is 00:27:43 for advice, new perspectives, and to feel a little less alone. Whether I'm recording by myself or bringing along a friend, we will explore topics ranging from relationships and mental wellness to social media and entrepreneurship. Tune in to Note to Self every week for the sisterly advice you didn't know you needed and raw conversations you've always wanted. And we're back. So you're from the East Coast, which we love, Connecticut, born and raised? And how often does, like, a Connecticut girl come into the city, like, at that age, like high school and stuff? Well, we had very different high schools. You were, like, deeply cool. You were probably, like, quitting smoking at 15, whereas I was smoking. Smoking Marble Reds.
Starting point is 00:28:21 Exactly. I, that was, when I went to college and there were the New York City kids, they were like, have to stop smoking. I was like, I've never seen a cigarette. They were like, I've got to stop. I've been smoking since I was 12. And I was like, I've never been on a stop. Boy, by myself. They're like, I've been commuting on my own to school since I was seven. Literally. It's a different thing. It's a different thing. We would come into the city for like special things.
Starting point is 00:28:42 It was always like to see rent in middle school with my friends or like to go out to a fancy dinner with my parents and to go to like a Broadway show or something. It was always event-based New York City trips, but it was not social. Like it was too, I don't know, at least like growing up, maybe towards the end of high school, but not really until college was at a social destination for me. So then when you were doing girls and you're like filming this New York City show. Yeah. So aside from Lena filling you in because we were talking about that before, like you didn't really know. I knew from college. So I went to college with a bunch of people from New York City.
Starting point is 00:29:19 So I kind of knew. But are Yale, and I'm totally like stigmatizing everybody, are Yale at New York City kids, like the type of New York City kids that like went to my high school? Yeah, potentially. Do you think? If you knew. Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's definitely a lot of the private school, like the prep school kids that go to the Ivy League schools, but also, like, kind of from everywhere. And it's a bigger school than people realize in, like, in its portrayal, it's often there's like 100 kids in the class and they all are in gossip girls.
Starting point is 00:29:52 It's like, it's not true. You're like, just me. It's just me. But no, it was like I, so I knew a bunch of like city kids. They just had a different, like, much more mature. street smart. Drugs mature, you guys. They sure do.
Starting point is 00:30:07 I love your philosophy about like trying stuff when you're young and it just felt like also the combination of cars when you grow up in a suburban area where your peers
Starting point is 00:30:17 are driving each other the stakes for substances are like way, way higher. Even though in New York doing that stuff is also dangerous you like wander onto the wrong block and like stakes
Starting point is 00:30:25 get really high also. But it feels different when you're driving. And so drunk driving and driving under the influence of anything was like That's so true. A really big deal where I grew up.
Starting point is 00:30:35 Like, we really, like, it's dangerous what we did, but we were also taking the subway. Yeah. Or, like, sitting on a stoop or, yeah, instead of. Wow. Yeah. Thank God then that, like, this is happening mostly in New York. And especially given that you're a self-proclaimed not very good driver. Like, we're just lucky that you were.
Starting point is 00:30:53 Thank fucking God. Yeah. I also got hit by a car like three times in my life. I'm also not a good walker. Oh, my friend Jamie's like this. Yeah? She has a. But it was like in slow-mo.
Starting point is 00:31:02 It was like. You're coming, you're going, boop, like that kind of thing. That seems like the hardest way to be hit by a car. That seems like it took both of you being the same personality type. It was like, me and a really old lady, like being like, are you coming? Am I walking? Should we just do this? Should we just like, need in the middle?
Starting point is 00:31:17 No, my friend Jamie talks about it. She's like a brazen. She walks and doesn't listen or look. Like she doesn't, none of the rules we teach our kids about like crossing a street. She's just like, I'm just going to go and it's going to be fine. Whatever happens happens. It's crazy. She lived in New York for like a non- insignificant.
Starting point is 00:31:33 amount of time. Wait, so how long did you live in New York the whole time you were shooting girls? So I lived in New York from, I guess, really from like 20, like halfway through 2011 to 2019. Oh, wow. 2018. And where were you in the city? Chelsea. Did you love it? Loved it.
Starting point is 00:31:54 Yeah? Why Chelsea? I don't know. You found an apartment there. I loved, yeah, it felt Westville. I loved the West Village. You felt, you know, adjacent. Also very, like, I lived right on 7th Avenue.
Starting point is 00:32:06 It was just easy to get everywhere. Did you ever remember me? I had a husband. You had a husband by then? Yeah. Well, not like by then. No. I had a boyfriend who then became a husband.
Starting point is 00:32:16 Oh. Yeah. And so, yeah, I had a roommate and a dog. So wait, when you're filming girls the whole time, you had a boyfriend. Yeah. And what did he, like, feel about the sex scenes? Totally, like, pretty unfazed. Really?
Starting point is 00:32:30 Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. I wonder how that is in Holly. would, like, behind closed doors. It is, it's definitely among, if not the weirdest part of our job. Yeah. Because it's just weird.
Starting point is 00:32:43 When you're in a committed and people are cool and there's polycules or whatever and not to be all tradition about it all. But, like, when you're in a monogyn about it all. Not to be marny about it all. But when you're in a monogamous relationship, your assumption is that the, when you kiss your partner, the next person who kisses that person will also be you. Yeah. And in this case, it's like, you're going to go to work and, like, make out with someone
Starting point is 00:33:02 else for like hours and hours and then come home. Yeah. And even when it's as, the one thing that is true that everyone talks about is the sterility of it is so intense. Right. Like the ability to find romance in that is baffling to me.
Starting point is 00:33:15 But that really ruins it for me that you guys talk about that so much. I'm so sorry. Okay. No, not just you, but I feel like this is happening in a lot of interviews lately. I feel like actors are really opening up about intimacy coordinators, whether they used one, not used one.
Starting point is 00:33:27 We didn't have let me out on curls. Yeah. That wasn't the time for that. It wasn't. It definitely was when we did. half the year. Oh, it was the time already? So we would have been great because we had so many sex scenes like prep and work through. Like it would have been so helpful to have someone who's like department head of sex scenes. Otherwise it was just, I have this picture of Lena and
Starting point is 00:33:45 Jenny like acting out the moment where Desi was like, eating your ass. Going down, I'm eating my ass. And I have a picture of them where who I think it's, Jenny is like leaning over a windowsill and Lena is just like kneeling behind or like smiling at me to be like, this is what we picture. And I was like, great. But that, they could, they were busy. They should have. have just, that should have been someone else's job. That should have been someone. Yeah. I guess, like, as just a viewer and consumer of all this, I picture more, I feel like it sounds like an intimacy coordinator is more about, like, keeping everyone safe. But I love that it's also just like, no, this is how you should be. Oh my God. I'm like crazy about it. I think they're incredible because
Starting point is 00:34:22 here's what happens. And I don't know if this is interesting, but it just is what it is. And to ruin it further, you started by complaining about this. And I'm like, I'm going to twist this knife deeper into your body. So basically, like, if you read a. script, there's like a romantic scene in it. The intimacy coordinator talks to the actors and is like, how do you picture this? And what are your boundaries? Like, do you care? Can someone touch you anywhere? They're red zones where you just don't want anyone to touch you in places. And you're like, you know what? My neck feels kind of like my neck. And I don't want anyone touching it. So that's a red zone. They're like, great. They talk to the director. They're like, what do you picture for this
Starting point is 00:34:52 scene? Do you want, what is your dream version of it? And then the intimacy coordinator is kind of responsible for like bridging any gaps there are and communicating people's boundaries. And And by the time everyone shows up to do it, none of that is being litigated on the day. You already know what you're wearing for your nude covering, what the rules are, like, if your co-star feels comfortable with a certain type of kissing or not. And so you're all just like ready to go. Yeah. And it's so nice.
Starting point is 00:35:18 That makes sense. So someone's not like sucking your nipple, like randomly and you didn't agree on it. Yeah, that is deeply un-okay. Yeah, that's non-consensual of sexual assault. Yeah. Even if it's on camera. Yeah. But yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:29 And I'm sure some people on some shows where there's a ton of sex. So they talk about, like, yeah, we eventually just told the intimacy coordinator, like, we are in like a, we're just like in a pact kind of where we get each other's boundaries. We don't need to do this every time. But like, thank you for being here just in case, you know. It's especially helpful if you're with a new scene partner and you haven't done this a lot. Right. If you feel comfortable with someone, maybe it's different. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:51 I keep thinking about because you did so, so much with Evan. Yes. Desi. Yes. And he's doing so well right now also. It doesn't make you happy as like. Happiest. the happiest in the world.
Starting point is 00:36:02 He is, like, such a delightfully unique person. He's in the bear, you guys. He's a fantastic four now. He's in the bear. Yeah. He's killing it. Killing it. He's so good in the bear.
Starting point is 00:36:12 It's like, he is so good that I, like, think of almost he's more cousin to me than Desi, which is crazy. And maybe just because I haven't done, like, a rewatch or anything. Yeah. He's like, I so believe him in that show. He's so good. From, I saw somebody come in, like, from Desi to cousin. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:36:28 It's just a wild. That's it. That's a tweet. That's it. I saw someone comment that. That's it from Desi de Cousin. Yeah. I don't know if you know that like TikTok is wild about girls right now.
Starting point is 00:36:38 It's so fun. I do know not from firsthand, but from people sending me things. No, but like the thing that's, do you know what the number one thing is? No. The number one thing is. I love you. You have a pink iPhone case. It tracks.
Starting point is 00:36:50 It's perfect. Isn't it cute? What's your favorite horror movie? Oh, I don't know. Maybe Girls Season 5 Episode 6 when Marnie and Charlie reconnect. No, no. But this scene, what is that? What's it called?
Starting point is 00:37:01 The Panic in Central Park? Yeah. This is the episode of the whole show. Aw. The TikTok and, like, the internet just doesn't stop, like, a love, like, like, all of it. And it's so wild because I've seen it, like, targets me because they know how much I love girls. And I watch every single one of those. And I get chills every single time you see them with the headphones, this fucking cute headphones.
Starting point is 00:37:27 And every time you're wearing that red dress and every time you, on the floor with the towel and you find the thing. That makes me so happy. Like, if I were you, I'd be crying now. Like, I'm almost crying. Are you disappointed that I'm not crying? No, no, but I'm almost crying. I'm so proud.
Starting point is 00:37:41 Like, it makes me so happy that episode was, I was so nervous. Like, it was such a vote of confidence to give me this whole big episode. It was such an act of love from Lena and Richard Shepard, who directed it. I loved working with up to that point. But I hadn't done a bottle episode. Lena had done them up to that point. And she and Jemima, when they go to Jemima's house, kind of had one as well. And but yeah, and I also hadn't seen Chris since he left the show at that
Starting point is 00:38:06 point. So there was this like meta aspect of this like unfinished business. It had nothing to do with pizza. But it was still kind of like we hadn't seen each other. And so that helped inform the kind of dynamic. And then it was just one of those like kind of magical shoots. It felt like we shot a short film in New York that. And it was like just a kind of creative dream experience. And I also feel like it's the episode where people finally kind of kind of got. to sympathize with Marnie a little bit. She was really hard to love in the beginning of the show, and it was season five, so it took a minute.
Starting point is 00:38:38 But it was an episode where she was kind of finally like, I don't know. She said those words, like, out loud in a way that was, I think, really refreshing for people to hear. Around the Booth, Jonathan era, she also felt that way, very lost. And honestly, from the very beginning of the show, she's super lost.
Starting point is 00:38:53 But in that episode, she was literally lost and barefoot and vulnerable and had nothing. And there was something about that that I think really helped. humanize her. Yeah. But I also, that episode is so interesting because I feel like it becomes resonant once you have enough of a past somewhere.
Starting point is 00:39:10 Like you have to have like an X with meaning or an unfinished story. And so as people age and go through things in life, that episode means different things to them. Because once you have a person that you could run into in that way. And have your heart drop that way. Exactly. Then it means a whole other thing. Yeah. That's what I think. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:26 One of the reasons why people are resonating with it because it brings you back to, like a moment like that that you've had. Yeah, and the fantasy is the beginning of the episode where it's like you're on this like whirlwind date. And yes, there's stuff humming in the background of that like drug deals, which are obvious red flags, but you're sort of like, whatever. Like, Marnie's trying to convince herself that she's a different person and she's non-judgmental.
Starting point is 00:39:47 And then by the end, it's like, no, no. It's not just a hidden red flag. It's not okay. We'll be right back after the break. Exciting day, everybody simply has launched a new, prebiotic soda. You guys know that I love sodas and I love ones that come with a little something extra. It's not just good, but there's a prebiotic in it, right? So Simply Pop is the new juicy soda. There are five flavors, pineapple mango, yum yum, yum, lime, lime, strawberry, citrus punch,
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Starting point is 00:44:22 Yeah. When you grew up, were you into it? Like, went from, like, birth. Oh, yeah? It was all I ever wanted to do. Yeah, it was all I wanted to do. My parents were, like, you know, they knew enough actors. They kind of asked advice and realized that they just wanted to delay it as much as possible
Starting point is 00:44:40 because they could tell from my little personality that this personality and a child actor was just, like, a terrible combination. Why? I don't know. There's, I've now worked with so many, like Violet McGraw, for example, who plays my, niece slash daughter in the Megan movies is like a remarkable human being. She is totally a normal kid who also happens to be a working actor who works her ass off and is super professional but still is like on a soccer team with her friends and has this like awesome dry sense of humor and is hilarious and fun and playful. And there is just something about that ability to be both professional and a, you know,
Starting point is 00:45:23 precise without being like a complete nutcase type A perfectionist. And you would have been that? I would have been really bad. So are you learning? When you say stuff like that, it makes me feel like you have more inequalities. I mean, I have high quality. I don't hate it. I have Marnie.
Starting point is 00:45:36 I used to hate it more, I think. I don't hate it as much now because I'm like a little clearer on the distinctions between us. Basically, like, I have a suitcase on my floor from like last week, you know? Okay. So she's wild, guys. But Marnie wouldn't. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know how to just.
Starting point is 00:45:53 that. I'm also still a type A perfection. I feel like I can't with that suitcase. Yeah. It's full. I've needed shit in it. I know exactly where it is in there. Yeah. It's just like I can't go into it. I literally still have like, you know, how you take your makeup in like a travel thing. Yeah. So like my makeup is there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But also, so I don't know how to describe that or like, I don't know. I also like my brain, this is also just hormonal and postpartum. Like, I just, my brain is not as, like, sharp. If I don't write something down immediately, it's not there anymore. So, yes, in some ways I'm very morning.
Starting point is 00:46:27 And then in other ways, I'm, like, scattered in a way that would shock people. Yeah. Maybe. Not shock. That's strong. So your parents would be. But anyway, they were just like, this is a bad. You would like just. The perfectionism, which they, I'm sure could tell for me.
Starting point is 00:46:41 Or like the rejection would maybe be hard on you. But also in success, like, in our business, like, that can be as much of a mind fuck as failure. You know, there's. all this weird delayed gratification and you start to put your self-worth in these like different places where it doesn't belong. And I think they just thought like let's buy us some time and let her get lived as like big a life as she can before she lives a public life. And I'm so grateful. I fought it at the time obviously because I was very eager to go and I knew what I wanted to do. But I got and then I subsequently, it was lucky enough to be around a bunch of actors I really loved and respected.
Starting point is 00:47:18 and I asked them, should I go to, like, conservatory or should I go to a liberal art school? I have the incredible privilege of being able to go to college. Like, where should I go? And to a person, they told me to go to college. Not a single actor that I, like, like, Merrill Streep and Kevin Klein and Tina Fey, they were all, like, go to a liberal art school. So that's what I did. Like, get an education. Yes.
Starting point is 00:47:39 Learn other shit. They were like, you have the rest of your life to study acting. Really? Yes. So then you go to school for English. Yes. And then graduate. Or did you do any, like, acting?
Starting point is 00:47:48 I was in plays for sure. I just the most acting-ish stuff I did was that I was in an improv comedy group and like I would say technically that really still is kind of my only training which is crazy because after I graduated I took a class on auditioning and then my first audition after that class
Starting point is 00:48:06 was for the untitled Lena Dunham Project HBO and I was like great I can use my first audition I was like I can use my new class I can use my printout with my like way to prepare an audition And I can follow all of this. This is so great. Obviously, I'm not going to get this part. It's an HBO show. But I'm going to use this to, like, practice my new audition skills. And I went in there and I did the scene. And then they asked me, they sent me out to learn another scene. And we did that. And then they asked me to improv. And I was like, oh, my God, this is my only skill. They've just asked me to do the only thing I've been doing, like, constantly for four years. Improv. It was like, that was it. And I was like, happily, great. Let's do it. Let's do more. And do you remember what the improv scene was?
Starting point is 00:48:46 I think I was braiding her hair and or maybe that I just like put that into the action which I immediately regretted because as Lena would admit she's not an enthusiastic hair washer and at that age it was even worse and I just remember I just remember being like oh I regret this decision I don't know you at all like it didn't I just like this is a texture I wasn't expecting and I but I like braided her hair and then we got in the the improvising they wanted us to do I know was that they they they We were in a fight and we had to resolve it. And I don't remember the content of it. I just remember it feeling like a very easy, based on the stuff I had been doing for all those years. Like, I was like, oh, my God, you're giving me the end of the scene already. Like, that's even easier. And so it was just this really fun. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:49:34 It was so fun. I remember walking out of the audition being like, that was so fun. Your first audition. Yes, but I didn't think it was going to get it. No, but that was your first experience, like experiencing. Yeah. When audition is like. And it was.
Starting point is 00:49:46 all women in the room, and it was this, like, cool group of people. Were you like, whoa, I love this industry. I've waited my whole life to get into. By the way, not a correct advertisement of what it's like out there. I know. It's, like, toxic. There's sexual harassment. It's, like, disgusting.
Starting point is 00:49:59 But yours was. That was incredible. No, no, no. I just mean in this industry. No, yeah, yeah. I had this amazing. Wait, where was the improv group in New York? Improv group was in college, my college improv group.
Starting point is 00:50:09 Just out water. Shout out. It was incredible. It was like, to this day, still, my only formal training. Wait, how do you get the Lena Denham audition? Did you have an agent at that point? No. Well, yes, I did actually. So, but the audition came because when I graduated from college, I had been introduced
Starting point is 00:50:24 the idea of, like, YouTube videos going viral. I graduated in 2010. So it was like on the early end of this. Oh, we're the same exact age. I just turned 37. Yeah, 37 in April. Happy belated. How cute are we?
Starting point is 00:50:37 Like, 37 years young. 37 years, like too young. So young. Child brides, child parents. Child brides, child parents. Yeah, exactly. Babysitters. Not even a nanny.
Starting point is 00:50:47 But anyway, so I had made this YouTube video that I made three of them, actually. I only ever released one with, I was like, let's do live sound recording and, you know, one take and like gimmicks of combining songs. And I worked with this incredible team of people that I had met just through all these, it's too long. You don't have time for me to go into it. But anyway, we made these videos together. I made three of them. And I released the first one when I moved to L.A. And because of my dad, who was a newscaster, it got like, so it's a little nepotism already,
Starting point is 00:51:21 it got, like, picked up online because that was the thing that made it relevant. It was like, look at Brian Williams' daughter doing something. Like you had zero YouTube subscribers at that time. Literally zero. You just uploaded a video to YouTube. Yes. And the media cared. Yes.
Starting point is 00:51:34 Okay. And they picked it up. And they picked it up. And Judd Apatow saw it. And they had been trying to cast Marnie for a while. And they hadn't been able to, like, really just find her essence anywhere. and they just decided to move casting from New York to Los Angeles to open up casting in L.A.
Starting point is 00:51:50 just to see if they could find her. And I had also just moved to L.A. And so then he reached out to see if I would audition for the show. And that's how that happened. So it was like a combination of YouTube. Can we find this video today? Yes. It's called I just rewatched it actually.
Starting point is 00:52:08 And it makes me, yeah, it gives me so much joy. So how do we find it? It's called Mad Men theme song with a twist. because I put, it was the Mad Men theme song, but with live orchestra. And then I put Nature Boy that old jazz standard lyrics on top of it, which fits perfectly. And the guy on the drums is a composer named Jay Wadley, who's now, like, killing it. And, yeah, it's very cool. But you never thought it would like.
Starting point is 00:52:31 I mean, three, and I was like, maybe this will be a thing that we do. And the other two just never were released because the first one was very successful. That's amazing. It's honestly inspiring. It's inspiring, but it's not a sympathetic. I understand, but it's also like, you never know what can happen. Totally. Anything can happen.
Starting point is 00:52:50 Anything can happen. Like our first season promo for girls, the Ellie Golding song. Anything can happen. Put yourself out there. Yeah. You never know who's watching, which I also learned. Like, I didn't know you ever listened or knew the show. You never fucking know.
Starting point is 00:53:06 It's true. And look what happened ever since then. I know. That's so amazing. I just want to be clear, though, that like I drafted in kind of casual but like the layers to which, because I also imagine if I'm listening to this interview and I am, you know, young and want to be an actor, there are so many parts of this that are like unrelatable and very lucky that I had going for me, like, from the beginning. And I just want to name that because it is so kind.
Starting point is 00:53:32 So hard. No, but it's literally like unhelpfully lucky. There are so many layers to the whole conversation around like NEPO babies or whatever. And I'm always like, it starts with the knowledge that, like, no matter what happened, I was going to be okay, that feeling of like, there's no floor is, or there is a floor that I can't fall through is, like, already changes the way you go for things and that you take chances. Like, for me to take a chance was like, I wasn't leveraging everything my family had. You weren't sleeping in your car. No, no. I still wanted it.
Starting point is 00:54:08 I work really hard. I think I do a good job, but I hope so. and I feel super lucky to do this job. But I'm also very aware that along the way, there are just more moments than I can count where, you know, if there's a jump ball between the Huffington Post, like posting the video of my singing
Starting point is 00:54:24 and someone they've never heard of who didn't, who also made an amazing video that exact day, the reason that mine would have gotten posted would probably be because I'm my dad's daughter. And I have no, like, I don't know, I have no delusions about that. I know that that's true. And I just feel like I need to kind of work to earn it
Starting point is 00:54:39 in retroactively, I guess. So many actors that are, I mean, your dad, you know, a journalist, it's a bit different. Sometimes you have Nepo babies that are child of actors, legit in the business, and they have a hard time. They're like, Nepo baby, schmepo baby. Well, I think the first thing that comes up often is the sense of, like, they're trying to take away my work or how hard I work. But it's like, that's besides the point. It's like how easy or hard would it have been for you to make it versus someone in the middle of nowhere. Like literally with no connections.
Starting point is 00:55:11 Like Justin Bieber was somebody in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. You know. Yeah. It can happen. It can happen. It's just like, you know, not fair. Right.
Starting point is 00:55:20 It isn't. It's just not fair. Yeah. But I do understand when the talent is there like you want people to, you know, acknowledge that. Which you were so fucking talented. That's so nice. That's why you got your fucking first audition. Well, that just happened.
Starting point is 00:55:35 That just felt like Kismat. You probably walked in and you were. I saw that video and was like, that's Marnie. That's Marnie. She looks so, like, she smells, they make so many, there's so many lines in the show about, like, how clean I am and how what I smell like. Because I think they were looking for someone who just, like, looked like a dove commercial or something, like on the screen. We're just like, oh, there she was. You know what I was thinking in the panic in the Central Park episode that you didn't look like you had a lick of makeup on?
Starting point is 00:56:00 I'm sure I did that, like, no makeup makeup thing. Maybe once I was wet, I didn't. I don't know. Not a lot. For sure. You know what pisses me off today in TV and movies. that, like, to me, it can't be like this relatable girl at home if I know how your hair is, like, dead right now.
Starting point is 00:56:18 You know what I mean? When they do the curls and the, like, hair up, but, like, two down. Like, I feel like Girls was one of the shows that, like, the girls look like, we looked. Yes. Like, me and my friends looked. You know what I mean? Yes. Like, even if you had a little bit of foundation.
Starting point is 00:56:34 Yeah, I had, like, a fun. It was just not today. I'll be watching a movie and I think it's so good. But I can't get over the fact that she's in full glam and eyelashes. You know what I mean? It's tough. Like those things to me. But you know what's really crazy is that doing a messy bun like we would do getting out of bed is so hard.
Starting point is 00:56:54 You can never get it twice. It's so crazy. You can never get it. So because on an episode like Panic at Central Park, I had to have that bun for multiple days. It had to be done by Sherry and it had to be the same every day. So you got to get like a kind of scientifically perfect messy bun, which takes about twice as long as it would do to, do like a blowout or a boost wave. It's very mysterious, ponytail tails and buns.
Starting point is 00:57:15 So after girls? Yeah. How long after that was Get Out, which was fucking huge? The Shot Get Out, I think, before the winter before the final season of Girls. Wow. We Shock Get Out. And that was, that was, yeah, that was an incredible experience. And also, again, a very weirdly charmed experience where it was my first movie.
Starting point is 00:57:37 And I had this like. For a audition for a movie? I did not audition for it because Jordan saw, again, lucky, Jordan saw had watched girls and was a fan from girls, but then also saw me play Peter Pan. And he was like, she'll do anything. He's like, she will. She flew on live television with Christopher Walken as Captain Hook. Like, she will, she will happily play an evil white supermistess in this movie. And I was like, you're right, I will. And I read the script and immediately had that. Like, I was like, this movie is going to be huge. This movie is going to be huge. It's one of those movies that, like, everybody saw, which must feel so good. You know, it's like a Jen Zier has seen it. My mom has seen it. Like, it's one of those movies that's not like, oh, no, you should really.
Starting point is 00:58:22 No, no. Everybody has seen this movie. And you were perfect in which I don't know if it's a compliment. It's tough. I take it as I was like, I want her to be as evil as she possibly can be. I need to do it myself. I was like, I want her to be the worst of me in. the me in the world, the broader sense of me.
Starting point is 00:58:41 Luckily, I don't have anything in common with her. I can say that with pride. But other than, you know, demographics and, I guess, biology. But I think the challenge of making Rose as, like, innocent and trustworthy in the beginning and then as evil and devoid of humanity by the end was something I was so excited to do. And I felt so honored to be part of that movie. And it was just like a great, it was Blumhouse and Universal. and it felt like, you know, this incredible creative experience that just felt dreamy from the start.
Starting point is 00:59:15 And then we had this amazing life and people still talk to me about it. And it's just, yeah, I feel extremely lucky to have been in that movie. It's so probably, you made fun a little bit of the Peter Pan thing. But it seems like you really pick projects, like you pick them. Like you don't just take anything that you get, like you want to make sure that you, you you're doing something you're proud of. Yeah, I don't do a lot of things. And even Peter Pan, like, you know, those live musicals are so, it's musical theater. And that's like not everyone's thing. And people can roll their eyes at the very fact of it. But Peter Pan had so much
Starting point is 00:59:51 significance to me when I was younger. And when they were like, do you want to play Peter Pan? I was just like, 100%. And everyone was like, was that a scary decision? I was like, it should have been. But I didn't think about it twice. And it was one of the most fulfilling creative experiences in my entire life. It was just a blast. But yes, I, I, I, I, I am very deliberate, possibly to a fault. I just like to think about things from every single angle, every movie that I do. And the dream, what Get Out did for me was it knocked the Marnie loose from me a little bit, which was really hard to shake for all those years.
Starting point is 01:00:23 But then it also introduced me to the thriller genre where you're able to like deal with a psychosocial issue that is being broadly thought about or worried about or talked about in a way that is campy. in the case of Megan or like funny in a dark way in the case of Get Out. You can take race and put it in this genre and suddenly it's possible
Starting point is 01:00:47 to have a much more nuanced interesting conversation than the ones we'd been capable of having at that point. And so then I kind of got addicted to being able to do that and I did this movie The Perfection that was about
Starting point is 01:00:56 sexual abuse within the confines of a music world and that was similar. It was a bat-shit crazy fun, awesome movie. And it's dealing with, again, a very serious subject matter in the thriller genre.
Starting point is 01:01:07 And then when I got the script for the original Megan, it was at a time when all my friends were starting to have kids and freaking out about their kids' relationship to technology. And I was like, oh, my God, this is it. Here it is again. This is that thing of, like, taking this issue that people are quietly nervous about and putting it into its most, like, exaggerated,
Starting point is 01:01:26 can't be fun form and allowing people to talk about it without it being scary, really. So how did you get into producing it? You got the script, like, for acting in it, right? Yeah. So how did you get the producing? I think I've basically always done some amount of producing on the stuff that I was in from Get Out on. I've just like always, my brain just needs to be involved in addition to the other parts of me with the stuff that I work on.
Starting point is 01:01:52 And with Megan, I knew that that was something I wanted to start doing. And so I can't remember if it came with the offer, the EP credit for it. But I jumped at that opportunity. And since then, other than fellow travelers, everything I've been in, I've also either been. executive producer or producer on. And I take that role extremely seriously. Like I, yes, I, there's no amount of it that I don't want. I want to, I'm always asking me to be like added to email threads. I'm just like, something wrong with me. I'm like, add me to the thread of the like post schedule. Oh my God. Do you know I'm also like that? If I'm not on the thread. Triggering.
Starting point is 01:02:25 I need to see. Screenshot it to me then. Show me what you talked about. No, I need to be on it. I need to know everything that's happening. Oh my God. You're so type A. It's so type A. But I also like. So do you want to like direct and do more. Or producing is where you want to love? I'm loving this combination because the way it feels for me is almost like it's weird because every department has a department head on a set. And technically I would say directors are the like department head for the actors, but not exactly. And so the way it started to happen on the Megan movies is that I kind of felt like the department head for the actors. So not only was I at the production meetings for like producery things of, I don't know, just the normal stuff that comes up in a production meeting or on a tech scout or whatever, casting,
Starting point is 01:03:06 pre-vis, department head hiring, all of that stuff, and then it threw all of post. But I also felt like I was there as a representative of the actors and I could help liaise with the actors and be like, okay, guys, here's what's going on. And it's just a role that I started to really love. And everyone else is so busy with other things. And it was something I felt like no one really was doing. And so that's kind of how I see. It's like, if you're number one on the call sheet, you have a responsibility. You said the example from the top, no bullshit. Just keep the vibes. happy. If there's any kinks in the system, you figure out where they are, you work them out. And I absolutely love it. And then the post side of it, the editing, post-production, polishing up
Starting point is 01:03:46 of a movie, and then the how to release it into the world. And all of that, I just absolutely love as well. So I just love the whole thing. I feel so lucky. It does sound really fun. And for Megan... You would like it, I think. I feel like I know you really well. I think you would love it. No, that's why I was like, I was like, I would like that. Yeah. And by the way, this is very similar to that. So with podcasting you have, there's all the preparatory stuff you do, like scheduling, ad sales, all the art, you know, coming up with the tone and the vibe, like your teases and all of that stuff, keeping it all in the same world. And then you have to edit it and you probably do two rounds and then, or maybe at this point they know what you like and you don't have to.
Starting point is 01:04:25 You have a visual component that's even more complicated and the social. Like, it is very similar except it's happening so much more quickly and it's like you're releasing a movie like very frequently, which is a lot. Are you so excited for the world to see Megan 2.0? I'm so excited. This movie is so fun. June 27th. Is this a movie we have to see in the movie theater?
Starting point is 01:04:47 It's so annoying because everyone says that because we really love, like, people continuing the trend of going back to the theaters. I would say yes. Like, for anyone who saw the first one in the theaters, I don't think they'll take any convincing that, like, this is a super fun experience in a movie theater. I just want to tell you that, like, even if you think you know what this movie's going to be, like, based on the trailers, and I just released the second trailer the other day. Like, exactly.
Starting point is 01:05:11 It's crazy. Somehow that's all one movie, and it is such a fun ride. Like, from the moment the movie starts, you're on a ride, and it is something, there are laughs and surprises and things that I would not want to experience alone at my house, knowing that I could be experiencing it with other people. Because the rippling, like, I watch, when you test a movie, you get footage as a producer of the audience watching the movie. And I always watch that. I love to watch. It's like that, remember with the paranormal activity when they first promoted it? You'd have like the shots of the
Starting point is 01:05:43 audience, like, throwing up and leaving the theater and painting and stuff. So you can watch the audience watch the movie. And it is so fun to be like, I can hear, I can feel this joke cresting. And, you know, like the audience's allegiance is here. And now I'm feeling it shift. Like, the movie is so fun. I'm so excited to see it. No, I did not get a sneak peek, you guys. No, no one's No one's seen it. No one's seen it. No one's seen it. So excited to see it. Also, Allison, Pod dropped already? Or just teaser dropped. Yeah. Just teaser. Okay. Landlines. Tell me why landlines. Because that's where our friendships were built on landlines. They were. I know. Did you have the see-through phone where you could see all the thing. I didn't have a see-through phone. I didn't have my own line. The eye roll you just gave me. Even I got my own line. No, but my parents were like, you're just not. We don't trust you with that. And they were right. They shouldn't have. So that's how you met your two friends that are doing this with you. I met Hope when we were born because our moms grew up together in that town. And then we met Jamie in kindergarten when she joined our school.
Starting point is 01:06:44 And so way before landlines, but our friendships were like forged in like a, you know, a conference call. But yeah, so it was like just it felt when I got pregnant, I don't know where you were in your friend order of having kids. But I was among the last. And I was like the huge upside to this is that I have at my fingertips these like full experts that I can just be like, What is a Duna? And then like seven people respond and be like, you need it. Don't ask questions. I'll show you how to fold it.
Starting point is 01:07:10 Did you love it? Oh, are you kidding? No, it's suburban people. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then I got in. I was like, I don't know what to do. Oh, you guys were working with like an apparatus.
Starting point is 01:07:18 Also, like Lenny's really big. He grew out of it in like seven seconds. He looked way too big for you. It's like when they're little. Yeah, they're little squishy. We traveled the globe like a ton in Arlo's first life. Okay, it's a super traveling. And it was, it is a godsend.
Starting point is 01:07:33 I'm not paid by them. I wish. They did send you one for free. They sent you one for free. Oh, they did. I thought you. Oh, no. This was registered.
Starting point is 01:07:42 We're like, we're like, we need this thing. But I didn't know. I was like, what are all of these? What is a bassinet versus a crib? Correct. And they were able to just like, it was like having chat GPT who can make references. Like, remember when you had this in your room, it's like this, but for this. How do you decide to start a podcast when you're so busy?
Starting point is 01:07:57 You just wrapped regretting you, which is another Colleen Hoover novel, which everyone's obsessed with everything she does and writes. Yes. How you fit in a pod? We filmed, filmed, we recorded the podcast episodes in the fall, in the fall of last year. And then because I first shot a movie, a little independent film called Kill Me in Utah. And then I shot the additional photography for Megan. And then I shot regretting you by the Colleen Hoover adaptation.
Starting point is 01:08:24 Yes. And so now the podcast is coming out. And so we've recorded all the episodes in the fall of last year. And we've just been tinkering with them. So what's a release date for that? June 8th. It's coming out. Janette.
Starting point is 01:08:35 On Monday. So we'll be out already. It'll be out. Yeah, exactly. Is it episode dropping once a week? Yes. Okay. Mondays? Yes.
Starting point is 01:08:42 June 27th, we have Megan 2.0. Yeah. And is there any date for regretting you? October 24th. Okay. That's not too far away. It is not too far away. I'm so excited.
Starting point is 01:08:52 Way, way, way too soon. It's like so soon. Because you're going to be press tour, press tour. No, it just makes me nervous from a producer standpoint whenever the release date for something is that. Are you producing on that one as well? I'm an EP on that one. Amazing.
Starting point is 01:09:03 Yeah. Yeah. I'm very. happy about that. It was, I didn't get to, on both kill me and regretting you, because of the Megan of it all, I didn't get to fully, like, be there for prep and for post in every part of the production. But the, the EP part of it is just like, just the greatest. It's the best. You're the best. I'm so happy you came on. There's so much more I wanted to talk to you about. It's just not enough time. Come back for. Can I come back on for regretting you? We'll talk more.
Starting point is 01:09:29 Okay. Well, okay, your homework is to watch Real Houseways of Salt Lake City. I promise. She wants to murder me. Look, look at that face. Yeah, that's a big eye. Full face eye roll, like her whole face roll. She keeps saying it deserves an Emmy. I will. What's my homework?
Starting point is 01:09:41 What do I need to watch? Oh, do you watch Summer House? Early seasons. Should I tune in again? Should she tune in again? Yeah. I should. What else do I watch?
Starting point is 01:09:52 She watches a lot of like, like, show. She's not really like that reality. Oh, well, same. What show? Like adolescence who are obsessed. I mean. Your friends and neighbors. Oh, I haven't started that.
Starting point is 01:10:02 So good. Okay. That's my. Homer. We'll talk about it next time. Okay. Perfect. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Not Skinny but Not Fat. Follow me on Instagram at not skinny but not fat. Subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any episodes. Rate the podcast that you love so much on Apple Podcast and write a little review. If you tell me you did, I'll give you a big virtual smoocharoo. Thank you guys so much for listening and I'll see you next Tuesday.
Starting point is 01:10:33 Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

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