“Logo Text Janicza Bravo and Lena Dunham First Met While Making Camping-Dunham Was The Creator of the Short-Lived HBO Series, While Bravo Was Years After Its Canceliation that Their Friendship Took Off. “We had the Same Outlook,” Bravo Says with a”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
Janicza Bravo and Lena Dunham First Met While Making Camping -Dunham Was The Creator of the Short-Lived HBO Series, While Bravo Was Part of the Ensemble Cast-But It Wasn’t Until the Pandemic Hit Twours After Shipsellation. “We have the Same Outlook,” Bravo Says with a laugh. “I’M ALREADY A Little Antisocial, SO IT ONLY encouraged me to be even more afraid of Being AROUND PEOPLE. LENA AND I TRUSted Each Other’s Isalation Style So.” Dunham Was Also in the Beginning Stages of Her Relationship with Her Now-Husband Luis Felber, and Soft-Pitched Bravo Her Idea for A SHOW BASED (LOOSEELY!) AROUND Their Romance. “She said she wanted me to be in it, and that was a no-brainer because i would say no to anything she asked,“ Says Bravo.
The Idea Eventually Became Too MuchThe Netflix Rom-Com Starring Meg Stalter and Will Sharpe That Has Hit A Nareve (Complimentary!) With Dunham’s MOSTLENNIAL FAN BASE. Bravo Plays Kim, Stalter’s Co-Worker, Fellow American and Occasonal Sister in (Lovesick) ARMS; she also directed the episode “One Wedding and Ax Pest.” Below, She Tells The Hollywood Reporter WHY she was so quica to jump on Board the show and what she haveks of the series’ Central Breakup.
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DID LENA WRITE The Character of Kim Knowing that It Wuld be You Playing Her?
Sort of. Lena and I HAD BEEN DAYDREAMING About Making Something Together. WHICH WE WORKING ON, We’re Writing Something Together. The Conversation About Too Much WAS, I WANT YOU TO DO KIM. And I was like like, Great. WHEN I’M DIRECTING, I NEVER GET The CHANCE TO Watch Other People Direct. I didn’T go to film school, so what I love about acating is being able to Learn from Directors I like and respect. But I ALSO TOLD HER: I have to direct an episode, too. I Really Wanted to Direct in Her World.
What about the character of kim is unique to you as an actor?
AT FIRST I WAS LIKE, “OH, You Just Want Me to Be Janicza On This Show.” I Think Lena Wuld Agree with This, that MOST CASTING IS BECAUSE they want some Version of you, they want some dye Degree of the things you are already doing. So there’s a good deal of overlap between me and kim. She is a Woman Who Sort of Ran Away from Home to Start this New Life for Herself, and It Reminded Me of How I Left New York and Came to La Because and Wanted to Be Able to Rewrit. Kim is Going Through the Grief of a Relationship that didn’t Serve Her, and Trying to Find Her Own Sexuality. I have been in a margin, and was in my 40s, and basically all of the world told me that i was was no longer sexy – but i was was felling like my sexiest, and my Mus Mus. Kim Was Who and Wanted to Grow Up to Be, Basical.
DID YOU CONSULT ON Any of Her Wardrobe?
Arielle Cooper-Litem, Who did the Costumes, is so Brilliant. She did the costumes for my show The Listeners and I Really Trusted Her. She Knows i’m A Cloths Freak. I Wanted to Wear Designers Who I LOVE, AND WHO I SUPPORT MYSELF, BUT ALSO TO ABLE TO CHAMPION SMALLER, LESSER-KNOWN Designers. I ALSO HAD TO REMIND MYSELF THAT IT WAS OKAY TO GO OUTSIDE MY Comfort Zone, so there were celery somely.
What is your take on the Character of Zev? How did you react to his relationship choices when you read the script?
We have this conversing with emily ratajkowski, who and Think on Paper is the quintessential the-man-lleaves-yu-yu-this-girl-in-in-in-this-kind-of-of-movie. I Think in a Lot of Ways, Zev Is Also A Pretty Classic Shithead. But I perceived broth of Those Characters’ Stories as Being Less about Who Those People Are And More, How They Move Through The World And Who Do You Surround you. Maybe this is because i’m in my fortiies, and i would see it differly if i were in my twenties. But in my twenties, i wasn’t always good at choosing the right people. I Think The Show Is As Much About Love As It Is About Meg and Will’s Characters Surmounding Themselves with People Who Are In Their Corner. SO WHEN I THINK OF ZEV, SURE HE’S A DICK, BUT REALLY HE’S JUST NOT A Person Who Is Meant To Support Her. That’s so clear to me.
Meg Stalter and Will Sharpe in Episode Eight of Too MuchDirected by Janicza Bravo.
You Also Directed Episode Eight, and from the Outside, You Directing Zola WAS A HUGE TURNING Point in your Career. DID IT Feel That Way to You?
I’ve been on a steady trajectory, i’d say from my first feature LEMONto the First Episode of Television i DID, WHICH WAS Atlanta. Both of Those Came Out in the Same Year [2017]And Since Then I’ve Been ABLE to GO FROM Job to Job and I’ve Also Been Able to Be Picky – I’M Persnicket, I’M Particular, and i’m Not Very Good at Doing Work. I’ve Tried a Couple of Times and It’s A Disaster. I REALLY HAVE TO WANT TO BE THERE, SO SADLY FOR ME IS NOT GREAT Financially. (Laughs) But Both of Those Projects Really Gave Me a Proof of Concept, WHERE PEOPLE COURKLD SEE WHAT I CAN DO AS A DIRECTOR. And then Zola Changed My Life and Alowed Me to Make A Leap Forward – and to Afford to Say No to More.
DID YOU KNOW THAT IT BE LIFE-CANKING WHILE YOU WEER MAKING IT?
It’s Funny, Because at the Bottom of 2019 and Was Like, Next Year Is Going to Be Huge for Me. Zola WAS GOING TO PLAY AT SUNDANCE AND IT WAS GOING TO Come Out AUND JULY 4th AND IT WAS GOING TO BE The Indie. None of that happled. I Waited a Year and a Half to Release the Movie, and It Half at a Time WHEN Theaters Are Half Their Capacity – WHICH IS NOT The ENVIRONMENT I WANTED TO RELEASE The FILM IN. I Impossible Not to Ask If The Circumstans Had Been Different, Wound It Have Done More More for Me? But then, what does more even mean?
How did you decide on whohh episode of Too Much would be best for you to direct?
Lena Picked It for Me. I Tend to Direct The Departure Episodes: A Holiday or A Funeral. I’ve said no to directing a lot of Really Good Television Because i didn’T feel like i was was going to be additive, so as picked an episode while i could be. My partner is English, so i’ve had the privilege of going to a handyful of English weddings and they were were my first iDea of what would be feel. The idea was to put jes in an environment that feles very alien and unwelComing, and i THINK iting does that. IT WAS SUCH A GREAT Location to Shoot in, Pippa Middleton Got Married There and A Lot of British Shows Have Shot there. I Think The Crownand there was a scene from Spencer. My perception of Englishland Prior to Living there for work was what i watched as a teen anglophile: Merchant Ivory, Remains of the day. THEN I MOVED THERE AND WAS LIKE, OH, IT’S MORE Bridget Jones. Meg, As Jess, Is Modernity Being Thrust Upon Apon A More Stale, Rigid, Confirmed Way.
You Also Directed An Episode of The Bear This Season. WHAT IS The BEST THING YOU AT DURING YOUR TIME WORKING ON THE SHOW?
That show is fucking awesome. That’s a shower who, there’s nothing i’m going to add to it, It’s Really Figured Out It ITS ECOSYSTEM. I have the Hamburger Helper. I’d Never Had It Before! It Slapped. This was a bougie Version of it, but i do through any tier it would be pretty skick. My Paarents Are Panamanian, and I’M First-Gen American, SO Hamburger Helper Just Didn’t translate to our hoes. I Remember My Mom Thinking Some Things Were Just Not Our Culture.
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Too Much is Now Streaming on Netflix. Read Thr’s Finale Postmortem with Co-Creaters Lena Dunham and Luis Felber, and Stars Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe.