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Zosia Mamet: 'People freak out over my dad' Zosia Mamet: 'People freak out over my dad'
(about 9 hours later)
Zosia Mamet says she knew Girls was a huge success when people started coming up to her in the street and talking to her as if she were Shoshanna Shapiro, the character she plays in the show. Worse than that, because of what she calls Girls's "incredibly intense confessional nature", people started coming up to her in the street and telling her about their sex lives. "They feel like they can tell us anything," she sighs. "I've had people say crazy shit to me. Like, I had a girl come up to me and thank me, because she said she and her boyfriend have sex after they watch the show, and then she told me she was worried about what would happen to their sex lives when the show goes off the air."Zosia Mamet says she knew Girls was a huge success when people started coming up to her in the street and talking to her as if she were Shoshanna Shapiro, the character she plays in the show. Worse than that, because of what she calls Girls's "incredibly intense confessional nature", people started coming up to her in the street and telling her about their sex lives. "They feel like they can tell us anything," she sighs. "I've had people say crazy shit to me. Like, I had a girl come up to me and thank me, because she said she and her boyfriend have sex after they watch the show, and then she told me she was worried about what would happen to their sex lives when the show goes off the air."
Leaving aside the question of what kind of person finds the sex in the show arousing – there are sex scenes in Girls that leave you glumly wondering whether you'll ever feel like having it off again – Mamet says the most immediately pressing issue is what you say in response. "I mean, you have to sort of take it in your stride. You never want to embarrass people. But what do you say to that? I don't know. I think I just went, 'Oh.' People are strange."Leaving aside the question of what kind of person finds the sex in the show arousing – there are sex scenes in Girls that leave you glumly wondering whether you'll ever feel like having it off again – Mamet says the most immediately pressing issue is what you say in response. "I mean, you have to sort of take it in your stride. You never want to embarrass people. But what do you say to that? I don't know. I think I just went, 'Oh.' People are strange."
Such are the perils of starring in one of the most discussed TV series of recent years. You could argue that the amount of ink spilt on Girls is wildly disproportionate to the number of people who've actually seen it. But anyone doubting that the show, about to return for its third series, is held to be a very big deal might cast an eye over the circumstances in which I meet Mamet. Sky Atlantic appear to have taken over an entire floor of a London hotel. There are PRs everywhere running things with a zeal that borders on the demented. When I ask if I can nip to the toilet en route to meeting Mamet, a woman with a clipboard looks aghast. "You'll have to hurry up. Really, be very quick. We're on a very tight schedule." But I'm here early, I protest. "You're only 10 minutes early actually," she snaps. "You should have been here at that time anyway." Suitably chastened, I'm permitted to go for a wee.Such are the perils of starring in one of the most discussed TV series of recent years. You could argue that the amount of ink spilt on Girls is wildly disproportionate to the number of people who've actually seen it. But anyone doubting that the show, about to return for its third series, is held to be a very big deal might cast an eye over the circumstances in which I meet Mamet. Sky Atlantic appear to have taken over an entire floor of a London hotel. There are PRs everywhere running things with a zeal that borders on the demented. When I ask if I can nip to the toilet en route to meeting Mamet, a woman with a clipboard looks aghast. "You'll have to hurry up. Really, be very quick. We're on a very tight schedule." But I'm here early, I protest. "You're only 10 minutes early actually," she snaps. "You should have been here at that time anyway." Suitably chastened, I'm permitted to go for a wee.
Amid all this, Mamet herself is an ocean of calm. For a 25-year-old who claims to have had difficulty adjusting to the simultaneously "wonderful and awful" experience of fame ("Losing your anonymity is an incredibly bizarre thing and I don't think you can ever prepare for it"), she's quite the pro at interviews: polite, warm and adept at avoiding questions she doesn't want to answer. Last year, she attempted to raise $32,000 on Kickstarter to make a video for her band Cabin Sisters – or, as their Kickstarter page put it, "realise through the visual artistry of some very talented people the universal feeling of unrequited love". The appeal provoked a storm of protest about successful actors appealing for funds through a crowdsourcing website, and only £2,783 was raised.Amid all this, Mamet herself is an ocean of calm. For a 25-year-old who claims to have had difficulty adjusting to the simultaneously "wonderful and awful" experience of fame ("Losing your anonymity is an incredibly bizarre thing and I don't think you can ever prepare for it"), she's quite the pro at interviews: polite, warm and adept at avoiding questions she doesn't want to answer. Last year, she attempted to raise $32,000 on Kickstarter to make a video for her band Cabin Sisters – or, as their Kickstarter page put it, "realise through the visual artistry of some very talented people the universal feeling of unrequited love". The appeal provoked a storm of protest about successful actors appealing for funds through a crowdsourcing website, and only £2,783 was raised.
Enquiries about this are met with polite equanimity. "You know," she sighs, "it was something we tried that didn't work, that I also think was an incredibly charged topic at the time." The actor Zach Braff had just raised $3m to make the comedy drama Wish I Was Here through Kickstarter. "People warned me against it, because of what Zach was doing, but my point was that we were incredibly different, and our careers have been incredibly different. But you know, everyone is going to have an opinion and sometimes people are an easier target than others. I didn't really take it to heart."Enquiries about this are met with polite equanimity. "You know," she sighs, "it was something we tried that didn't work, that I also think was an incredibly charged topic at the time." The actor Zach Braff had just raised $3m to make the comedy drama Wish I Was Here through Kickstarter. "People warned me against it, because of what Zach was doing, but my point was that we were incredibly different, and our careers have been incredibly different. But you know, everyone is going to have an opinion and sometimes people are an easier target than others. I didn't really take it to heart."
When I ask about the controversy surrounding Girls – the suggestions that its first series was insufficiently racially diverse and focused exclusively on a privileged world full of entitled characters – she claims "not to really know much of what it is, because I honestly don't read much about it". Her father, the writer and director David Mamet, told her never to read anything about her work, she says. "He was incredibly controversial at times and I was really taught, growing up, not to read reviews. He said the good ones are never good enough, and the bad ones are the only ones you'll remember." Oh come on, I say, you must have some basic idea of what the criticisms of the show were and whether you think they were valid. "Maybe that sounds incredibly sheltered of me," she smiles, politely but firmly closing that door.When I ask about the controversy surrounding Girls – the suggestions that its first series was insufficiently racially diverse and focused exclusively on a privileged world full of entitled characters – she claims "not to really know much of what it is, because I honestly don't read much about it". Her father, the writer and director David Mamet, told her never to read anything about her work, she says. "He was incredibly controversial at times and I was really taught, growing up, not to read reviews. He said the good ones are never good enough, and the bad ones are the only ones you'll remember." Oh come on, I say, you must have some basic idea of what the criticisms of the show were and whether you think they were valid. "Maybe that sounds incredibly sheltered of me," she smiles, politely but firmly closing that door.
Mamet had high-profile television roles before, not least as hip lesbian photo editor Joyce Ramsay in Mad Men, but none of them garnered the kind of attention she has received for Girls. She was, she says, "completely unprepared" for the show's success. For one thing, Shoshanna was only supposed to appear in the pilot episode. A kind of wide-eyed and virginal foil to the other characters' moodiness, cynicism and self-assurance, she was originally conceived largely to point up that Girls was different to Sex and the City, Shoshanna's favourite show.Mamet had high-profile television roles before, not least as hip lesbian photo editor Joyce Ramsay in Mad Men, but none of them garnered the kind of attention she has received for Girls. She was, she says, "completely unprepared" for the show's success. For one thing, Shoshanna was only supposed to appear in the pilot episode. A kind of wide-eyed and virginal foil to the other characters' moodiness, cynicism and self-assurance, she was originally conceived largely to point up that Girls was different to Sex and the City, Shoshanna's favourite show.
No sooner had she got the part than she thought she had lost it. She was ill at her first read-through and took a potent over-the-counter cold remedy called NyQuil. "I forgot how incredibly strong it is. I went to the reading so drunk on Nyquil that I couldn't remember any of it afterwards, although I had a vague recollection that I'd thrown up on the table. I called my agent and said, 'I don't now if this happened or not, but I'm pretty positive it did and I'm going to lose my job.' And it turns out I didn't actually throw up. I like dreamt it in a NyQuil haze. And then they called and asked if I wanted to be a series regular." No sooner had she got the part than she thought she had lost it. She was ill at her first read-through and took a potent over-the-counter cold remedy called NyQuil. "I forgot how incredibly strong it is. I went to the reading so drunk on Nyquil that I couldn't remember any of it afterwards, although I had a vague recollection that I'd thrown up on the table. I called my agent and said, 'I don't know if this happened or not, but I'm pretty positive it did and I'm going to lose my job.' And it turns out I didn't actually throw up. I like dreamt it in a NyQuil haze. And then they called and asked if I wanted to be a series regular."
A cynic might suggest that Mamet fitted perfectly into the cast purely on the grounds of also having famous parents – she stars alongside Jemima Kirke, daughter of Free and Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke, and Alison Williams, whose father is an anchorman on NBC. But Mamet insists that being the daughter of a Pulitzer prizewinning playwright and the actor Lindsay Crouse, best known for appearing in Hill Street Blues and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was a mixed blessing (the two divorced when she was a baby). On the one hand, she never wanted to be anything other than an actor. She hated school: first a "very strict and really awful" Christian school and then an exclusive and "very Hollywood" secondary school called Crossroads, which tried to expel her.A cynic might suggest that Mamet fitted perfectly into the cast purely on the grounds of also having famous parents – she stars alongside Jemima Kirke, daughter of Free and Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke, and Alison Williams, whose father is an anchorman on NBC. But Mamet insists that being the daughter of a Pulitzer prizewinning playwright and the actor Lindsay Crouse, best known for appearing in Hill Street Blues and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was a mixed blessing (the two divorced when she was a baby). On the one hand, she never wanted to be anything other than an actor. She hated school: first a "very strict and really awful" Christian school and then an exclusive and "very Hollywood" secondary school called Crossroads, which tried to expel her.
She doesn't elaborate on precisely what she did, beyond "being a teenager and having a difficult time", but mention of the school causes her air of serenity to momentarily vanish. "They sort of had this reputation for being really liberal and open and accepting, and I was a kid who had sort of a hard time in high school and they really didn't care. Instead of trying to help me, they tried to kick me out because they didn't want to deal with me. So I found them incredibly hypocritical, which I also felt was quite awful."She doesn't elaborate on precisely what she did, beyond "being a teenager and having a difficult time", but mention of the school causes her air of serenity to momentarily vanish. "They sort of had this reputation for being really liberal and open and accepting, and I was a kid who had sort of a hard time in high school and they really didn't care. Instead of trying to help me, they tried to kick me out because they didn't want to deal with me. So I found them incredibly hypocritical, which I also felt was quite awful."
By contrast, she says, "growing up with my mum and dad, I was at rehearsal with them at theatres and on set with them all the time, and I thought it was the most magical place on Earth". But despite the occasional leg up – she appeared in her father's TV drama The Unit aged 17 – her career started slowly. When she began auditioning for parts, "a lot of people gave me a much harder time because they didn't want me to have it easy. And some people were overly welcoming. A lot of it was quite odd, just people freaking out over my dad." In addition, as a child, she'd been forbidden from watching American TV (British comedy, including, a little improbably, Are You Being Served?, was apparently allowed). "It was frustrating for my agent, because I would go in for TV shows and be like, 'I don't know what this show is.' I honestly didn't even own a TV until I met my boyfriend."By contrast, she says, "growing up with my mum and dad, I was at rehearsal with them at theatres and on set with them all the time, and I thought it was the most magical place on Earth". But despite the occasional leg up – she appeared in her father's TV drama The Unit aged 17 – her career started slowly. When she began auditioning for parts, "a lot of people gave me a much harder time because they didn't want me to have it easy. And some people were overly welcoming. A lot of it was quite odd, just people freaking out over my dad." In addition, as a child, she'd been forbidden from watching American TV (British comedy, including, a little improbably, Are You Being Served?, was apparently allowed). "It was frustrating for my agent, because I would go in for TV shows and be like, 'I don't know what this show is.' I honestly didn't even own a TV until I met my boyfriend."
Her big concern now is typecasting. During her annual hiatus from the show, she "makes a conscious effort to choose roles that are different to Shoshanna". Despite the Kickstarter incident, she has ambitions for her band, which used to proffer a self-styled "unique brand of folk via body percussion, banjo and harmonies", but now is apparently "poppier".Her big concern now is typecasting. During her annual hiatus from the show, she "makes a conscious effort to choose roles that are different to Shoshanna". Despite the Kickstarter incident, she has ambitions for her band, which used to proffer a self-styled "unique brand of folk via body percussion, banjo and harmonies", but now is apparently "poppier".
If they make it, perhaps people will stop coming up to her in the street and talking to her as if she's Shoshanna – or informing her that Shoshanna is about to be killed off. "I was in the store and two girls came up saying, 'We're so sad you're not coming back next year.' I was like, 'I'm sorry? What?' They showed me this thing that had been written." Dunham had mused that, if forced to kill off a main character for dramatic effect, it would be Shoshanna. "It was a kind of off-the-cuff remark that people took and ran with. So I emailed Lena and said, 'Should Shoshanna be nervous around elevator shafts?' And she assured me I shouldn't."If they make it, perhaps people will stop coming up to her in the street and talking to her as if she's Shoshanna – or informing her that Shoshanna is about to be killed off. "I was in the store and two girls came up saying, 'We're so sad you're not coming back next year.' I was like, 'I'm sorry? What?' They showed me this thing that had been written." Dunham had mused that, if forced to kill off a main character for dramatic effect, it would be Shoshanna. "It was a kind of off-the-cuff remark that people took and ran with. So I emailed Lena and said, 'Should Shoshanna be nervous around elevator shafts?' And she assured me I shouldn't."
Girls is on Sky Atlantic tonight at 10pm.Girls is on Sky Atlantic tonight at 10pm.