Blog

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers for “Too Much.”

Emily Ratajkowski has returned to acting after making headlines in 2023 for firing her team and leaving the business. At the time, she lamented the feeling of making herself “digestible to powerful men in Hollywood,” so it’s no surprise that her first new project is not only created by a woman, but by her friend: Lena Dunham.

“Too Much,” Dunham’s new Netflix comedy series, follows Jessica (Megan Stalter) in the months following her breakup from her ex-boyfriend Zev (Michael Zegen). Ratajkowski plays Wendy, Zev’s new girlfriend, who is an influencer, and the constant stream of Instagram photos from Zev and Wendy’s happy life together drives Jessica crazy. She drunkenly breaks into their New York apartment to confront them one night, while Wendy does tell Jessica she seems crazy, she’s surprisingly calm and generous during the encounter.

Throughout the series, Jessica records videos addressed to Wendy that she uploads to a private Instagram account. It’s meant to be an outlet for her to cope with her breakup, but one day, she accidentally makes the account public and the videos go viral. Soon after, Wendy reaches out to Jessica and asks to meet up. Rather that discuss the videos, Wendy asks Jessica for details on the timeline of her breakup with Zev, and together, they realize Zev was lying to them both. They bond over the way Zev treated them and wish each other well, with Wendy even offering Jessica advice about her current relationship with Felix (Will Sharpe).

Ratajkowski spoke to Variety about playing “the other woman.”

You and Lena Dunham have been friends for a long time. What were your initial thoughts when she told you about this role?

We’ve always had a lot of conversations around women that you feel like you’re connected to in strange ways, but you don’t totally know them. And how, as we’ve gotten older, we’ve always been pro-sisterhood, but that when you’re younger, you don’t necessarily do that, because you’re intimidated or because it’s a defense mechanism.

Do you relate to Jessica as well as Wendy in that way? Having those ideas about other women, but having others project onto you as well?

I mean, I’ve been Jessica and I’ve been Wendy. I think, probably, that’s true for most people. At first, Lena had written her as a lawyer, and I was like, “I want her to be a little bit more hateable.” She was such a smart, perfect, amazing person who was, like, posting social justice stuff online. And I was like, “I really want this girl to be an influencer, and I don’t think that’s leaning into stereotypes, because we’re going to get to know her in a better way, but I think the payoff could be really great at the end.” It’s a weird time we live in. 30 years ago, if your ex-boyfriend got a new girlfriend, you’d maybe meet her once, or see a picture once, but now you can have access to their everyday goings-on. And I think that can really fuck with your brain, because it’s someone that you share a person with or history with, and there’s a connection, but they’re behind a screen. So I think it was really cool the way that Lena explored that.

Tell me more about wanting to make her feel hateable. Was the purpose of that to help validate the way Jessica’s feeling?

No, I just liked the idea that people are like, “Oh, of course, an influencer.” There’s just a lot of judgment for women who post a lot online, or play into the attention economy. And I personally didn’t think that made her more hateable, but I could see why someone else would. Somebody who was well-meaning was like, “Let’s make her so smart.” I’m like, “She is so smart. But that doesn’t mean she has to be a lawyer, right?” And she also is just in opposition to Jessica in so many ways. She’s really cool and collected, and she’s creatively fulfilled, and all these things that Jessica can’t relate to. But then, of course, we get to see that she’s also this dynamic character in the final episode.

Until that final episode, we only see Wendy through the perspective of Jessica, who imagines that she and Zev have a picture-perfect life together. But obviously, Wendy’s relationship with Zev had big problems. How do you imagine that time?

I [thought of Wendy] as a girl who was living with roommates and who had had serious relationships before, but maybe of a certain kind. She was like, “Oh, this is the dorky guy. He’s safe.” Which happens with women in your 20s and your 30s. You try out different tropes, because you’re like, “Maybe this archetype! The sweet guy! Or the nerdy guy! They’re going to be different! I’ll be safe from these things I’ve experienced before.” My vision of Wendy was that she was like, “He’s such a nice Jewish boy who has great taste in music, and sees me for who I am all the things that I love to do. And we can talk about all the cool shit that I want to talk about. He’s cozy.” And, of course, he turns out not to be that way at all.

And how do you think Wendy was imagining Jessica? She was definitely being told one story by Zev, but she seems to have had her own perspective too.

I’m sure she also has stalked Jessica [online]. There’s probably, like, three girls whose lives she checks in on regularly. And she does have a crazy experience with Jess, which obviously validates a lot of what Zev was probably telling her. When she breaks in, I think she’s of two minds. She’s like, “Okay, you’re kind of crazy, and I’ve heard all these crazy things about you. But also, you’re just crashing out and not handling it well.” She’s more generous — although even Jess, throughout the whole thing, never falls into thinking [Wendy] is stupid. There’s some semblance of respect. I think both of the characters have that. I always say, if a guy tells you all of his ex-girlfriends are crazy, that’s a red flag.

After having Jessica break into the apartment in the middle of the night and then later seeing these private videos Jessica recorded about her, why does Wendy still want to meet up with her? How is she comfortable with that?

With being gaslit, there’s always a feeling. Wendy moved into this apartment, and she was told one story that was not true, but there were signs — the Cupcake rosé, the face wash, stuff that didn’t add up. And it can be a really weird feeling when your biggest fears are validated. I imagine Wendy in this moment being like, “Oh, wow. All the things that I was not wanting to believe, because I didn’t want to believe my partner would be lying to me, now I get to see them. And as horrible as that is for her relationship, she has a really great perspective on it, which is, “Now I know the truth, and that’s better than living this other way.”

How did it feel to shoot the meet-up with Jessica? It has such a different tone from the rest of your appearances in the season, which happen from Jessica’s perspective.

I absolutely loved it. It was the first scene I shot for the show, and it was my first time being directed by a woman, and by my friend [Dunham]. Meg and I had just met, and even though we exchanged a few stories, it was sort of fresh. That felt really nice. I felt like it helped inform the scene, the fact that it was the first day, and we had just so much fun shooting it. Meg is amazing at improv. She just goes for it. So there were takes that were very funny, but there were some that were more tender, and it was just a pleasure.

After they finish talking about Zev, why do you think Wendy goes out of her way to give Jess advice about her new relationship?

I think she’s in a very reflective moment. Wendy’s the type of girl to do a lot of therapy, and I imagine that she’s like, “Alright, I’m going to move on with my life. I’m open to love.” She’s in a very wise place, which can happen — I think you can feel like a zen master while crashing out during a breakup. And she’s obviously seen Jess’ videos. She’s had a real life experience of her breaking into her house, so she’s putting boundaries around her friendship and being like, “I’m not trying to hang out with you all the time, but if you’re asking me, here’s some of the ways that I’m living my life.”

If “Too Much” is renewed, do you see a world where you’d return to this world? Do you see a future where Wendy and Jessica continue to cross paths?

I definitely do. And Lena and I have had fun little convos about what that would look like. I mean, who knows? But I absolutely loved playing her. The world felt so clear to me. I know [Wendy] well — I feel like I could run into her on the street in Brooklyn. So it’d be very fun to return to her.

You’ve spoken in the past about feeling pigeonholed in Hollywood and cast based on your looks rather than your substance. Here, you get to subvert that, with Wendy being portrayed as just another hot girl on the internet until we get deeper and see who she really is. Did you feel like you were working through those hard moments in your career through this role?

Lena was the first person who published my writing, on Lenny Letter, but she knew about me from Instagram. I’ve had a lot of experiences, with Lena specifically, where she has seen past surface level things and given me so many opportunities. When I shot [“Too Much”], I was about to turn 33. I’m a grown ass woman, with a child, and it just felt very natural and right to be doing the kind of roles and working with the kind of people who share the ideas I do around women and respect. So I wasn’t really working anything, but it felt really nice.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Andrea Gibson, a celebrated poet and performance artist who through their verse explored gender identity, politics and their 4-year battle with terminal ovarian cancer, died Monday at age 49.

Gibson’s death was announced on social media by their wife, Megan Falley. Gibson and Falley are the main subjects of the documentary Come See Me in the Good Light, winner of the Festival Favorite Award this year at the Sundance Film Festival and scheduled to air this fall on Apple TV+.

“Andrea Gibson died in their home (in Boulder, Colorado) surrounded by their wife, Meg, four ex-girlfriends, their mother and father, dozens of friends, and their three beloved dogs,” Monday’s announcement reads in part.

The film — exploring the couple’s enduring love as Gibson battles cancer — is directed by Ryan White and includes an original song written by Gibson, Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile. During a screening at Sundance in January that left much of the audience in tears, Gibson said they didn’t expect to live long enough to see the documentary.

Tributes poured in Monday from friends, fans and fellow poets who said Gibson’s words had changed their lives — and, in some cases, saved them. Many LGBTQ+ fans said Gibson’s poetry helped them learn to love themselves. People with cancer and other terminal illnesses said Gibson made them less afraid of death by reminding them that we never really leave the ones we love.

In a poem Gibson wrote shortly before they died, titled “Love Letter from the Afterlife,” they wrote: “Dying is the opposite of leaving. When I left my body, I did not go away. That portal of light was not a portal to elsewhere, but a portal to here. I am more here than I ever was before.”

Linda Williams Stay was “awestruck” when her son, Aiden, took her to hear Gibson perform at a bar in San Francisco a decade ago. Their poetry was electrifying, lighting up the room with laughter, tears and love. Gibson’s poetry became a shared interest for the mother and son, and eventually helped Stay better understand her son when he came out as transgender.

“My son this morning, when he called, we just sobbed together,” Stay said. “He says, ‘Mom, Andrea saved my life.’”

“I know,” she responded.

Gibson’s poetry later helped Stay cope with a cancer diagnosis of her own, which brought her son back home to St. George, Utah, to help take care of her. They were delighted when Gibson accepted their invitation to perform at an event celebrating the LGBTQ+ community in southern Utah.

“It was truly life-changing for our community down there, and even for our allies,” Stay said. “I hope that they got a glimpse of the magnitude of their impact for queer kids in small communities that they gave so much hope to.”

Gibson was born in Maine and moved to Colorado in the late 1990s, where they had served the past two years as the state’s poet laureate. Their books included You Better Be Lightning, Take Me With You and Lord of the Butterflies.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Monday that Gibson was “truly one of a kind” and had “a unique ability to connect with the vast and diverse poetry lovers of Colorado.”

In a 2017 essay published in Out magazine, Gibson remembered coming out at age 20 while studying creative writing at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, a Catholic school. Identifying as genderqueer, Gibson wrote that they didn’t feel like a boy or a girl and cited a line of their poetry: “I am happiest on the road/ When I’m not here or there — but in-between.”

Comedian Tig Notaro, an executive producer on the documentary and Gibson’s friend of 25 years, shared on Instagram how the two came up together as performers in Colorado. Hearing Gibson perform for the first time was like witnessing the “pure essence of an old-school genuine rock star,” and their words have guided Notaro through life ever since, she said.

“The final past few days of Andrea’s life were so painful to witness, but simultaneously one of the most beautiful experiences of all of our lives,” Notaro said. “Surrounded by real human connection unfolding in the most unlikely ways during one of the most devastating losses has given me a gift that I will never be able to put into meaningful words.”

Gibson’s illness inspired many poems about mortality, depression, life and what happens next. In the 2021 poem “How the Worst Day of My Life Became My Best,” Gibson declared “When I realized the storm/was inevitable, I made it/my medicine.” Two years later, they wondered: “Will the afterlife be harder if I remember/the people I love, or forget them?”

“Either way, please let me remember.”

David Kaff, the British actor and musician known for playing keyboardist Viv Savage in Rob Reiner’s 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, has died aged 79.

His bandmates in Mutual of Alameda’s Wild Kingdom confirmed the news on their Facebook page, writing that the musician had “passed away peacefully in his sleep” on Friday.

“David always had a kind word and a quick wit that would slay you where you stand. Then he’d make you smile doing it!” they wrote. “RIP dear brother.”

Born David Kaffinetti in Folkestone, Kaff studied classical piano as a child before falling in love with rock’n’roll in his teens. In his early 20s, he co-founded prog rock group Rare Bird, perhaps best known for their 1969 track Sympathy.

However, he found greater fame playing the keys in This Is Spinal Tap’s fictional heavy metal band, alongside the movie’s co-writers Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. His memorable lines in the film include Viv’s life philosophy: “Have a good time … all the time.”

Kaff performed as part of Spinal Tap at various gigs after the film’s release, including their appearance on Saturday Night Live, but by the end of 1984, he had left the group.

He played in various other bands in the subsequent decades, including Oakland’s Model Citizens and San Francisco’s Mutual of Alameda’s Wild Kingdom – but Kaff remained fond of Spinal Tap and appreciative of fans’ love for his character in the movie.

“I played him [Viv] very close to my heart, just a little bit dimmer,” he told BAM in 1991. “If people like that character, chances are they’ll like me.”

A sequel to Spinal Tap, directed by Reiner and co-written by and starring McKean, Shearer and Guest, is due for release in September, but Kaff was not involved in the movie.