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38 BOSTONIA Summer 2016

26-54 Bostonia_SU16.indd 38 6/3/16 3:24 PM By Art Jahnke

PHOTOGRAPH BY MAARTEN DE BOER Casual star Michaela Watkins on how streaming, VALERIE, a psychiatrist played ing to make it?’ It’s just layer Delight, and They Came To- by Michaela Watkins on the and a new and layer and layer, and all of a gether, with Paul Rudd and popular Hulu series Casual, sudden in the later part of the Amy Poehler. notices a gigantic bouquet of series everything goes crazy.” Juno and Up in the Air di- fl owers on the desk of Leia, her version of Casual is Watkins’ fi rst shot rector Jason Reitman is the receptionist, played by Julie at center stage, and it comes executive producer of Casual, Berman. She picks up the ac- feminism, after 15 years of supporting which began its second season companying card, reads it, roles on shows like New Girl, in June. Watkins, who Vanity and her face drops. changes Hung, Transparent, Enlight- Fair calls “one of the most pro- “Who are they from?” asks ened, Trophy Wife, and Wet lifi c scene-stealing actresses Leia. Hot American Summer, as well in comedy,” plays a therapist “Harry. That’s so nice.” everything as a season on Saturday Night in the process of divorce and “Not necessarily,” says Leia. Live. There was also Benched, the mother of a precocious “My sister dated a plastic sur- a season-long USA Network teenage daughter, played by geon who sent her fl owers and comedy that she created with Tara Lynne Barr. two weeks later he died.” Damon Jones, like Watkins, a “For an actress,” says Wat- At that moment, Valerie’s former member of the famous kins, during a break in fi lming therapist partner, Jennifer, Groundlings improv company, season two’s seventh episode, played by Katie Aselton, spots and more than a dozen fi lms, “it’s a chance to fi re on every the fl owers. ator Zander Lehmann bounds including The Back-up Plan, cylinder. Nobody is put in a “Oh. Look at those!” from his perch behind a moni- with Jennifer Lopez, Thanks two-dimensional part.” She “Yeah,” says Valerie, fl atly. tor to the set, asking Aselton for Sharing, with Mark Ruf- picks at salad, sitting beside The shot ends, and show cre- to put a bit more emphasis on falo, Jill Soloway’s Afternoon the artifi cial greenery in the the “Oh.” The scene—short, quirky, devoid of closure—is classic Casual, which was nominated last year for a Golden Globe for Best TV Comedy. The dia- logue is kind of funny and it’s also kind of disturbing. And while it no doubt makes some viewers uncomfortable, its avoidance of the predictable lines of standard network fare makes Watkins (CFA’94) feel liberated. “It’s my kind of storytell- ing,” she says. “You don’t come out and say, ‘Hey! Here’s the story. Here’s the problem: he’s like this, she’s like that, uh-oh, how are they ever go- Summer 2016 BOSTONIA 39

26-54 Bostonia_SU16_r1.indd 39 6/6/16 4:24 PM Shelton, who directed Your Sister’s Sister. “I think there’s a new version of feminism, where women are saying, ‘I’m do- ing it like a woman,’” says Watkins. “As Transparent creator Jill Soloway says, she shoots from her vagina. And she makes the camera crew Michaela Wat- shoot from their vagina, and kins (left) plays they’re mostly men. And you a newly single therapist on know who’s crying at the end Hulu’s Casual. of the taping of Transpar- Katie Aselton, ent? Our DP. The man who’s who attended the College of holding the camera.” Communication, On Casual and elsewhere, plays a profes- Watkins has worked with sional colleague. some of Hollywood’s most infl uential women direc- tors, playing Hilary in Nicole fake backyard of the two- attention, and in order to get more gratifying to watch.” Holofcener’s Enough Said story house that on the show their attention, they would Vanity Fair has admired and Jennie in Soloway’s she shares with her daughter tweak the creative. the show’s “relaxed tim- Afternoon Delight and ap- and her brother, Alex, played “They would say, ‘We can’t ing,” which makes Casual pearing in several episodes by Tommy Dewey. The sib- have a story that continues, feel more like an indie fi lm of Soloway’s award-winning lings careen through an odd because if viewers come broken up into chapters Transparent. relationship, too intimate back they’re going to be lost, than a drama series. Rotten “I defi nitely feel lucky to and a tad too dependent. Al- and they’re going to drop Tomatoes rated it the fourth have resonated with these ex’s cofounding of an online off the show.’ So you didn’t best fall 2015 TV premiere women,” Watkins says. dating service has brought have interesting story lines, and gave it an impressive “It’s almost like there is a him a comfortable lifestyle, or you would need to give numerical grade of 93. And language we speak together. but has done little for his this character something according to TV Guide, it’s It’s about writing women emotional well-being, long because ratings show that “the best comedy of the as all their parts, the ugly damaged, like Valerie’s, by a people liked that. The cre- fall TV season” and “off ers parts, the good parts, the dysfunctional upbringing. ative would get tweaked, the a more realistic depiction scary parts, the competi- Watkins sees the nuanced vision would get tweaked, of modern dating than any tive parts. You’re getting dramedy, which is shot in and it was no longer the other show out there.” The to act like these voices that an enormous Hulu studio 20 creators having their voice. magazine says Watkins’ you don’t normally see and miles north of Hollywood, On the other hand, with a “best work is in the scenes hear, and it is so exciting to as the kind of fruit that subscription-based service, in which Valerie’s vulner- play; it’s like you’re using could fl ourish only in a fi eld it doesn’t matter on a week- ability is on full display.” all parts of yourself. I mean, cleared of the debris of net- to-week algorithm if people The sex, which is abundant, you wake up some days and work demands and seeded are leaving after they go to doesn’t seem gratuitous, but you’re an extrovert, you wake with the sensibility of a new the bathroom. Because ev- “rather like an accurate por- up some days and you’re a school of women directors. erything is on demand, there trayal of how people speak, shut-in, you wake up some “Streaming technology has is this collective understand- and screw.” days and you’re terrifi ed, enabled a platform in which ing that nobody watches and you wake up some days the creative has control,” things as soon as they come New Version of Feminism and you’re emboldened. she says. “The way they out. Nobody does. And now Watkins believes the genu- That’s how women really used to do things was based you can really get involved ineness of the largely female are, and you’ve never seen on a Nielsen box. If you in the story lines. People can show has a lot to do with the that before.” didn’t come back to watch really invest in the origi- fact that half of the episodes Watkins certainly didn’t the show—not even week to nal vision, the thing that of Casual’s fi rst season were see it fi ve years ago when she week, but after you took a sparked it and was the nexus directed by women, among was shopping her creation, bathroom break—the net- of what was interesting can them Diary of a Teenage Benched, about a female cor- work deemed that your show carry through the entire Girl writer and director porate attorney who fails to

was not holding people’s season, and for me, it’s much Marielle Heller and Lynne make partner and fi nds her LEWIS GREG

kONLINE: Watch Una Hora Por Favora, a short fi lm starring Michaela Watkins, at bu.edu/bostonia.

26-54 Bostonia_SU16.indd 40 6/1/16 12:47 PM “A lot of men in the to that program now.” He’s one of those directors she’s very open and generous These days, she says, the who can connect emotionally as an actor,” he says. “She business most enjoyable benefi t from to what’s on the page. He is a is very adaptable and loose. her BU years is the friend- great writer, he’s great with That may come from her told us that ships sealed on stage. “When character and story, and work in improv. I sometimes you go through something technically, he knows every feel that when she and I are no one was as rigorous as the theater single thing that is happen- having a good day, we seem program, it’s like these ing on a set. He’s behind the to fi nd the same wavelength people are your war buddies. camera, he’s up on a ladder. and just surf it together.” interested Whatever you end up doing He’s doing it all, so you feel Watkins, whose current in life, you have that shared like you’re in great hands.” favorite shows include in watching experience for four years, Show creator Lehmann at- Togetherness and Girls, and it culminates in friend- tributes much of its success will probably give writing female-ships that are sustained. I to Watkins’ talents. “She another try, but it will be a still have so many friends brings a certain vulnerabil- screenplay, not a series. driven from that program.” ity,” he says. “And she can “I can’t say that writing After graduation, Watkins fi nd the humor in something Benched gave me a lot of spent a year spinning her that isn’t really that funny. joy,” she says. “It’s so much shows.”wheels in New York, then It’s an ability to fi nd the mid- pressure and there is no took a road trip to Port- point between sadness and land, Ore., where she did humor, which is really right new job as public defender fi nd acting work, fi ve years’ where the show lives.” to be surprisingly rewarding. worth, before moving to Los Lehmann says Aselton, MICHAELA WATKINS’ “I sat with a lot of men in Angeles. There she snagged who attended COM for FAVORITE SHOWS the business who said, ‘No- her fi rst role, on Charmed, two years before moving to Picks have “remarkable act- body is interested in watch- and more important, earned LA, and Watkins, friends ing and interesting female characters” ing female-driven shows,’” a coveted spot with the in real life, play off each GIRLS, HBO, created by Lena she says. “I grit my teeth Groundlings, whose alums other perfectly. Aselton has Dunham and scraped my nails on include Will Ferrell, Conan earned many movie credits TRANSPARENT, Amazon Stu- dios, created by Jill Soloway the palm of my hand, but O’Brien, and Lisa Kudrow. and has had regular roles on HAPPY VALLEY, BBC, created I didn’t say anything, be- In 2008, Watkins got Togetherness, Animals, and by Sally Wainwright CATASTROPHE, British network cause that’s the garbage the call every improv actor The League. She says her on- Channel 4, streams on Ama- that we’d been hearing.” dreams about. Saturday screen interaction with her zon Prime, created by Sharon The long road to stardom Night Live executive produc- friend is a natural product of Horgan and Rob Delaney TOGETHERNESS, HBO, created began for Watkins with er Lorne Michaels thought Watkins’ personality. by Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, a childhood in Syracuse, she might be a good fi t for “Michaela is so openly hu- and Steve Zissis (canceled N.Y., where her father was the sketch comedy show— man at all times that you can in March 2016, after two seasons) a university mathemati- she was on the plane to New easily connect with her,” says cian and her mother taught York within hours. Soon she Aselton. “She brings you into end. I need to see where Latin. When she was eight, was famous for imperson- her moment.” the end is.” her parents divorced, and ations of Arianna Huffi ngton She says that Watkins is The Casual star says she moved with her mother and for her original charac- perfectly cast for a show like she doesn’t spend a lot of to Wellesley, Mass. There, a ter, iced-coff ee-addicted gos- Casual, one that “exam- time plotting career moves. gentle motherly push landed sip blogger Angie Tempura. ines human relationships Instead, she tries to follow her at a tryout for a role in But soon, before the start of without trying to impose an the advice of Cheryl Strayed, a local theater company’s the 2009–2010 season, she agenda.” The show “looks author of Wild: From Lost to production of the British was let go. at a couple of fl awed people Found on the Pacific Crest farce See How They Run. The to see how they exist with Trail. “She was giving advice next thing she knew, she was The Midpoint between each other. It looks at a bond to herself as if she were 21,” Ida the maid, and she was Sadness and Humor between siblings and lets Watkins recalls. “She says, smitten with the theater. To date, says Watkins, her characters be fucked-up ‘Don’t worry about what you She arrived at the College role on Casual is the most and weird.” wrote and what you did, be- of Fine Arts in 1990, where, rewarding opportunity she’s Dewey plays Watkins’ sib- cause everything you write she says in retrospect, “10 had. “It’s this combo platter ling and is best known for his and everything you fail at is more years of life experi- of great creator and great lead role in Code Black. He is all part of your becoming.’ ence” would have better writing,” she says. “Jason constantly impressed with For me this feels like it’s all prepared her to get the most Reitman is the real deal. He’s Watkins’ “presentness—a part of that. It doesn’t feel from BU. “I wish I could go so knowledgeable about fi lm. highfalutin way of saying like a destination.”

Summer 2016 BOSTONIA 41

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