The show is the latest provocative and surreal comedy series that will explore themes such as identity, sexuality, and artistry while navigating the strange and oftentimes bewildering city of Los Angeles. The heart of the show surrounds Ulysses (Avan Jogia), his love interest Gabriel (Tyler Posey) and his friends — Carly (Kelli Berglund), Ford (Beau Mirchoff) and Severine (Roxane Mesquida).
The Knockturnal: What attracted you with your character?
Roxane Mesquida: What attracted me to my character, well I worked with Gregg before and he wrote the character thinking about me. So, maybe the fact that I’m so close to my character except for the fact that she’s an astrobiological theorist and I had to learn what it is because I had no idea.
The Knockturnal: Had you worked with Gregg before?
Roxane Mesquida: Yes! We worked on a movie.
The Knockturnal: Now I know the season shot in about forty days, what was that like?
Roxane Mesquida: To be honest, I thought it was a little frustrating because we were having so much fun forty days was way too short. And the days are so long because you need to pack everything in and get as much as you can in one day.
The Knockturnal: Have you seen any of the episodes yet?
Roxane Mesquida: Yes, I’ve seen the first three.
The Knockturnal: What’d you think of them?
Roxane Mesquida: I love them! Even better than I thought.
The Knockturnal: Tell me a little bit about your character.
Avra Friedman: Sure, I play Magenta and she’s one of the acting students in Carly’s acting class. She’s a very bad actor but she so wants to be part of the cool kids and amazing and she thinks she’s amazing. But she’s really not so great.
The Knockturnal: So, my next question was going to be if there were any similarities between you and your character?
Avra Friedman: I would say I’m so much better than her at acting, like a thousand times. I also, she’s like “oh my God, I’ll shut up if you tell me to” and I’m more like “I probably won’t shut up and don’t tell me to,” not in a rude way but she’s very like meek and I’m like no.
The Knockturnal: Have you worked with Gregg before?
Avra Friedman: I haven’t this was my first time.
The Knockturnal: What was it like?
Avra Friedman: It was amazing. He’s incredible, it was so cool to work with somebody who wrote and directed because I’m so inspired by those people. He just had such a vision, but he’s also really like chill and you don’t feel pressured to be perfect. Which is really nice.
The Knockturnal: Are you excited for season 2?
Avra Friedman: Oh my God yes, like oh my God so exciting! And excited for season one to come out.
The Knockturnal: Have you seen any of season one?
Avra Friedman: Yeah, I was at the Sundance premiere so I’ve seen the first three episodes.
The Knockturnal: Gregg wrote this character with you in mind, aside from that bias what was the thing that drew you most when you read the script?
Avan Jogia: Well I just think it’s a dazzling show, it’s like nothing else on television and I know that cause I’ve watched a lot of television and I just think its got good things to say about body positivity, about sex positivity, about joy and about sexuality and joy. And it’s just different; we’re all so bored of television, aren’t we? We have so many options, it’s so boring and this isn’t that. And I think if anything, that’s what drew me to it the most.
The Knockturnal: Have you worked with Gregg before?
Avan Jogia: I’ve worked on a short film with Gregg, and I also am just a big fan of his work. I just think he’s so talented.
The Knockturnal: Putting all the characters you’ve played before, are there things you’ve drawn from other roles that you’ve brought into this that you think will stand out to people.
Avan Jogia: I don’t know, I’ve honestly never played a character like him before. He doesn’t have any ambition and I’ve played a lot of characters with ambition and something to do and they want this and they want that. He’s just coasting man, he’s like a sexual astronaut exploring the reaches of space and having a good time. And that was the cool thing for me, to try and give wants and needs to someone who on paper doesn’t have wants and needs.
The Knockturnal: So with that change of scenery, going from playing characters with ambition and it’s a complete 180.
Avan Jogia: Sure it is, absolutely yeah.
The Knockturnal: What do you think the biggest takeaway was for you coming offset?
Avan Jogia: There’s so many shades of grey, there’s so many ways to be a person. And I’ve always known that and I’ve always championed that and been in love with that concept. There is genuinely so many ways to be a person and that’s what I get from this show.
Additional guests at the premiere included Ashley Brinton who has a new single “Good Mawning” coming soon and Chelsea Rendon who stars in Vida.
-Christopher Paz
