We caught up with “Girls” star Zosia Mamet.
Mamet attended a special screening of Personal Shopper at Metrograph on Thursday evening. The event was presented by Ruffino Wines, Unifrance and Air France. Of course we had to chat about about my favorite episode ever of Girls “American Bitch.” If you haven’t seen episode 3 of the 6th & final season of Girls, please do.
OJ: Episode three “American Bitch” was groundbreaking, Let’s talk about it.
Zosia Mamet: How amazing is that episode?
OJ: It was pretty amazing. What were your thoughts when you saw it?
Zosia Mamet: I mean, I just continue to be blown away by Lena. Every time I think that she can’t one-up herself, she does. I remember watching the Patrick Wilson episode … Anyways, I remember watching that episode and just being … I feel like Lena has a way of putting into words these experiences that we have in our minds as women. In our formidable years that we might often … Things that we experience that’s such a universal thing for young women to go through, but is also kind of shameful or embarrassing. We so often don’t express them or we wouldn’t even really know how to. It was inappropriate or it was sad, but was it? How was it? I felt that way about the Patrick Wilson episode. Then watching this one I was like, “She f—ing did it again.”
OJ: She topped it, yeah.
Zosia Mamet: She topped it somehow in this incredible way. She goes through this experience that’s so known, I feel like, by so many young women.
OJ: Yeah, it was so interesting because she explored both sides.
Zosia Mamet: Exactly. That’s what makes her so brilliant is that to me, she isn’t just saying, “F— this dude. He’s a piece of sh*t.” She’s like, “This is how I played a part in it too.” This is how we both got to this moment.
OJ: It’s so brave.
Zosia Mamet: My favorite part of that episode is when she throws the book from the bed. Like he’s offered her this first edition. She’s just like, “Ugh. Get away from me.”
OJ: Was it a real penis? Do you know?
Zosia Mamet: We’re really big on prosthetics on our show. If I had a dollar for every prosthetic penis …
OJ: You have transformed, I think the most out of anybody on the show. How much impact do you have on the transformation of your character?
Zosia Mamet: I’ve said this a lot before. It’s an incredibly collaborative creative environment on that show.
OJ: So I have heard.
Zosia Mamet: I also think the biggest way that we have all had an impact on our specific characters is that Lena and Jenny and Judd and all of our writers, they really listened and they really watched what we were good at as actors. They wrote to our strengths. They saw, I think, the ways in which we could fit to the character. They really wrote to that. I think that’s how our characters melded a little bit more onto us. Not necessarily us going to them and being like, “Hey, I’ve got a pitch for you.” It was just them figuring out what our natural rhythms were, and how to make us most comfortable.
OJ: So what’s going on with Ray? Is that happening? Give me a scoop.
Zosia Mamet: Dude, I don’t kiss and tell. Shoshanna doesn’t kiss and tell. You got to watch.
OJ: She’s pretty classy.
Kristina Bumphrey/Starpix
