Life is strange. And awkward. And weird.
Maya Erskine
doesn’t shy away from any of it. All those moments that make you want to curl up so tight into yourself you disappear like a sci-fi-flick black hole, she embraces them and puts them on the big screen for the world to see. It’s her inimitable comedic spin that makes you oscillate from cringe to uncontrollable belly laugh. Take, for example, her hilarious breakaway hit,
Pen15.
Erskine stars in the Hulu original alongside friend and co-creator
Anna Konkle
, where they play their 13-year-old selves amongst actual high-schoolers in all the early-aughts glory. Her most recent role is in the soon-to-be-released
Plus One
, which follows two best friends (Erskine and
Jack Quaid
) who make a pact to be each other’s sidekicks for wedding season. Both share a thread of realness wrapped in humor. When I sat down to talk to Erskine about real-life stuff like sleepovers, the Spice Girls, and periods, it induced the same aforementioned reaction. Just watch and read on to see what I mean.
Did you always want to get into acting?
“I was always playing pretend from a young age. We all do as kids—I think it’s sort of a natural means for us to express ourselves. My dad was a musician, so I think he thought that I was going to go in that route and would place me near drums or piano, and I would just sort of fade away and start talking to flowers as if they were people [
laughs
].”
Did you experience any struggles at the beginning of your career?
“Constant failure. I went to NYU and studied theater there, and I think I was under the naive impression that as soon as I graduated I’d get an agent and start doing theater and Broadway, and it just did not happen. I had no tools with how to get represented or how to fend for myself, so I would just submit on Actors Access and do off-off-off-Broadway—I shouldn’t even put the word
Broadway
in there, just theater. That was unpaid for many years. Anna [Konkle] and I created a web series together—we were tired of not having control and not really feeling like we could express ourselves through our work. So it was our first attempt at seeing if we wanted to create, produce, and write, and we loved it.”
[Listicle particle error: Unhandled HTML element 'big' in post 2650794275 (context: Element not in supported or skip lists) Element HTML: Plus One]
[Listicle particle error: Unhandled HTML element 'big' in post 2650794275 (context: Element not in supported or skip lists) Element HTML: Pen15]
What’s your favorite ’90s or 2000s song?
“Oh, I thought you were going to say
movie
. I have so many. I mean, I loved ‘Back that Ass Up,’ that was my favorite freak-dance song. I loved Mariah Carey—these aren’t songs, these are artists. And then like, ‘I’m So Lucky’? Is that what it’s called? ‘Lucky’? ‘She’s So Lucky’? Britney Spears? Just ‘Lucky,’ right?”
Best sleepover activity? Back then, not now:
“Mmm...back then. I just have this one memory, this isn’t what is best about a sleepover, but I was hiding my period, and I was at a sleepover with all the popular girls. I didn’t use pads, I just used rolled-up tissue paper...and you can’t flush that down the toilet. This is too much information [
laughs
]—you have to wrap it in more toilet paper and then put that in the trash can. I just remember that happening at a sleepover and having so much panic about it.”
Did you ever prank-call?
“We squided a house once, of a boy that my friend gave a blow job to. Instead of doing eggs, we put raw squid on his house.”
[Listicle particle error: Unhandled HTML element 'big' in post 2650794275 (context: Element not in supported or skip lists) Element HTML: lau]