Sean Ealing here, host of The Gray Area. On our show, we delve into the ambiguities around the world's biggest questions, which is why I spoke with Maggie Jackson, who wrote a book about the joys of uncertainty. If we approach uncertainty knowing it's a space of possibilities, then we roll up our sleeves and be present in the moment and start investigating and exploring.
Hear more of our conversation on this week's The Gray Area, available wherever you get your podcasts. Gen X women are doing it and doing it quite well. Having a bit of this sexual rediscovery later and finding that everything still works, sometimes much to their surprise, that desire is still there, that sexual function is still there.
Is there a middle-aged sexual renaissance afoot? And should 50-somethings be crediting 20-somethings for it? That's this week on Explain It To Me. New episodes every Sunday morning, wherever you get your podcasts. you Hello and welcome to Good One, a podcast about jokes. I am your host, Jesse David Fox.
As we work on getting our new season in order, we have another offering from Vulture Festival 2024. This is a panel for The Sex Lives of College Girls, the HBO Max comedy that just wrapped up its third season recently. That said, the conversation you're about to hear came after a screening of the premiere for the third season. It was moderated by my colleague Jason Frank.
Also, it was technically a pajama brunch, which explains any references you'll hear to pajamas and or breakfast foods. You'll be hearing from cast members Pauline Chalamet, Amrit Kaur, Alia, Chanel, Scott. Ilya Paulino, Renika Williams, and Justin Noble, the show's showrunner and co-creator with Mindy Kaling. So here is the Sex Lives of College Girls. Hi everybody! Cheers bitches! Did we all love the episode? Pretty great.
Welcome. Thank you guys so much for being here. I wanted to start with a question for Justin. I'm curious about we've it's the third season of the show. But for the girls, it's their second year of college. Are you giving me math on a Saturday morning? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How fast is the first train going? Uh-huh, uh-huh. I am curious about, though... As a writer, you've been through, at this point, all of the major milestones that happen in one year of college. Yeah.
How did you approach keeping the show fresh when you have a move-in day again? You have to do all of those same milestones one more time. Well, we love that we can kind of hint back at a little bit of what the premiere for the first season was. But the thing that's... so fun about sophomore year is like these characters arrive on campus they're shell-shocked they don't know what's happening season one and sophomore year you come back and you're like
we are experts at college life at this point. And then life very swiftly is like, no, you are not. So it led us, the characters are in such a different place than they were when they first arrived. So their reactions to things are just different and fun. Amazing. Renika and Ilya, I don't feel like we see everything that goes on in your characters' lives, right? I have been wondering as I watch the show...
What are their majors? Fundamentally, do you guys know in your minds? That's a great question. I think Lila is just, like, there. I think she passes all of her classes, but, like... strictly on jokes. You know what I mean? Like, that's how I pass. She's undecided. Yeah, yeah, sure. She's just vibing. I don't know, I feel like she could be an amazing business major based on the fact that she's the full-on boss of a coffee shop. Right, right, I forgot. She does business.
I think Willow is a communications major because that is like the most basic major. I'm sorry if anybody. Is anyone here? Is anyone here? Raise your hands, everyone. I'm sorry. All the basic bitches. You're going to do so well with it. I think Willow. was the type that won't do the internships after. You know what I'm saying? You have to put a little extra effort. I think Willow's just always told her grandma she would go to college. So she went to college. Totally. Yeah, yeah.
I wonder if we could bring our first guest up on the screen. Can we do that? Oh my gosh! So... This is crazy. I just have to take a moment to acknowledge this. Are you in France right now? I'm with you guys. I'm all in my... Yay! For both Aaliyah and Pauline, this was a landmark episode in a lot of ways, I feel, that we just watched because it's the first time that the central rift is between the girls.
It's not outside. There's no one outside. It's just between you guys. Starting with Pauline, I'm curious if it felt different to play a plot that centered around a tension between an inter-girl, inter-friend tension. Yes, it did. It felt like it was playing something like a little deeper that I think is normal on a season three that the show starts to address things.
a little deeper. And I know something that was really important for both Aaliyah and me was that, like, the scene be about their friendship and not be about... And I think that it's just the rift that happens between them is representative of what can happen between friendships in college.
just to give these two a shout out to like when we were filming that scene in the closet at the frat basement like we were filming the scene as it was scripted and then I think both of you independently were like coming over to me being like something just feels a little off and we ended up
and we actually just rewrote it on the fly and like Aaliyah and Pauline were like actually deciding their own lines and i was just sitting there like just tweaking them ever so slightly for tv but it made the scene so much better and the funny thing was we shot the original version of the scene like I don't know, 11 times because we were like trying to figure out like what's slightly off. And then as soon as we had the new words, we filmed it like.
two three times for sound purposes and then as soon as the editor saw it they were like that's the version um so it was like it's so helpful and it's like tv is such a collaborative medium but like they know their characters so well they knew that they needed to make that tweak and it was so helpful for the scene. It's so much better for it.
Yeah, I think people expected it to be this like brawl between the two of us, which like would have been fun, honestly, some stunt choreo. But for me, so much time has passed. Like it's been two years since we did the thing. And also it's been the summer since they since the thing happened.
I feel like hurt kind of festers a little bit. And if it was immediately afterwards, maybe there would be some sort of fight. But to see someone three months later and be like, I'm going to whoop your ass. That's crazy. You know, you have some time.
sometimes a process what's happened and I think for Whitney what the processing was it was like oh wait I actually feel like this was more about how close I thought we were and how if that was something you wanted you would have come to me about it first and you not doing that made me question how close
you thought I was to you. Are we not girls? Do we not do that? So that was the root of the thing. And when we were doing the scene, that's what I was like, we have to talk about that thing. Because that's the hurt that I feel in this moment.
totally and just as a show it's so abundantly clear i think from anyone who's seen any episode of it like we don't have a lot of taste for doing girl-on-girl warfare and having that be a prominent part of our storytelling so we knew that we wanted to tell a story that was real it's not real if they never have any kind whatsoever, that's just Pollyanna. But we wanted to have them have a real issue and get through it pretty quickly.
Pauline, I don't know if you remember this, you and I go way back in that I interviewed you last season for 30 minutes. But one thing that you talked about in that was that you were uh, a bit surprised to find yourself like on a comedy at all. You were like, I'm a drama girl. I am not the storyteller at a table. I'm the one who will cry about my emotions. Um, I'm curious about how it felt throughout this season. If you, if that changed.
or if that, like, give me an update on how you feel about being in a comedy. Well, I think there's multiple things. Like Aaliyah just said, so much time has gone by since we shot that I've been saying that Picking Kimberly up again is like putting on an old pair of really worn shoes But like you haven't put them on in a while. So like it's a little funky at first I
I still, I think I'm just learning, like I just learn every day at work on this show. And what I really learned is the technicality of comedy. It's not, it's, I really used to think that You have to be just a funny person in life, and those are the people who do comedy. And I'm learning that actually comedy is a very technical skill. And there's just always more to be learned from it. So I actually take a lot of enjoyment in like reading the scripts and then like...
when I see what Kimberly's going through on an episode, being like, okay, where are the beats in this scene? Like, what is it that's... the comedy in this um and then when i can figure it out kind of like mathematically then i'm not really focused on being funny or worried about being funny or worried about the comedy of it all so it's like a way i have of dealing with it um So that's kind of where I stand on that. I don't know. Good answer. Yeah, I think it's a great answer.
I did want to ask, so Renika and Aaliyah, you were both BFAs in college, is that correct? Unfortunately, yes. You both play soccer players. I just want to know what your relationship is like with jockdom. Like, do you do you feel connected to that in any way? Is that new for you? It's foreign to me personally. We kind of have fun, though. It feels like.
half the time when we're filming the soccer scenes in between I'm like five six seven eight like it becomes choreography to us to a certain degree yeah and that's how we deal and that's how we cope yeah because the first day of soccer training i cried and she did seriously i'm proud of you thank you we had to stop the practice i mean i quit every sport i ever played growing up and so the fact that Justin hired me um but no yeah now it feels now it feels like an accomplishment
kind of you know like to do our own stunts like did you guys see alia like doing that was her foot actually my foot yeah yeah yeah actually my well that was not the plan to be clear um we rehearse the soccer sequences because they're all heavily choreographed and there's like camera movements and sequences and different different plays um and for some reason when we get on the day everyone's like alia just looks so good should we just keep making her do it instead
of the stunt double I'm like who where what yeah huh like the stunt double be over there chilling I know she's like you're doing good and I'm like dying I'm like wait how did this happen but you have gotten so good at it both of you soccer now which is crazy there's this amazing moment in season one we've probably talked about it publicly but like it's the start of episode eight of season one and it's like Whitney's doing a penalty kick and it's like it's gonna put them into the playoffs
We were filming overnight at Vassar. Like the sun was literally peeking over the trees and we were like, we have to finish before the sun comes up. And Aaliyah was like trying to get this penalty kick. And then she had this shocking like drilled ball into an upper corner. It was like the best kick we've ever seen. It was like beyond professional. And then the reaction that's in the show, I think, is Aaliyah's genuine reaction. Like, how the fuck did I do that?
Like, it's so, it was like literally a buzzer beater at like the sun peeking over us. And the soccer techs were all like, wow, what was that? Like, she could have been in the Olympics. Yeah. The start of a new career for me, actually. Five, six, seven eight um okay Pauline I am gonna let you go in a second I did want to ask I'm gonna ask all of you this at the end but I only have to let Pauline go so I'm gonna ask her first what
college milestone you're excited to play moving forward in the show? The first one that comes to mind is a study abroad. Ooh. Okay. That's creatively difficult. I was like... Yeah, Justin. We can make it happen. We can make it happen. Semester at sea. She's often at France. Okay, Pauline, I'm going to let you go now. Thank you so much for joining. Okay, bye, guys. Bye, Pauline. Bye, you. Bye. We'll be right back with more of the sex lives of college girls.
Now back to the sex lives of college girls live from Vulture Festival. Okay, Justin, I wanted to ask about the fact that there's going to be, we haven't seen it yet, but there's going to be some reshuffling in this season, obviously. Renee's Layton is no longer going to be a part of the show moving forward. But I am curious about, I mean, when you have these ensemble shows, typically every single character that you write.
has to like play a specific tonal role. And what it was, I'm so curious what it was like to try to navigate reconfiguring the tones of the show. Totally. Yeah. It's like, you know, each show is like kind of like a soup with different ingredients in it. And that's especially true of our show because.
I feel like the favorite scenes of the show are where everyone's sitting around in the common room together and they're all talking about some issue and everyone has a unique perspective on it. And like their lines couldn't be delivered by any other character in the scene. And so as you shift things up.
up like that is that is a task to figure it out the fun thing was naturally college is just a world that just keeps expanding like I think about my first year in college and I'm like I probably had like 10 close friends and I probably held on to them like literal stuffed animals being like, you're not going to go anywhere, right? Or you're going to this place for dinner. Maybe I'll join you there. And you know, you're just like more timid.
And then as you get into your sophomore year and beyond, you're just naturally expanding, walking through other doorways, joining groups, and your world gets bigger. So this year, as we decided to add two new voices into the show with Casey and Taylor, we started. talking about what those character traits could be and the first day we did it the writers we have like the most fantastic like brilliant female writers on the show and they came up with like 800 ideas for who these people could be
And we just figured out what was different from what we already have in the show a little bit. But if you look at things like there are remnants of some things that Leighton will have in common with Casey this season or with Taylor. And the same is true for the other characters. I think one of my like tricks in terms of writing things, especially for this show where there's usually a foursome or a fivesome is to have a divide.
a divided room on different issues like so if you if you actually were to break down the characters and please no one do this it would be very boring for you but like usually two of them would agree on something and two of them would disagree on something and i think that allows for different dynamics to naturally flow so we'll have a lot of that with Casey hello and this one who's you just I mean they can't see her but she's here oh they can't see her
Oh my god. Okay. Not that Amrit's here or anything. There's something happening that you don't know it yet, so calm down. I am, Aaliyah, I'm curious about what that was like for you as well, because you're navigating that both as an actor and as a character, a new, like, formation. What was that?
process like for you oh my goodness so bittersweet and so heavy and sad and so beautiful at the same time well you haven't seen it but you get to see us say goodbye to her in real time on the show and that shooting that was um very emotional but also at the same time like very silly because
She lives three minutes away from me. So it wasn't like I was like, bye. See you never. It was like, see you tonight. So there's that. But then also like getting Gracie and Mia who are now like two of my very good friends and I adore them. Like I've been a fan of Gracie's. I was in college and she came to my college town to play a show and like so knowing she was coming onto the show I was very trying to be very chill about it but not very chill about it and also it's like
I've been saying this and Gracie and Mia will probably back it up. When you know new people are coming into an environment that's established, I wanted to make sure they felt welcome. And I hope that you all want them here and make them feel welcome. But I was very, perhaps too-
eager um to make them feel welcome and i was like guys how are you doing what's going on do you want to hang out no like alia we get it you want to be you want to be friends it's okay um but i think we all had that energy of wanting to like take care of them and usher them into the space um in a way and so i think because we all came at it with such a like arms wide open approach it really made the group dynamic solidified in a new fun way that feels like
Truly one of my favorite, it's my favorite season this far. It's like so wonderful. Okay, I think we can bring our next guest onto the screen. Yay! Ami! That is wildly scary. Welcome. Well, I feel like the voice of God. You are. God is a woman. Wow, everyone looks so fancy and beautiful. It's a very fancy slumber party. What are you seeing? Me? I'm seeing a huge TV of my face. And then I see these small, beautiful...
Not too small. Justin, you also look brown today. Brown people. I had a question that I think goes to both Ilya and Amrit. You two play like the... two of the horniest people alive. You know it. I think in total, like if we were to look at them, I'm curious about how you make sure that feels like grounded and real and also just like a true expression of something from inside. Of course, of course. Honestly, I just play it for the real.
That was not planned. I think, listen, I grew up in a very, very controlled situation. My daddy's a pastor. and if you know you know and i think um and i and it all stems from love sure but there is something that happens when you grow up in In a pressure cooker of always feeling like not only do I have the eyes of my parents on me, always, but everyone in the congregation is like, because I'm not Ilia, right? I'm Paulino's daughter.
And so like that just had the very natural response. It's behavioral science, you know, that when I bloomed, I bloomed. And I think... And there's nothing wrong with it, you know? That's my answer. why are you so horny well you and i are very similar in that way we have very sheltered homes so we sort of just once we had the show we were like it's coming out i mean actually once we went home we were yeah
It was not good for our families. But yeah, I think it's interesting. I think all of us are horny, really. our sexual human beings to varied degrees. We just got to admit it. And for some reason, Ilya and I have characters that admit it to the 10th. So I just admit it in myself. Play for the real, like Ilya said. Is it too late to print?
Reprint all the posters for this season with the new tagline. I think all of us are horny And that's I I'll get into that afterwards. We'll talk about that. Yeah I mean Bella's had a tumultuous year out of all of the characters she's the only one who tried to transfer and then failed she
has a 1.8 GPA. She's completely altered her path moving forward by this episode. She doesn't think that she's going to be a comedian anymore. I am curious about, like, do you have... dreams for her moving forward do you read these scripts like are you rooting for her to go a specific way or are you just like happy to have her along this journey
Absolutely. I'm selfish. I have, you know, I have desires for every character and the character sits deep inside of me. I hope she finds her way back to comedy. We'll see if she does. Or you guys will see if she does. And I will say thank you to Bella because she's made me realize how much I like comedy. And I've started doing stand-up and failing publicly. And I'm learning a lot from that kid. Do you think that doing stand-up has affected how you perform as the character? No.
Absolutely. I think it's the other way around. I think the character has helped me with stand up. I mean, Bella is someone who's always testing out jokes and trying to see if she's funny. And then what's interesting is when I'm playing Bella, I feel like I'm constantly doing that in my real life, testing out. if i'm funny or not and most of the time i'm not just like fellas most of the time not i'm like too close um but yeah that stand-up is all about um
failing and I can be better at failing. But I just, I opened up a theater with some of my amazing, most amazing colleagues. I'm at the theater right now, stepping out of rehearsal and we do inspired by all. of this and you know Thank you to Sex Lives with College Girls because without that money, I couldn't have invested in this theater. We have a stand-up stage underground. So that's phenomenal. And I'm so grateful to Justin and Mindy that I've been able to build my home.
And where is that theater? Plug it, plug it. It's in Bushwick. It's in Bushwick. Brooklyn's the biggest theater in Bushwick. And everyone cast, everyone who's in New York during my show, please come watch if you want to see me on stage. And yeah. Okay, I think we are wrapping up relatively soon, but now is the time when we're going to get back to the question that I promised moving.
You said that and I was like, oh, we're going to get a heads up. We get to think on this. We can have answers. So the question that I want everyone to answer is what. college milestone you're excited to play moving forward we already heard study abroad that's one uh no one's allowed to take that uh but justin we're gonna start with you
Oh, great. What college milestone do I want to play on the show? I guess Professor. I'm sort of limited. What are you excited to write moving forward? Yeah, I think I love... the little moments in the show where like, the characters these girls are like slowly but surely figuring out who they are as people like i feel like that not to be like sentimental but like the show is a comedy in in in the good year of 2024 that actually has like jokes on television let's maybe have
a little bit more of that moving forward. But I love when they, I just see them like sort of unlock some potential that they acknowledge themselves. And I think if there's any kind of secret to the show, it's like a lot of characters.
coming in being like I know exactly what I want to do and then realizing that that ain't it and it's something else through that happens through accident which was very much my trajectory too i applied to college as a biochemical engineering major who wanted to go to law school and become a lawyer who would work on cases of genetic engineering privacy Just kidding. That was what I told them in the essay. I wanted to do comedy.
And then I quit all my science classes my first day. But I think that we'll see a lot of things this season where our girls are making big advances in who they're going to be after the show. All right, Elia, you're next in line. I want to see Leela fall in love. We all do. We need it. Justin. Right. Who do you think she would fall in love with? Oh, my God. Well, everyone. I think.
Yeah, I think I, you know, I can see her with someone who, you know, those people who are like the same age range, but they have the spirit of like 102 year old. Like old man energy. My boyfriend. Yes. I went to the tree in Pocahontas. That's where I went with that. Yeah, like someone just like that will let her perform.
And not care that she's in the spotlight. Someone who can go toe-to-toe with Leela. No, no, sit down. Sit down. Just watch. I will provide entertainment. Just like it. Thank you. I don't think anyone. She was like, no one. could go toe to toe with Lila. Exactly. And then they try and they fail. We're talking about Lila, right? Cut to Lila with like a shovel. Yeah. All right. You're up.
I mean, graduation. Like, if we could be so lucky to get that far. But then also, like... We're on pace to hit that in season 45. Yeah, the year 2036. I... there's also like that thing that happens in college where like you come back one year and you just like have a glow up and your whole look is different your hair is different your style is different like I want that to happen. Selfishly. What style do you want her to go for? I don't know. Something very different.
Who among our gorgeous cast could be glowed at this point, though? It's like we can totally shake things up. Not even glow up, but a hard left. You have those people in college. She comes back with a wolf cut. I go by Rex now. You know what I mean? come on something renika i would like willow to run for student body president period i think willow is the voice of reason and i think
She has a lot to share in leadership. Maybe. We all need a willow. We all need a willow. What do you think her policies would be? Freedom. Right. Freedom. Boundaries. Do I teach Whitney? It's probably the other way around. Yeah, no boundaries. No boundaries. She's open to a campaign slogan. We're workshopping it. We're all horny. I think I have a plan. Okay. And back to you up there on Zoom. SNL. I mean, I think that's obvious. Get SNL in there.
This has been so fun. I'm going to go head back to rehearsal. Yes, girl. Leave. Love you. The work does not stop. Go. She found her exit. She found her exit. I love this for you. I want Bella to be on SNL. Goodbye. Yeah. Okay. Have a great day. Bye. Love you. Wait, I have another one also. Yeah, go. Even though Gracie kind of does this, Justin, I've been doing this for years.
Musical episode, musical vibe, something. It's just weird. I think we all sing. It's so weird how many musical people are in this cast of television. Musical theater people? No, just musically talented people in general. I can. Every single one of them. Yeah. Someone even the other day. Oh, Nabeel.
This cast doesn't even know who Nabil is yet. There's a character named Arvind. You're getting all the spoilers this day. But he put up a video singing, and I was walking my dog the other night and being like, him too? How? I mean, look. I love that episode of Buffy. It's camp. What musical would you want them to do? Great question. It seemed like you were going to answer it. I have thoughts.
I mean, we need a big cast. It needs to be like Into the Woods. No, Grease. Grease? Yeah, Grease is going to be classic. Five, six, seven, eight. Don't do it. I will do it. I mean, we do get some musical theater-ness in this season of television. I'm just a big gay musical theater person myself. It's not... gladiator wicked weekend glicked it's also the weekend our show comes out i'm trying to find out what that is
the sex-glicked lives of college warrior witches. No, you nailed it. So be sure to stay home and watch our show too. But, I mean, I just, I love a song. I can't tell you how many times I've watched the YouTube video of Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth's final performance. where they're singing for good to each other, and it is the shakiest camera from the mezzanine. It looks like two...
like blastocyst cells are slowly singing to each other. You can't see shit, but you hear their little quivering voices. And then it's just like me crying and my dog being like, it's something wrong. So, so I would love to pursue it. what yeah what show do you want me sorry oh i'm not i'm not gonna answer oh my god um this is too hard this is too much for me
There's just... Don't think. Just go. Just go. Watch out. Little Shop? I mean, she thinks that all the time. Ilya has like a gun in Ilya's back being like, say Grease. Grease with Ilya's riso. Give him a little thumb. Do you? Renika does sing. Renika sings? I'm like a Michelle.
And I love Michelle, but she holds it down in Destiny's Child. Michelle Williams? Yeah, yeah, she holds it down. I back her up to her Beyonce. You know what I'm saying? Okay, that's great. But don't ask me, Kelly. We love... Right, right, right, right. It's just Beyonce. Sorry, sorry, sorry. You can take it. Thank you. See, that's something Beyonce would do.
But I will say also, when you see the show, Gracie is singing live on the show. And she did do that for like eight hours, 10 hours a day. And she sounds unreal. She's amazing. You're going to die. It's truly, it's shocking. It's like every, we did our like, you know, big press circuit the other day where we talked to all these reviewers. And as soon as it came up, like all these press outlets were like, that was really her. And we're like, yeah.
Okay, well, I look forward to the upcoming musical episode of The Sex Lives of College Girls. And with that, I think we're going to head out. Thank you guys so much for coming. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone. thank you so much thank you
That's it for another episode of Good One. Good One is produced by myself and Jelani Carter. We've got a restriction in our theme song. Write a review and rate the show on Apple Podcasts. Five stars, please. I am Jesse David Fox. You can follow me at Jesse David Fox. Buy my book, Comedy Book, whoever books are sold. Thanks for listening to Good One from New York Magazine. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. Be back next week with a new episode. Have a good one.
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