Ellen Page credits girlfriend Samantha Thomas with turning her on to Broad City. Ellen talks with her new favorite show’s co-creators and stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer in the new issue of Interview, and results are, as expected, fan-fucking-tastic.
An excerpt:
Ellen: I am interested in what it means to sit down and write this show. Because a lot of people are having conversations about how the show explores identity politics, for example, or sex. And particularly your character, Ilana, having an intense love for Abbi-and, of course, the fantastic episode where you guys reference Blue Is the Warmest Color, with one of my favorite human beings, Alia Shawkat. Are you sitting down thinking about these things in our culture right now, about identity politics and how to infuse it all? Or is it more you’re just naturally telling stories and experiences you want to tell, and that’s leading others to have the conversation?
Abbi: I think it’s a little bit of both. We often love when people write reviews that are much smarter than what we thought we were doing. But I think we write about stuff that we think about ourselves as human beings living in the time we’re living in right now: what we’re thinking about with our family and friends that we want to talk about; what we would talk about, Ilana and I, and our other writers. So whenever we approach the other Abbi and Ilana, it always comes from us-rather than us thinking, “What do people want to see?”
Ilana: Our awareness level of messaging versus straight pitching funny shit is admittedly changing as time goes on. It’s hard not to. We always want to come from a place that’s real. We want to come from a place of comedy: “What’s the funniest thing?” Real and comedy are almost the same priority, because they’re kind of synonymous. And it’s hard. It trips you up, that awareness. But it’s also necessary. I’m glad we think in those terms-sexual politics or whatever. That’s part of the show.
Abbi: But I will say it’s also based on what we think should be.
Ilana: The reality we want to see on TV.
Ellen also shares how much she loved a scene from Season 2.
Ellen: I get so excited when I watch your show, because the way you talk about sex is how I talk about sex with my friends. Which is very freely and very openly-what you’re thinking about, what happened, or what you want to happen. And in the episode, Abbi, where you go to the sex shop for the dildo, and we see Nicole trying to exchange the nipple clamps-that’s so genius. We’ve taken this person who we’ve seen in this other space, who we might have judgment about because of her attitude toward this character we love, and then we see her in this whole new space complaining about her nipple clamps.
Ilana: If Ilana found that shit out, she would die. If Ilana found out that Nicole needs nipple clamps to cum, or whatever.
Ellen: Right. The nipple clamp represents something for all of us, you know? I wish I didn’t have to say this, but when you are two women, it is a pretty awesome thing to get to watch. And it’s so delightful and refreshing that none of it exists with any feeling of shame. I think a lot of people might censor that to a degree or think it’s not something to share. And you guys make that choice, and it seems like you do it very naturally.
Read the rest of the Q&A at Interview and watch Broad City when it returns for a third season on Comedy Central on February 17.
