Interview: Not Okay Director Quinn Shephard Talks Caroline Calloway Cameo, Dylan O’Brien’s Makeover, and More
Not Okay follows Danni Sanders (Zoey Deutch), an aspiring writer at a NYC-based outlet called Depravity. She has no friends and no followers, and decides to change her life by faking a trip to Paris under the guise of a writer’s retreat. After posting a picture of herself at a famous landmark, the area is struck by a terrorist bombing.
Danni wakes up to the concern of her friends, family, and most importantly, social media influencer Colin (Dylan O'Brien). The new social media star becomes the buzz of everyone’s attention and is branded a “hero.” Unfortunately, the higher one climbs, the further they fall. The dark comedy was created by writer-director Quinn Shephard, most known for her Independent Spirit Award-winning debut feature Blame. Game Rant spoke with Shephard about her inspiration behind Not Okay, the casting of social media influencer Caroline Calloway, collaborating with lead actor and producer Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’Brien’s makeover, and more.
Related: Not Okay Review
Game Rant: Not Okayis a brilliant take on influencer culture. What inspired you to make the movie?
Quinn Shephard: I came up with the idea four years ago. That's when I wrote the first draft of the script. It came to me out of nowhere, I'm pretty sure I was in the shower. I was in this place where I was researching internet culture for a lot of different projects. I was watching YouTube documentaries and reading articles from The Cut about cancel culture. This came to me as a gift from the internet, just some bizarre mashup of realities that I was witnessing.
It was peak Trump America, and we were dealing with so much political unrest and violence. Yet, every day I was on my phone reading celebrity gossip and influencer stories. Those things existed
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