Amazon Prime’s “Overcompensating” dropped on May 15 to loving reviews and enthusiastic fan support — and its creator/star Benito Skinner is ready for a second lap.
“There’s so much more to say,” Skinner told IndieWire on the red carpet of at the TV Gotham Awards. “And also, don’t you want to see Hailee on spring break? That’s all I’m gonna say.”
In the series, Skinner plays closeted jock, Benny Scanlon, who’s trying to navigate his freshman year of college. Hailee is his party-loving roommate, played by Holmes.
“[Holmes is] so brilliant and … she’s incredible at improv. So, I feel like I knew that with the person I chose. So, I wanted her to run with it. I feel like I had so much fun writing that character,” Skinner said. “When she was in, I was like, ‘Go to fucking town’ … Haley took over, and it was just so, so fun to watch.”
“Overcompensating” pulled in high-profile cameos for its first season from the likes of Kyle MacLachlan, Connie Britton, and Charli xcx. The supporting cast includes Corteon Moore, who plays Gabe, who said the show deserves a second season because there’s nothing else like it on television.
“I don’t remember the last time I laughed so hard, and I stand by the fact that we have dumb jokes. And I don’t think people are doing dumb jokes as well as Benny and [writer] Scott King pulled off on the show,” Moore told IndieWire on the red carpet. So, I think we need to bring back stupid humor, and I think stupid humor done by really smart people. So, if we get a second season, we get a whole bunch more of that.”
“Overcompensating” is based on Skinner’s real life. He expanded on the show’s genesis in an IndieWire interview last month.
“The initial idea [came from] the relationship I had with a woman in college,” Skinner said. “I went to school at Georgetown, and I was in the closet when I got there. I met this woman who I think really changed my life in a lot of ways, and she was the first person I came out to, so that was kind of like the original idea for the show. Then, I kept thinking about this idea of overcompensating and trying to be something that you think other people want you to be. I felt like college was the perfect setting, because that’s where I was doing so much overcompensating.”
Watch IndieWire’s conversation with Skinner and Moore below.
