Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Boo, Bitch.
Aparna Brielle and Mason Versaw, two of the co-stars of Netflix’s new limited series, Boo, Bitch, sat down with Collider to discover their time on the show. Brielle plays popular mean girl Riley while Versaw player Riley’s former love interest, Jake C. Brielle said:
“For me, it was really interesting. In Hollywood, it can be very hard to break in through the door. There are so many projects where I had gotten so close, and then didn’t make it, but I learned something from each one.”
It was Versaw who was cast first. He got the scenes from the show around May of last year, 2021. After he sent in his self-tape, he didn’t hear back from the show for a little bit. Over the following month, he sent in a couple more rounds of self-tape. During that time, Versaw’s brother served as his reader.
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“There was this period where they started to move really quickly on it, so they were trying to get the chemistry reads in. I remember having a pretty stressful turnaround period to get it in there, but it was a really fun audition process that I had. And then, I did the chemistry read with Lana [Condor] and the rest was history. It was a good process.”
When Brielle auditioned, it was actually for the part of Riley’s henchwoman Leah. After she read for her and didn’t hear back, she assumed it was done and moved on. Then a week later, they asked if she could read for Riley, and she did. Eventually, she got a call asking if she could do a Zoom with co-showrunners Lauren Lunherich and Erin Ehrlich. It was there that they told her that she’d gotten the part. Brielle explained:
“It’s interesting, I’d heard that they’d been looking for something with Riley, but they didn’t quite know what. I thought it would be fun to lean into the mean girl, but I also really wanted to play up her insecurity and the fact that she is a real person who’s lashing out because she doesn’t have control over herself. She’s just a teenage girl, trying to stay on the top at school. It was fun getting to do that.”
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Filming The Show, Including One Important Scene
Netflix
The two of them shot many scenes and episodes out of order. According to Brielle, having to jump between different points in their characters’ relationship was a challenge. However, the thing that made it fun and easy to do for them was how they were both open to being vulnerable in some of those moments. Plus, knowing it was a comedy allowed them to go all the way. Versaw said:
“It was so easy acting with Aparna because we were just playing most of the time. It was just such a blast. I think there’s something relatable in finding a relationship like this, where these two have grown with each other for quite some time, in a toxic way, but they also do very much love each other. It was interesting, figuring out that process, but it was just so much fun, working with Aparna.”
In the show, there’s one scene where Riley, with curlers in her hair, shows up to see Jake, and you can see some of the popular, perfect facade stripped away. According to Brielle, they did that early on, and it was fun because going forward, she felt like she knew who her character was underneath. She also thought that it was a really sweet experience, which allowed both here and Versaw to trust each other. Versaw said:
“That scene is just so refreshing, for Jake C. to see that vulnerability that Riley presents. I don’t wanna give anything away, but seeing the layers of what unravels in their relationship, there’s a lot there.”
Brielle added:
“We also see how Jake has started redefining things too, by that point. In that moment, it’s both of them understanding that maybe they’ve not been the best together as a couple, but they work together as friends, and they know how to be open and vulnerable with each other in ways that they haven’t been with other people. It was just really great to be able to do that, early on.”
Boo, Bitch is available to stream on Netflix right now. All eight episodes of the series are 30 minutes long. The show’s premise is that a high schooler named Erika Vu (Condor) and her best friend Gia (Zoe Colletti) both decide to break out of their dull existence and start living their life epically. Only for Erika to wake up one day to discover she’s a ghost who might only have until she figures out her unfinished business before disappearing forever.
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