‘Hope for the best, prepare for the worst': ‘Overcompensating' breakout Wally Baram on making her acting debut, defiling prop toilet
When writer and stand-up comic Wally Baram joined the writers' room for the debut season of Prime Video's breakout coming-of-age college dramedy Overcompensating, she had no idea she would become one of the TV season's most celebrated new actresses. In a story she charmed Kelly Clarkson with on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Baram's years in the writers' rooms of Shrinking and What We Do in the Shadows hadn't included much time spent on sets. Which is how she ended up unknowingly using a prop toilet on the Overcompensating set, and having to quickly remove it and hide the evidence in her purse.
The good news: the poop oops didn't get her fired (as she feared it might), and the series creator, showrunner, and star, comedian Benito Skinner, became convinced the writer, but inexperienced actor, was the perfect person to play Carmen, the new classmate and BFF of his college freshman Benny. Of hundreds of other contenders, Baram auditioned, convinced Prime execs that Skinner had made a good casting call, and she was all of a sudden joining him as one of the series leads. She had also helped shaped the episodes unfolding during the funny, sweet, raunchy, guest star-studded (Charlie XCX, Connie Britton, Kyle MacLachlan, Megan Fox, Bowen Yang, and James Van Der Beek) story about secretly gay Benny and his brief love interest-turned-best friend Carmen, who bond in their awkwardness and turn it into a sweet, dramatic, complicated relationship.
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Baram, whose character experienced some on-screen bathroom-related drama in the sometimes bawdy dramedy, is planning a new stand-up tour in August, as she awaits, with her fellow writers and castmates, what should be a no-brainer Season 2 renewal for Overcompensating at Prime Video.
In the meantime, she talked to Gold Derby about what it's been like to become a star if not overnight, within the last month; how she totally understands why people think she's exactly like her character (she isn't, though); what she can't wait to explore about Carmen next; why she agrees with lots of TV fans about what TV mom and dad she'd choose as her 'rents; and what she expected to be greeted with when she joined the writing staffs of the Emmy-nominated comedies she wrote for.
Prime Video
Gold Derby: The show has been the highlight of spring TV. It has been so well received by viewers and critics, and yours is definitely one of the breakout performances of the TV season. And it only premiered a month ago. How have you wrapped your mind around all that happening so quickly?
Wally Baram: It's, I mean, it's crazy. It's been. in so many ways, such a novel experience. I've been a part of, you know, a couple of Season 1s in the writers room of TV shows and seeing them come out, and you really just never know. So I knew to have absolutely zero expectations; hope for the best, prepare for the worst. It's just been a thrill, of course.
When was the first time that you realized, "Hey, people are watching this and they're really connecting to it?"
Hmm… you know, when we had some interviews, and there were some press people that were being very extra nice about [the show]. I asked someone afterwards, 'Are they doing that to try to, you know, butter you up?' I think some of them had seen the series before it actually came out, and they were like, 'That spoke to my queer experience.' I was like, "Whoa, I thought they would be a little bit more close to the vest about that." And then when the show actually came out, the day it came out, people were stopping me to talk about it. It was bananas.
What's the most surreal thing that's happened to you so far since it premiered?
That's a good question. I think the most surreal thing has perhaps been people who have the experience of grief that my character does on the show coming up to me in the street and telling me that they felt what my character was feeling and they really identified with the experience of my character. I'm sure that feels like a very universal actor experience, but you know, people … to have it be a story that is tragic, that was really meaningful to me, especially because I came into this as a comedian and thinking and knowing that comedy was my wheelhouse and my character is actually not that hard-funny in the show. She definitely, absolutely has moments, but she also has some more heartful moments she has to play.
I wasn't sure that I could tackle those moments, … it's still a relief when people tell me that they connect with the performance.
People really do connect with Carmen, which is probably part of the reason they seem obsessed with knowing how much you are like the character, or not. Are you sick of answering those questions yet?
That's funny. You know, I think it's difficult. It was even difficult for me, because at first glance, we're very similar, but at second glance, we're really so different. So it very quickly became, you're so similar to Carmen and you wrote in the room. I didn't know I was going to play this character when I wrote in the room. It was just contributing kind of my experiences. And then, when I was playing her, … I think if you saw me in between takes, you'd be like, wow, these are very different people, the character and me.
You've written for and , some of the best TV series, the best comedies certainly of recent TV years. How did acting as one of the characters you were writing change the writing experience for you?
My gosh, it definitely did. Now I notice when I'm writing, I'm imagining myself kind of, not that I expect to play any of the characters, but in a way I try to put myself in the place of the actor in sort of a new, three-dimensional way, and I think it's made my writing more active, where now I'm like, so this is kind of how I can build out more for that actor to play in a moment, based off of now what I know of the acting experience. I definitely in my own writing want to give more opportunities for the actors to bring more.
More tools for the writer's toolbox…
Yeah, absolutely. Coming back to new scripts or revisiting old scripts, it's made me do significant rewrites on things. So it's been really worthwhile.
Prime Video
What were your experiences like working in the and , writers' rooms? Again, those are fantastic comedies, obviously very different from each other, to have so early on your résumé.
Yeah, I feel very fortunate in that I've worked with some season one rooms, and some first-time showrunners, as was this experience with Benito, who hadn't run a room before and yet he led the show with such grace. It was kind of unbelievable. I felt very privileged coming into this experience, because I've worked with a lot of showrunners too who have done this job at great lengths. Paul Simms, who does What We Do in the Shadows, Bill Lawrence on Shrinking. And even before that, I worked with Greg Garcia [who created My Name Is Earl and Raising Hope]. Just people that have TV down to a well-oiled machine in terms of how they run the room, make the show, and get the most creativity out of the people that they're working with. So if i got anything out of those experiences, in addition to just meeting great people, I feel like I definitely observed a lot of ways in which I would want to run a room if I ever run a room, and also just how to professionally interact with people in productive and kind ways. Because all those guys are, I would say, remarkably kind as bosses in the industry. You hear so many crazy stories … every time I would land somewhere and someone would open with like, 'It's hard to get fired.' I'd be like, 'How is that possible?' I think that was told to me at like all of those places. I don't know if I can imagine. I don't know if I'm not supposed to say that, but everyone was like, 'Yeah, don't worry.' But I thought like, I'm supposed to be here and someone's supposed to be hitting me with a stick as I pump out jokes at 2 a.m., and I'm not sleeping, and I'm getting like racist and sexist threats yelled at me. That's what I thought Hollywood was kind of going to be like. And I've been very fortunate to work with who I've worked with.
You've talked about being a fan of and finding inspiration in memoirs written by uber-talented writer-actors like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Mindy Kaling. Is that something that you hope to do or would want to do?
Well, I love the practice of writing, and I read a lot of fiction. I don't actually know if I could ever write fiction, but I would love to write something that stays on the page. I think it's the way I feel about what exactly I'm doing, whether it's acting, stand up, or writing scripts, it all has to do sort of with what I'm trying to express and explore. Like recently I wrote an essay about my mom, and I think I could have only articulated exactly what I was trying to articulate in an essay form. I think I use writing in a way that's sort of cathartic, that's cathartic and artistic. So I don't know that I'd get to it. Definitely right now I don't feel like, 'Ooh, I need to look back and tell my story' yet. I don't know, but I definitely would want to write something that would exist in book form.
saved one of its best episodes for the penultimate spot in the season, with 'Welcome to the Black Parade,' where Carmen goes home to Idaho with Benny and Grace for the holidays. It was funny and sweet and redemptive, hilariously horrifying from Benny and Grace's point of view. But for Carmen, there was a real affection for the Scanlon parents and an appreciation for how much they just wanted to be a part of their kids' lives. As the portrayer of Carmen and a series writer, do you want to know more specifics about her family's backstory?
Yeah, I definitely am interested. It's funny, when we shot the first scene of the show, we casted my parents. We had two people be my parents in the car that I'm getting out of, and they, I don't know if this was intentional for Benny or not, but they looked exactly like my real parents. But I think I'm excited for us to explore that, because that's where Carmen and I are actually really different. I think there were a lot of emotions from my childhood that I could pull from that kind of add up to this experience that she could have had, but I think her childhood was ultimately very different than mine. And I'm excited to explore that on a writing level and on an acting level, because I think that'll be where I get to do a lot more invention of the character.
So yeah, we have chatted about what that could look like, and I'm excited to see more of what ideas [Benito] brings in. And I will say in that episode, Kyle MacLachlan and Connie Britton are, you're around them, and you're like, 'My gosh, I want you to be my parents.' Like you feel that from them.
One more question before you have to go: when, not if is renewed for Season 2, what might Benny and Carmen (and Grace and Hailee and Miles and Peter and George and Mr. and Mrs. and Scanlan) be up to?
I just knocked on wood. I think non-spoiler, something that I've definitely heard Benito talk about is a spring break episode, which sounds like it would be an absolute blast. Imagine Hailee, Carmen, and Benny on a beach, or on a cruise.
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