At San Diego Comic-Con 2022, PopWire spoke to the cast of the highly anticipated new Prime Video series, Paper Girls, to discuss their roles in the comic book based show. In attendance was Riley Lai Nelet (Erin Tieng), Sofia Rosinsky (Mac Coyle), Camryn Jones (Tiffany Quilkin) and Fina Strazza (KJ Brandman).
Strazza kicked things off by revealing what drew her in to the series. “I really liked how this story is very unique. There are four twelve year old girls who are put at the forefront of the story and treated as characters. That element of being a young actor and being able to explore a real human was very exciting for me and also being able to explore female friendship and female empowerment. This isn’t a female empowerment story because we shove girl power in your face. It’s a female empowerment story because it’s just four girls living a real human experience.”
Nelet continued by saying, “Perspective is something that is really important, not just in art, but in everyday life in general. It’s really nice that we get to see the perspective of young women.” Rosinsky had a very personal connection to her character of Mac. “My mom was actually a paper girl! Mac inherited her paper route from her older brother and same thing with my mom. Both my uncles were paper boys and they were telling me their wild stories.” Rosinsky also added that their stories were nothing compared to what Mac and the other girls go through in the series.
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Jones said, “I read the storyline and bio for Tiff and I was immediately hooked. I was like, ‘This is something I need to be a part of, this could be representation for so many people. You know when you read something that this one’s going to be a winner. And once I read the scripts and the comics, I got totally sucked in and I don’t think I can ever be sucked out now.”
In discussing the relationships between the four girls, Rosinsky delved into how Mac’s personality affects her relationships. “I think that Mac is finally able to let her guard down a little bit throughout the series. She is quite aggressive at the beginning and has a hard shell. It’s interesting to see how the other girls sort of help her let that down a little bit.”
Nelet revealed that the journey the Paper Girls go through in the series is not dissimilar to their own as actresses. “That’s how we met. We hadn’t known each other before and were kind of thrown into this awesome, amazing experience. It feels like as our characters went on this journey, we as actors did as well. It was just a great time.”
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“When we got cast, they asked us not to talk to each other before we met in person,” Jones said. “They wanted us to form that bond like our characters do in the show. But we did break the rule! (Laughs) Fina actually deleted the messages from her log so that no one would know that we had talked.” “I remember sitting in Chicago and looking down at my phone and it said, ‘Camryn Jones wants to send you a message!'” Rosinsky laughed.
In the series, Erin interacts with her future self, played by Ali Wong. Nelet expanded on the complicated relationship between the two Erins. “At the beginning, (Erin) has all these expectations for herself. When she interacts with this unexpected being that she finds, it’s unexpected for Erin as it is for the audience. Erin is forced to grow up quickly.”
“She has the responsibility of taking care of her family,” Nelet continued. “She never really had time to take care of herself. When we have scenes with Adult Erin, we can kind of see that twelve year old girl still inside. Ali and I had a splendid time crafting Erin.”
Paper Girls starts streaming on Prime Video on July 29.