How Benito Skinner Brought the Best of TikTok to ‘Overcompensating’: ‘This Cast Kind of Goes Crazy’

Despite the Britney Spears music cue to start the show, it’s not luck that landed Benito Skinner — aka Benny Drama — his very own Prime Video comedy series. Still, the “Overcompensating” creator, star and executive producer feels very lucky to have assembled such an all-star cast, all of whom shined on the yellow carpet at the Palladium Theater premiere in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

“I just approached it by picking whoever was perfect for the role. If you make me laugh on my phone, I want you in it, I want friends in it, comedians I’m obsessed with who haven’t gotten their platform to shine, just people I love so much. Whether they’re from the Internet or not, let’s put the funniest people in this,” he told TheWrap. “Whatever I did, I’ll do it again. This is insane, I’m so lucky.”

“We did a table read where we did all the episodes and the whole cast was there, and everyone was like, ‘F–k, this cast kind of goes crazy.’ It felt like the alchemy in that room, the chemistry just felt right,” Skinner continued. “We were all so excited, because you’re doing most of these auditions on Zoom, so you have no idea what it’s going to feel like. But when we were all seated and read the script, it was one of the best days of my life. It was so fun.”

Showrunner and fellow writer Scott King agreed, adding, “At our first table read, it was really unbelievable. We flew in so many people and even just walking in and sitting down, there was this magic. I could not be happier, it was a dream … I am so not on social media, I didn’t even know where everybody came from. They were all just great actors. Someday I’ll get online.”

Someone who is on social media is Skinner’s frequent collaborator, co-star and “Ride” podcast co-host Mary Beth Barone. “It took the manifestation of a lot of gay guys and bi girls, but we got here, we’re on the yellow carpet. It finally happened,” she celebrated.

“They really did give Benny the space to create the show he wanted and they let us push the envelope in many, many ways. There wasn’t anything they totally shut down. Anything that they had questions about they asked Benny how it served the story and he always had an answer, so we were really lucky,” Barone said of working with Amazon and A24. “They let us show full penis, which is huge. They said only HBO could do that, but then Prime was like, ‘What about us?’”

“The bigger budget looks amazing,” she added. “We could get an editing team, a DP, directors. We were not doing it all ourselves, hopefully that shows in the finished product – thank you Amazon for the money!”

Meanwhile, “Shrinking,” “What We Do in the Shadows,” “Betty” and “Sprung” writer Wally Baram could not be happier about getting in front of the camera to lead the college-set comedy alongside Skinner.

“It was so many things: It was fulfilling, it was challenging, it was eye-opening, it was exciting and novel. It was all of the things that a creative job can offer you,” she shared. “When I heard Benny talk about the show and the things he was committed to following creatively, and then I saw him back those things up in the writers’ room and in production with a commitment to his values and making something true and authentic, that’s usually a very good sign.”

“What Benny did was he just cast the best people for the role,” comedian Holmes further explained. “When you’re casting, don’t just look for people who look like the character you want them to play, because Hailee looks nothing like me and is very different from me, and Benny actually went off the tapes and picked the best person from the tapes. We weren’t friends before this or anything, he just went off the tapes.”

“We knew we could help each other,” she added of working with both longtime screen actors and viral TikTok talent. “The people with more acting experience could give advice to the comedians, and then the comedians could also teach the actors a lot about improvising. It was really fun to create a space where we could all play.”

“I didn’t ever feel like anyone was any different from any other actor I’ve worked with,” Corteon Moore echoed. “We got really lucky just having a great set of scripts, some really great directors and everybody showed up wanting to do the best work they could.”

“Everyone has a natural presence about them and I think that comes through, we learned from each other,” Nell Verlaque noted. “I never read anything like it. It was so funny and so brilliant and had so much heart.”

In addition to “Lucky” by Britney Spears, the first two episodes of “Overcompensating” contain plenty of iconic needle drops — such as some memorable use of Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass.” For that, Skinner enlisted the help of superstar music supervisor and EP Charli XCX.

“The music is such a big part of the show,” Adam DiMarco teased. “I always like watching things that have a soundtrack to it where the songs evoke a response, like you were in college when you heard them.”

But whether you are actively on TikTok or have long since graduated from college, everyone will be able to find the charm and relatability in “Overcompensating.”

“It’s very ingrained in the hazing world and not really knowing where you fit in, which is so daunting in ways I can’t even explain and remember all too well,” Rish Shah shared. “We all have been in experiences where we have to make up something or you feel like you’re fronting. And you’re lying if you say you didn’t.”

The star-studded Hollywood event also included an open bar, a temporary tattoo station, hangover kits, multiple pieces of merch from which to pick, a sexy photo-op in the style of the series’ poster, burgers, tacos, passed apps and tequila shots, as well as a surprise DJ set from Haim.

Other notable attendees included series stars James Van Der Beek, Connie Britton, Kaia Gerber, Maddie Phillips, Lukas Gage, Owen Thiele, Tommy Do, Tomaso Sanelli and Boman Martinez-Reid, in addition to guests like Cooper Koch, Patti Harrison, Mitra Jouhari, Sarah Jeffery, Tess Holliday, Bobby Berk, Terrence O’Connor and Paul W. Downs.

All eight episodes of “Overcompensating” are now streaming on Prime Video.

The post How Benito Skinner Brought the Best of TikTok to ‘Overcompensating’: ‘This Cast Kind of Goes Crazy’ appeared first on TheWrap.