In Drugstore June, the titular young woman is a wannabe social media influencer who doesn’t have much going on in her life. However, when the pharmacy she works at is robbed, June takes it upon herself to look into the crime. As she delves further into the mystery, she’ll be forced to examine her own life, including the shortcomings she does her best to ignore.
Drugstore June is directed by Nicholaus Goossen from a script penned by Goossen Esther Povitsky. Drugstore June stars Povitsky, Bobby Lee, Beverly D’Angelo, James Remar, Brandon Wardell, Haley Joel Osment, Danny Griffin, Matt Walsh, iCarly‘s Miranda Cosgrove, Jackie Sandler, Al Madrigal, and Bill Burr. Burr also serves as an executive producer on the movie.
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Screen Rant interviewed star and writer Esther Povitsky about Drugstore June. She explained what inspired the story and how she approached playing the character June. Povitsky also discussed working with Burr, Cosgrove, and Lee as well as what she wished could have been explored in a third season of Dollface.
Esther Povitsky Talks Drugstore June
Screen Rant: Man, this movie was fun.
Esther Povitsky: Oh my gosh. Thank you. I’m so excited to chat with you. I’m such a fan of Screen Rant, so this is so cool.
We love to hear that, so that’s great. You starred in and co-wrote this movie, so what inspired the story for you?
Esther Povitsky: I would say the story was inspired by me, my delusions of grandeur, my commitment to stalking my high school ex, not being over him despite him dumping me years and years prior, and also inspired by, I think, just sort of me envisioning a different version of my life where I had not moved to LA and I think I would’ve probably just lived at my parents’ house and just seen how far I could get in life with doing that and also doing basically nothing else.
So, this is the road not traveled for you?
Esther Povitsky: Yes, this is the road that I often wish I had traveled.
That’s so interesting because I was very curious about your approach to creating June on the page, but as a performer as well, obviously you tapped into elements of yourself that you already have, but also things that are kind of like woulda, coulda type situation. So, what was that like both as a writer and a performer?
Esther Povitsky: I will be honest, I like to always say that I am not that creative. My skill is digging in deep down and asking myself, how do I really feel? What would I really say? What do I really think here? And that’s what comes out and gets onto the page and that’s what drives my performance. I’m not, at least up until this point, the kind of writer or performer that’s going out there doing research and figuring… I think do what you’re good at and this is what I know and I’m for some reason just really able to tap in to the craziness inside of me, and so that is kind of where this all comes from.
I’m going to argue what you started with, where you said you’re not creative. I would argue that is an extremely creative approach, because it’s hard to show yourself to the audience in that way.
Esther Povitsky: Oh my God, thank you. I’m taking that. I’m keeping that compliment. Thank you, that’s really kind.
I think one of the things that I also found very interesting is that June’s not necessarily a very likable character, because there are a lot of elements that come through that remind me of people where you’re just like, “Oh brother, all right,” so what was it like to create the character that was an unlikable female lead and how that enhanced the comedy?
Esther Povitsky: So, I feel like about 10 years ago, there was this big conversation in TV and film writing where some executive at some point, some things were going around where they were like, “The female characters have to be likable,” and then as a culture, we created a backlash to that. So, I don’t want to act like I’m the only one who’s on this unlikable female journey, but I definitely am on it and love it. And ever since my show Alone Together that we did two seasons of that are all up on Hulu, I was like, “This is…” Again, it goes back to what I am, what I know.
I can’t put together the puzzle pieces of what makes a woman likable. That seems, first of all, so boring to me, uninteresting, and what is probably the reason why a lot of mainstream projects none of us care about. We’re just like, “This is fake.” So for me, the unlikable thing, it’s just a big part of my creative voice, I think, and just not feeling shame or embarrassment about your bad qualities. And June is selfish, and June is absolutely delusionally stalking her ex-boyfriend just by him moving on. June steals, she steals, and so to me those were…
That’s to me also where humor comes from and don’t you like to see a person just kind of do sh-tty things? Also, maybe this is delusion of my own, but science says if you have a round face, you’re just naturally a likable person. And I found that people, when they meet me, they just are like, “Oh my God, you’re so…” They make all these assumptions about me. I’m from the Midwest, have a round face, and I’m friendly. I feel like I have a lot of leeway to do bad things because of that.
My favorite scenes in this movie were the police interrogation scenes just because of how frustrated June made the detectives by purely being herself, not actively trying. Can you talk to me about writing and performing those scenes?
Esther Povitsky: Those were so fun. I’m so glad that those were your favorites because when I watched the movie back, those are kind of my favorites, too. I just love getting the opportunity to be a brat in a situation where you really should not be a brat because you could get arrested just because you piss off a cop and they’re in a bad mood. So that was really fun for me. And specifically, I love to be disrespectful of men who are in positions of authority, and so that was really fun for me.
And I think it just comes from growing up with a bunch of uncles who just viewed me as an annoying little kid, and I’d be like, “What’s your problem?” I just have always been combative with older men and our director, Nick Goossen, who’s a friend of mine, who’s always picked up on that from seeing me on comedy podcasts over the years, and so he really wanted to highlight that personality trait of mine, and I think we got it really well in that scene. And I know there’s Jackie there too, but just being kind of a brat to Al Madrigal and not caring was fun.
I love that, and then I loved your show, Dollface. I was so bummed when it got canceled. What do you envision Izzy’s life as after the season 2 finale, and are there storylines that you and the cast wanted to continue with season three?
Esther Povitsky: Oh my gosh, that’s so interesting because things worked out for Izzy at the end of season two in a way that shouldn’t happen for someone so kooky as her. So, I think it would be really fun for season three to see her be secure in a relationship and also be her weird self, and gosh, I don’t know. That makes me so happy and sad to think of what her and the girls would be up to because I miss them so much. They’re my favorite people I’ve ever worked with.
And then you’ve worked with Miranda Cosgrove before on iCarly. Is that what inspired her to be brought into this movie?
Esther Povitsky: We met in COVID and we just hit it off right away, and we immediately found that we had the same sensibility, very self-aware, self-deprecating. We both don’t have high opinions of ourselves, and we related on that. And so, then I worked on her show as a consulting producer for a couple of seasons, and then when we finally got this movie green lit, I was like, “Miranda, you have to be in everything I do. We have to work together forever. Will you play this part?” And she was like, “Of course,” and then she was amazing, so that’s kind of how that happened.
That’s so much fun, and then can you talk to me about working with Bobby Lee and Bill Burr?
Esther Povitsky: Yes, I have been intimidated by Bill Burr for 15 years. I still am nervous around him and can’t believe he’s in this movie, but our scene together, he was so funny and it was so fascinating because he’s a true stand-up comedian, but his acting and his improv were so good. It was probably one of the most fun scenes to shoot because he just kept hitting me with funny lines that I was not expecting.
So, it was really fun to work with him, and then Bobby, I’m much closer with, and so that was just also really fun. On the days where Bobby was on set, I felt like, “Oh my God, let’s just sit and hang,” and I just felt really happy and comfortable. And I think as everyone on planet Earth knows, when you’re with your friends, everything is more fun, and that was a big theme for this movie.
Definitely, I love that you had people that made you comfortable and people that challenged you. I think that’s the perfect combination.
Esther Povitsky: I love that, you’re right. That’s how I feel like when I was dancing in high school. The way that I felt like I could get better is if every week I took a class that was too easy for me and a class that was too hard for me, so I could show off in the easy class and then struggle in the hard class, and that was how I feel like I got better.
About Drugstore June
After the pharmacy in her small town is robbed, June (Esther Povitsky), who still lives at home with her parents (Beverly D’Angelo and James Remar) takes matters into her own hands to solve the crime, while at the same time trying to get over her ex-boyfriend (Haley Joel Osment) and become more of an adult.
Source: Screen Rant Plus
Drugstore June
Drugstore June is a comedy film directed by Nicholaus Goosen and released in North America in 2024. Still living at home with her parents and trying to make it big as an influencer, June isn’t making much headway in life. However, when a pharmacy in her town is robbed, and her boyfriend dumps her, she decides to take on the drugstore case herself in an attempt to get over him and try to set herself on a better path.
- Release Date
- March 23, 2024
- Director
- Nicholaus Goossen
- Cast
- Esther Povitsky , Miranda Cosgrove , Bill Burr , Haley Joel Osment , Jackie Sandler , James Remar , Beverly D’Angelo
- Runtime
- 91 Minutes
- Writers
- Nicholaus Goossen , Esther Povitsky
- Studio(s)
- Shout! Studios , All Things Comedy
- Distributor(s)
- Utopia
