Awkwafina and Sandra Oh set off on a wild road trip in Quiz Lady. The Hulu comedy centers on sisters Anne and Jenny brought back together when their mom flees the country from an $80,000 gambling debt, resulting in the former’s dog being kidnapped by the mobsters holding him hostage. In order to earn him back, they attempt to turn Anne’s obsession with a game show into a major jackpot.
Alongside Awkwafina and Oh, the ensemble cast for Quiz Lady includes Jason Schwartzman, Holland Taylor, Tony Hale, Jon “Dumbfoundead” Park, Will Ferrell, and the late Paul Reubens in a posthumous role. Also produced by its lead stars, the movie is one of the most heartwarming of the year, with Awkwafina and Oh playing off of each other in a lovable fashion.
In anticipation of the movie’s release, Screen Rant exclusively interviewed writer/producer Jen D’Angelo to discuss Quiz Lady, basing the story on one of her family members, and collaborating with Awkwafina and Sandra Oh to hone the script for the screen.
Jen D’Angelo Talks Quiz Lady
Screen Rant: This is probably the feel-good movie of the year, in my opinion. How did the concept really first come about for you?
Jen D’Angelo: So, my older brother is very similar to Anne in that he is a genius and just remembers literally every fact he’s ever learned. He has been obsessed with Jeopardy his whole life, he’s tried out multiple times, he always makes it into the contestant pool, but never gets the call to be on the show. When I first moved to LA, I was working as an assistant on a Sony show, so I would have to drive on to the Sony lot all the time, nd I would drive past the Jeopardy stages, and I would just be like, “It’s right there. If I could just get my brother onto the show, it would make his whole life.”
That idea was sort of the genesis of this whole thing of the idea of having what feels like a very simple goal, but because of all the emotions involved, and external stakes, it becomes a really big deal for these characters.
How much of you, then, would you say you put either into Sandra or Awkwafina’s characters in the writing process?
Jen D’Angelo: Great question, I feel like Jenny’s bag is very much me. [Laughs] I always have so much stuff in my bag, just because I feel like it’s like a mom tendency. I’m not a mom, but it’s just this feeling of being like, “I want to be able to have the Tide stick if somebody needs it.” I just like having what people need, so my bag is always just filled with many mysteries. [Laughs] Then with Anne, I feel like I am a bit of a homebody, I’m always sort of struggling with that like, “How do you strike that balance?” I’m an introverted extrovert, and so always sort of bouncing in between those two things, and I’m also obsessed with my dog and would do anything for him, so there’s a little bit of me in both of them.
I love that twist, though, that the dog is the one taken hostage instead of the mom or another family member. Was that always the plan, or was there ever an earlier draft of the script where there was an actual family member who was taken hostage instead of the dog?
Jen D’Angelo: It was always the dog. [Laughs] It was so much always the dog, but there were times where we were like, “Should we call this movie Saving Mr. Linguini?” [Chuckles] There are a lot of titles pitched around in that area, but yeah, he was always the one in danger.
You have obviously worked in the comedy field plenty of times throughout the years, but to have Awkwafina and Sandra Oh bring your characters to life, they fit the mold so perfectly for what you wrote. Did you have them, or anybody else like them, in mind when you were putting the script together?
Jen D’Angelo: No, I started writing this script really having no idea what would happen with it. I just was like, “I have this idea that makes me laugh, and I want to just write it, and I’ll see what happens. Worst-case scenario, I have another feature script that is just a sample.” And as I was writing it, I sort of knew the only way that this would ever really get made is if we get two incredible actors attached to play these two sisters, so I just was sort of keeping it open, because I wanted to have anyone that we would maybe be interested in, I just wanted to be able to have them come on board if they were interested.
I just was crafting these characters, sort of in a vacuum. And then, right when I finished the script, I sent it to my manager, and she immediately was like, “I think this would be really great for Awkwafina.” That was beyond my wildest dreams, I was like, “Oh my gosh, yeah, that’d be amazing.” So, she was the first person to read the script, and when she signed on, I couldn’t believe it. It became so exciting to then think of Anne as portrayed by Awkwafina and sort of finding ways to bring parts of her into that character, and also make that character something that we’re not used to seeing her play.
The same with Sandra, they’re both playing against type, so when Sandra came on board, that was also just the most incredible gift of all time, I couldn’t believe it, I was like, “Wow, we really did get two incredible actors.” It was so incredible to have them come on, and luckily, we had a lot of time, we were able to work on the characters together and really craft them together, which was awesome.
Obviously, with any feature, there can be a division between screenwriter and director. How close did you and Jessica work together in really honing your vision and her vision for this movie to be what it is today?
Jen D’Angelo: It was such an amazing process, right when Jessica came on board, we all got to spend — Jessica, Sandra, Awkwafina and I — a week together in London, where we were just working on the script, and sharing stories about our families, and just talking about shame, and being embarrassed. And it was so fun, it was such an amazing bonding experience for the four of us. Also, so much came out of that. I forget if it was just an idea [Jessica] had, or if it’s something that happened to someone she knows her in her family, but it was her idea to have the mom just run away.
It used to be that the sisters were brought back together because their dad died, and Jessica was just like, “I think it’s funny if their mom is just so bad that she gets them into a bind and just immediately leaves, and they have nothing, they have no safety net.” I thought that was such an interesting, fun twist on that, and we don’t normally see really bad moms. I thought that was honestly really nice and emotional to put into the story, and so there was so much of Jessica and I working together so closely to get this script into the movie that you see today.
Awkwafina is, of course, known for improv as much as she is for her scripts. Was there any one scene, or even any one joke, where she made you laugh more than when you initially wrote it?
Jen D’Angelo: Oh my gosh, all of her mannerisms are so funny. She really is such an incredible physical comedian that it really was, honestly, everything was so much funnier when she was performing it than I ever imagined. Just because that character is so lived in, I feel like you can tell that it’s coming from her bones, like she is just so funny. Just even little comments, like one of my favorite jokes, it’s so slight, and it’s even off camera, but it just really makes me laugh the way that she said, it is when she’s scrolling through all of the results from when she searches for the “Quiz Lady” video, and she’s just scrolling past all the headlines, and she’s just like, “Oh my god, there’s discourse.” [Chuckles] It’s such a throwaway line, but just the way that she says it makes me laugh so hard.
I found it interesting that this movie got an R rating, because it feels very much somewhere in the middle between PG-13 and R. Was it ever further in the script, or further in the shooting, into an R rating, or was it always kind of walking that line?
Jen D’Angelo: It was always walking the line, and I too was very surprised that it got an R rating. I was a little bit like, “Oh, I wish I had known that when we were making it, we could have done some other stuff.” But yeah, it was always sort of toeing the line, and I think that was what was so exciting for a lot of us making this movie was that it did feel like it sort of existed in this sort of in-between space that we don’t see a lot of where, even when I was writing it originally, when I was just sort of like “Who knows what will happen with this?” I was like, “It’s not a big studio comedy in the traditional sense, but it’s also not an indie comedy. It’s not quite a dramedy, so it’s sort of existing in this in-between space that I think makes it feel fresh but also familiar and comforting, but new.” I think that that’s really where the movie lives, and so I think it’s funny that it also lives that way in a rating where it’s rated R, even though I’m like, “This must be the softest R of all.” [Laughs]
About Quiz Lady
Anne, a tightly wound, game show-obsessed woman, must come together with her chaotic sister Jenny in order to help pay off their mother’s gambling debts. When Anne’s beloved dog is kidnapped, they will have to set off on a cross-country journey in order to get the money they need. In order to do so, they will have to tap into Anne’s skill set by turning her into the game show champion she was always meant to be.
Check out our interview with director Jessica Yu as well.
Quiz Lady begins streaming on Hulu on November 3.
