Girlboss could be Girls’ spiritual successor

ITS lead character can be brash and abrasive, but there’s nothing “unlikeable” about a woman fighting against being boxed in.

Finding the perfect jacket is like sex.

THE higher-ups at Netflix (probably) didn’t schedule the release of Girlboss five days after the final episode of HBO series Girls. But they couldn’t have timed it better.

In many ways, Girlboss could be seen as a spiritual successor. Its lead is a character in her early 20s who can be every bit as abrasive as Hannah and co. It’s also about finding yourself in those early adult years when the world tries to shove you into a neat little responsible box.

Based on Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso’s autobiography of the same name, the series is a “loose” retelling of Amoruso’s founding of her online fashion empire barely a decade ago.

Amoruso started the business in 2006 out of her apartment in San Francisco when she started reselling vintage pieces on eBay before launching her own website. At one point, her personal fortune was estimated at over $US280 million.

But late last year, while in Australia for a speaking engagement, it was announced Nasty Gal would file for bankruptcy, an experience Amoruso says could make for a great storyline in “season five”.

It must be a surreal experience for Amoruso, seeing herself depicted on screen by Britt Robertson (Tomorrowland), knowing that the character will be seen by some as kind of bratty and entitled.

“I’m beyond happy,” Amoruso says. “The show is so good. I try to remove myself from the fact that it’s based on my life and just watch it as a comedy. I watch it like any other show which is a really hard thing to convince anybody. You have to give up a certain amount of control when something like this happens in your life.”

Sophia Amoruso with actor Britt Robertson who plays a character based on her life.

There are many layers to the character of “Sophia” on the show, who can be naive and infuriating but also driven and spunky.

Girlboss creator Kay Cannon (Pitch Perfect, 30 Rock) says: “I’m a little culpable of this as well, suggesting that Sophia is an unlikeable person, because she’s not. She is likeable, and she’s fun and she’s vulnerable and she cries and she loves her dad and she wants to make him proud. She’s just lost and it manifests sometimes in anger, but that doesn’t mean she’s not likeable.

Robertson says she can relate to what “Sophia” is going through, having had her own misadventures in doubt when she was younger.

“I didn’t know who I was so I would get super angry all the time and lash out at people, particularly people I love and I didn’t really understand why or what it meant. Now, as someone in therapy, I can tell you what was happening,” Robertson says.

“I think that’s a big part of Sophia’s struggle early on. She’s just so frustrated with the circumstances that she’s been given and why she has to a boring adult and have a nine-to-five job. That’s something I have experienced in my life.

“For me, what was really special about playing this character is the fact that she’s not perfect. She’s actually imperfect and she allows people to be that way and it showed me that it’s OK if you don’t know what you’re saying sometimes.”

With a brash and abrasive lead, Girlboss could be a spiritual successor to Girls.

Girlboss’ journey to the screen began with Charlize Theron after someone gave her Amoruso’s book. Through her production company, Denver and Delilah, Theron brought Cannon on board and then secured the rights to Amoruso’s tome.

Theron said the book sparked something in her and she was drawn to this person who was flawed and complicated.

But that’s what made the project a hard sell for traditional broadcast networks. Theron and Cannon pitched the series to all the major networks in the US and no one bought it. The feedback from those meetings dominated by men was that they had to make the series more “male-friendly”, but the team was unwilling to compromise.

Speaking to a panel in February, Theron said: “There’s always this worry with characters like this, and I’ve seen and heard this many times in my career, where you hear that age-old tale that people are not going to like her and find her too abrasive and you have to make sure the audience likes her.

“And I wonder how many times did Robert De Niro hear that when he was doing Taxi Driver? How many times did Jack Nicholson hear that when he was doing The Shining?

“And there’s this consistent fight that is very much in trying to explain [to executives] that audiences do connect with the truth of what women are — our complexities and how layered we are and how beautifully f**ked up we are.

“Not just women relate to that. People relate to that and society relates to that.”

Girlboss is available to stream on Netflix from Friday, April 21 from 7pm AEST.

Continue the conversation on Twitter with @wenleima.

Wenlei Ma travelled to New York as a guest of Netflix.

Theron with Cannon, Robertson, Amoruso and Netflix content boss Ted Sarandos at the Girlboss premiere.