After Girls, Zosia Mamet finds her place on The Flight Attendant
Zosia Mamet, daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet, broke big in her early 20s as Shoshanna, the heart and soul of Girls. Now she’s starring in compulsive whodunnit The Flight Attendant as Annie, deadpan best friend to Cassie, Kaley Cuoco’s titular stewardess.
VOGUE AUSTRALIA: We wanted to ask … How are you? How was 2020 for you?
ZOSIA MAMET: “My husband and I talk about this a lot – I feel weird saying this, but we’re actually doing really well. We both got incredibly lucky … I’m a horseback rider so when lockdown happened, I basically spent every day at the barn so I had this amazing outlet. It was the thing that kept me sane until I went back to work.”
VA: Did you learn anything about yourself over the past year?
ZM: “Definitely. Oh man, how could you not? I come from a family in the industry all the way back to my grandparents, and I think that when you have worked in this industry your whole life, it instils this concept that you can never stop hustling. You always have to be on … I feel like this is the first time in my life that I’ve ever really stopped.
The first two weeks created this insane anxiety spike inside of me, and then I finally settled into it. I just let go. It shifted something internally in me and made me look at my life and my priorities differently. There were a lot of things that I realised I don’t necessarily need to be doing all the time. I could try a little less, or go a little slower, or take more time for myself. It helped slow down the treadmill I feel like I’ve been on my whole life.”
VA: How do you feel about the future of film and theatre in the aftermath of the pandemic?
ZM: “I worry deeply for theatre. My family is entrenched in it, and I know that everyone involved in theatre is hurting very badly right now … My hope is that we will figure out a way – which we are already doing – to adapt and continue to create, and I hope those adaptations will make entertainment more interesting and more creative. I really think and hope and believe that some very cool and interesting art, of all types, is going to come out of this period.”
VA: One of the balms of 2020 was The Flight Attendant, which showrunner Steve Yockey has described as “something like Pop Rocks”.
ZM: “Oh I love that! I haven’t thought about that candy since I was like seven. It’s such an accurate description. We were talking on set one day and Steve was like it’s a darkly comedic thriller. I’m not great with scary, scary things, but I’ve always been a huge Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock fan. I love a smart thriller, I love a whodunnit … This show was one of the first times in so long that everyone, from all of us actors to the hair and make-up department – we couldn’t wait to get the next script to find out what happened. We were waiting with bated breath!”
VA: What’s special about the friendship between Annie and Cassie?
ZM: “I think that Annie and Cassie are the true love story of The Flight Attendant. I got to spend six years on a show about female friendships and I think women all understand how incredibly important those relationships are, especially as we grow older together … Annie and Cassie are almost like sisters. They push each other’s buttons but they love each other so much. It was really fun and challenging to play – because of Cassie’s rash decisions, the friendship is tested and put in this pressure cooker and the boundaries of it are stretched and stretched and stretched. You really get to see the inner workings of their friendship.”
VA: Is there anything you can say about a second season?
ZM: “If there is one, I have no idea what would happen! I’m just the actress, they don’t tell me anything. But I would love nothing more than to make more of this show.”
VA: It’s almost been 10 years since the first episode of Girls. How do you feel looking back on its legacy?
ZM: “That is so crazy, it has been 10 years. I was 22 when I started making that show – that’s wild. I got to spend my 20s making that show, which is one of the greatest gifts. It was so creatively fulfilling to make, and the people who were involved – we won the lottery on that one. I had so much fun playing that character; every day was a crazy new adventure and it was a total roller coaster ride … I’m just so grateful for the experience of making it and the opportunities that it has afforded me.”
VA: You could spend your 20s making Girls and your 30s making The Flight Attendant …
ZM: “That would be a dream. Those sound like two delicious and delightful decades.”
The Flight Attendant is streaming now on Binge.
This story originally appeared in the January issue of Vogue Australia, on sale now.