STRUGGLETOWN

Dispatches from the real world with comedian Claudia O’Doherty.

claudia O’Doherty is a survivor.

“I went for breakfast with some friends this morning, and even though my pancake was mushy, I feel fine,” she says. That’s not all the 33-year-old actress is dealing with when we reach her in Los Angeles. “I just got back from Australia,” says the Sydney native. “I had jet lag, but a friend gave me some ZzzQuil and I slept normal hours last night—a true breakthrough.”

O’Doherty is a comedian best known for her role in Judd Apatow’s resolutely unsentimental “unromantic comedy” series Love, which follows two Millennials through the uncomfortable, awkward reality of trying to find a romantic connection with another human. (The show’s second season airs on Netflix on March 10.)

“I’m less terrified making season two,” says O’Doherty about playing Bertie, the roommate of the show’s female lead, played by Gillian Jacobs. “I’m not sure how much I can say, but Bertie continues to be an optimistic doormat who wears outfits that don’t flatter her.”

And speaking of Jacobs, she and O’Doherty have a strange personal detail in common: “Both our mothers are named Martina, which is pretty wild,” says O’Doherty. She goes on to say that meeting Jacobs (whom she calls a “curious brainiac”) was one of “the true pleasures of moving to America.” Something she’s less keen on about her new home? “I am despairing of the new president,” she says. “Politics and pop culture have blurred together, and I’m worried we’ll all die in a nuclear war.”

O’Doherty is similarly unenthused about the old chestnut “What’s it like to be a woman in comedy?” “It’s a boring question that’s difficult to answer because I’ve only ever been a woman,” she says. “I don’t know what it’s like to be a man in comedy. Overall, being a woman means you are listened to less, paid less and more at risk of being murdered by men, which is not great.”

More exciting, however, are some of her upcoming plans for the rest of the year. “I’m going to get my driver’s licence, and I may try Pilates because I have persistent back pain.” n