Ladies who punch
Community and Mad Men star Alison Brie on her upcoming Netflix show, GLOW, set in the world of girls-only wrestling
“It’s the grittier side of Eighties nostalgia, you know? Coke in the bathroom and smudged makeup on your face.” Alison Brie is describing the allure of GLOW, Netflix’s forthcoming series whose name and premise is pinched from the flamboyant real-life Eighties television show,
Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
GLOW tells the story of
Ruth, a breathy and irksome aspiring actress who joins a wrestling show as a last resort after her auditions dry up. Strapping on Ruth’s many leotards, you’ll recognise Brie as Trudy Campbell in Mad Men or Annie Edison in Community. “The first thing I did was watch clips from the original show,” she says. “I was just floored — it’s so wild! It’s the height of Eighties’ excess embodied.”
The tragicomic Ruth shares parallels with Brie’s life, the character having gone to clown school, while Brie was a clown at children’s parties. Lingering in supporting roles for years, the actress was desperate for the part. “I’ve never felt more like Ruth than auditioning for this show,” she says. “It would fall flat and I’d be crying in my car, it was excruciating but helped them to see me as her.”
The hair is big, the costumes are semi-indecent and the body slams are slapstick, but as with many Netflix favourites there’s darkness there, too. Comedian and cult podcaster Marc Maron plays Sam Sylvia, a film director who only lifts his head from snorting lines off the toilet to despair at the amateur acrobatics around him.
“Who doesn’t trust a man with a moustache full of coke?” one of “his girls” scornfully remarks.
Admittedly, the moves are more WWE than UFC, though there are plenty of lock-ups, headlocks and back bumps
(“like a belly-flop but on your back…” Ouch). And while the action might be women-only, the show itself certainly isn’t.
“It’s about breaking down barriers of calling work ‘a femaledriven comedy’,” Brie explains. “Can’t we just call it a comedy? I think we can.” Yes sir.
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GLOW is on Netflix from 23 June