Plaza as a social media stalker
UNTIL recently, Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen didn’t have Instagram accounts. But in making the dark comedy Ingrid Goes West, about a social media stalker and her latest obsession, the stars dived right into the world of Instagram influencers, filters and perfectly arranged photos.
“I had a phone in my hand probably every second the whole time we were filming,” Plaza, who plays Ingrid Thorburn, said in an interview. “When we weren’t shooting, but I was on set, I was kind of allowing myself to get lost in looking at other people’s feeds and kind of spiraling into it – which I wouldn’t let myself do in my real life because I have self-control.”
Unlike Plaza, Ingrid lacks all social media self-control. She even moves to California to befriend an Instagram influencer she spotted in a magazine: Taylor Sloane, played by Olsen, who gets paid for breezy-chic curated shots of products she posts. Their ensuing friendship shows the blurred lines between reality and fiction, and the disastrous consequences of getting lost in between the two.
The instant euphoria that Ingrid experiences from likes, the way she scrolls through the app during every waking moment and how she falls asleep with her phone in her hand may seem extreme. But in Ingrid Goes West, her relationship with her phone has an unsettling familiar quality. Who among us hasn’t found ourselves going deep down an IngridGoesWest. Instagram rabbit hole, only to emerge an hour later on the profile of a yoga instructor in New Zealand with a penchant for avocado toast pics?
Taylor, meanwhile, “is a bit of a narcissist”, Olsen said, but she doesn’t mean that in a judgmental way. “She just has a constant awareness of how she’s coming across to people and she’s constantly wanting to make sure she’s coming across in a certain way.”
Olsen didn’t base her portrayal on a particular social media influencer but she combined the funny quirks she noticed in people she heard of or knew.
“My friends and I are laughing. Like, there’s a little Taylor Sloane in all of us,” Olsen said.
She described how Plaza and director Matt Spicer came to her house to pitch her on the movie.
“Anytime someone comes to my house, I make sure there are snacks and I prepare something,” Olsen said. Plaza interjects: “She made really amazing guacamole.”
While playing Ingrid, Plaza “focused on just wanting to have a friend, and wanting someone to like me”.
“I had so much compassion for Ingrid,” Plaza said. “It was more about just trying to relate to that human story of just feeling lonely and maybe doing things that are kind of crazy, but in the moment, the motivation is pure.”
Ingrid Goes West got considerable buzz at Sundance, where it took a screenwriting prize. Written by Spicer and David Branson Smith, and with Plaza serving as a producer, the film skewers the soft-glow facade of Southern California and its bohemian Insta-vibes.
“It actually is an authentic script to read, even though the whole point is it’s a lack of authenticity,” Olsen said. “There’s a humour and there’s a cleverness in how we can frame what is social media in a specific world in an interesting way, as opposed to when people just try and weave it casually into movies and try and talk about it like, ‘Get off your phone!’”
While making the movie, Plaza and Olsen both had access to the actual Instagram accounts of Ingrid and Taylor. They were encouraged to snap photos on the app, follow influencers, get lost in that world.
It certainly is a world unto itself. Plaza and Olsen would joke about photos they’d see posted, and within minutes, those same photos would garner thousands of likes.
Now that they’ve made the movie, Plaza and Olsen have created their own Instagram accounts, where they mostly publicise their projects – and also get creative, like Olsen’s “Feed Me Fridays”, where she posts unflattering paparazzi pics of her eating.
Before the movie, Olsen said of Instagram, she “had an extreme judgment and thought it was like a narcissistic medium”.
“But I think I’m starting to have fun with it, and it’s not that precious,” she adds.
Playing Ingrid – and being on Instagram constantly – heightened Plaza’s awareness about how social media can make you feel, “where your mind goes and how it can affect your whole day. It can bring you down so fast”.
“The way I use [Instagram] now is definitely in a more professional way, but I’m still conscious of how my posts could affect other people,” she said. “An accountability factor for me too, when I think about what other people post – there are so many people on it and who knows who’s looking at your stuff and how young they are?”
And once you see all the hilariously dark things that can happen when social media stalking goes extreme, you may think twice about opening your favourite app.
“A lot of people leave the theatre and they don’t turn their phone immediately on. I have friends who, because they’re hairdressers or something, they’re supposed to take a picture of, like, the hair they do,” Olsen said. And because of the movie, “they’re like, ‘I literally didn’t look at Instagram for a week’”.