The idea of revisiting your teenage years is pretty damn terrifying, but Anna Konkle did it on television and survived. (And even emerged as an Emmy nominee.) Now, in her first TV project following her and Maya Erskine’s beloved teen “traumady” PEN15, Konkle is tiptoeing into spookier territory: the murder mystery. But, as Konkle does best, there’s a comedic twist.
She’s starring in the second season of Apple TV+’s The Afterparty, a whodunnit comedy featuring Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, and Zoe Chao, where each suspect’s alibi is conveyed with a different film genre. (Season 1 went from action flick to cartoons; season 2 ranges from noir to rom-com.) This season, with a cast including John Cho, Hacks’ Poppy Liu, Ken Jeong, and Elizabeth Perkins, the murder takes place during a wedding. Every guest, from the long-lost uncle to the bride’s ex, is a suspect. One of them is Konkle’s Hannah, the groom’s odd sister who lives in a tent, does taxidermy, shoots archery, and dresses like an extra plucked from a Wes Anderson film. She’s a weirdo, but Konkle, who so gracefully played her 13-year-old self in braces and all her awkward glory, imbues the role with charm.
But speaking on Zoom from a hotel room in Los Angeles, Konkle is more sleek than strange, wearing an all-white outfit and a slicked back blonde bob, giving a bit of a Sharon Stone vibe. (She’s flattered by the comparison. “That’s the best thing you could possibly [say],” she says.) This summer has been different than most, partly because she’s in her second year of motherhood. (She and partner Alex Anfanger, who she met at NYU, welcomed their daughter Essie in 2021.) Another part is the writers’ strike.
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This time last year, Konkle, a writer and actor herself, was in the middle of filming projects; now, she and many others are facing a lull as the strike puts the industry on pause. It’s almost reminiscent of the COVID-19 lockdowns, “in terms of things slowing down in an unfamiliar way,” says Konkle, who fully supports her fellow writers. “But it gives you a chance to, whether you’re ready for it or not, to reflect on your life—what’s working, what’s not, what do I want, what is happiness?” she jokes. A classic existential crisis, if you will.
During a summer afternoon, Konkle does some of that reflecting with ELLE.com to discuss genre-hopping in The Afterparty, being a working actor and new mom, and whether Pen15 will ever come back.
How did you get involved with The Afterparty initially? Were you a fan of the first season?
Yeah, I loved the first season. When I signed on, we were filming in maybe a month max, so it was a big rush in terms of learning about the character and even the semantics of all the different genres and all the camera tests for the different genres. And it was definitely on another level than I had experienced because of all the different filmmaking styles. So that was really interesting. But they wouldn’t send all of the scripts because of spoilers. I think they sent every actor their individual episode where they’re the protagonist and where it’s their point of view. So that’s where I got to see the sort of twee, indie movie-inspired, like Amelie or Wes Anderson [vibe of my episode].
I guess the cherry on top to already liking the show a lot and loving the cast and the creators was just the episode. I love how character-driven the episode was. My favorite [kind of role] is something that has heart and is funny, but you can tap into whatever sadness or wanting there is in the character. So I just loved that episode immediately; I felt very lucky from the get-go. And she’s so weird too. She’s such a funny character, and she’s funny because of her essence, not [just] because of jokes on a page.
Konkle and Jack Whitehall in The Afterparty season 2.
Apple
What was it like for you switching between genres? I know you got your personal episode at first. But once you guys were all filming, what was the experience of switching from noir to Wes Anderson to rom-com for each episode?
As a theater nerd with a drama school background, I was really excited. For me, the closest comparison would be in school where you could do a scene from Shakespeare, and then the next scene you’re doing [something else] and you’re just playing all sorts of different characters. There are not a lot of worlds that pertains to in film and television. So it was really exciting. And then it was also very intimidating to think of trying to do that authentically while still being funny. How do you balance the satire of it all? Just being aware of wanting to access whatever you connect to in your own comedy.
That means trying to be authentic, while doing a new character in all these different genres. I loved the noir and my character in particular. What I loved about doing my character in that episode was she has to be so assertive and sexual and serious and all these things that she’s not. To push those contradictions together, that’s always what tickles me the most. So that one was really fun, having to flirt and having the worst words. I think one of my favorite lines in the series is, “I love how your hair sticks together in all the right places. It’s like spaghetti that’s been cooked to high hell.” I think about it all the time.
The show coincides with a lot of other murder mysteries right now, like Knives Out and The White Lotus. What is it about the genre that excites you?
As a person that loves being lulled to sleep by Forensic Files, I was trying to figure out or just thinking “why right now?” And obviously the true crime thing had this huge comeback. And I’m sure I’m not the first person to say, but [maybe by] trying to really look mortality in the face and study it in some way, that maybe you can avoid it on some level. But then there’s also just the fun and sort of relief of—with Afterparty or comedies that have mystery too— laughing at something that can be so serious.
I remember reading that when you filmed The Drop, you were three months postpartum at the time.
I don’t know what I was thinking. Yeah.
Jermaine Fowler and Konkle in The Drop, an indie comedy about what happens when you accidentally drop a friend’s baby.
Courtesy of Hulu
When you filmed The Afterparty last year, what was that like compared to filming The Drop? Do you feel like you’ve become a little more accustomed to being on set as a working mom now?
Hats off to anyone breastfeeding and working, period. It’s such a beast because the parameters, not to get too political about the whole thing, but the filming protocols and the long days and whether you’re behind the camera in front of the camera, it’s just not…if you get a production that’s supportive, you’re lucky. But it’s just not set up for you to be like, “Yeah, I’m going to go take a 30-minute pump break,” which is not a fucking break, “every three hours and probably stain four of these shirts.” And everyone’s working under such pressure that it’s just really hard. And fortunately, The Drop was supportive even though it was so hard. And we were still finishing up some scenes from PEN15. So Maya, too—we were both every three hours pumping in the trailer together. It was very funny.
I’m just thinking back to that first year, and I think we went to the Emmys that year. I brought my cooler. I had a Yeti cooler, my pump equipment and the milk, because also you just don’t know somebody’s milk situation. I had to step out in the middle of it for 30 minutes and pump and then come back in. But anyway, that’s all to say that the first year, I found it so, so, so challenging, and in terms of thinking we’d love another baby, but I want to keep working. And I know we’ll make it work, but it’s pretty intimidating to think about.
But now she’s two, and I’m not breastfeeding. And I feel like I’m finally dabbling. There are some weeks that are better than others, but with getting in the swing of what motherhood is for me when it meets work. I’m so used to “work” meaning a 12-hour to 15-hour day by myself, just don’t eat lunch. Just power through. Just bursts creativity that if it’s there, you’re like, “Don’t drop it. Just run with that ball.” And there are times when I do that, but more so I’m learning a little bit how to be present every day the best I can in my mom hours, and then also have my work hours.
Sela Shiloni
Now that you’re a mom, do you look back at any of the storylines in PEN15, which is about girlhood and growing up, differently at all, or maybe with a different point of view or more wisdom even?
That’s such a good question. To be totally honest, I’m freaked out about the farther along we’re getting…you know, technology, I think, can enhance anxiety and how much we feel cool or loser-y in the most basic terms. And that’s such a perpetual 13-year-old developmental state of questioning yourself and your self-worth, and what do I think?Aand what do other people think of me and my identity? And who am I? I feel a lot more protective now that we have our daughter Essie in terms of her just getting to that age, whereas before I felt like, especially going back to it and being 13 [onscreen], like, “Oh, maybe I’ll be more equipped as a parent to talk to her about things.” I have no idea how she’s going to feel about me having played 13. I’m sure she’s going to be like, “That was so not how it is.”
Like, “It’s embarrassing, mom.”
It’s so embarrassing. Oh my God, I can’t imagine. But I think I get more afraid that there’s this big technology animal in the room basically that is more untenable than I’d like to think as a parent, in terms of the control or partnership that I would love to have with my kid. But on the other hand, I do think that that’s another kind of tension that’s always there at coming-of-age, and it’s just sort of a bit enhanced where parents want to take more part in their identity or their growing-up struggles than there’s really room for, than you really can allow so that you can find your own identity. So hopefully I can talk myself out of that anxiety, but that’s there.
I think in terms of looking back [at PEN15] as a mom, I don’t know. There was so much fun and joy at 13, and we can’t forget that, but also the torture that you give to yourself a little bit. I hope that my daughter knows that she can talk to me in the most trite terms, that there’s nothing too big that she couldn’t talk to me about. But I think there’s also pain and relief in knowing that you can’t fix everything and that they’re an individual person, that they’re going to be on their journey. But it’s so overwhelming. I don’t know how our parents did it.
Konkle and Maya Erskine in PEN15.
Courtesy of Hulu
You’ve mentioned before that if you brought the show back, it would have to be the right time and the right storyline. I know I’m not the first person to ask you this, but has there been any progress on those conversations?
Yeah, I still think that there’s going to be the right time, but it’s not right now, which is hard to say because I miss it too. In some ways, I think PEN15 came from two perfectionists who were really having to push ourselves to stop pleasing everybody around us in every way, but creatively too. And I feel like that someone’s tapping on my shoulder with that same creative thing being like, “You need to stop people-pleasing; creatively stretch your wings and fuck things up in whether that’s failing or whatever that means.” And so I think there’s more to mess up before returning to PEN15, but I really hope that that happens at the right time.
Lastly, is there anything we can expect from your memoir?
That fucking I finish it someday. No, I’m working—
As a writer, I get that.
The minute I pitched it, I was humbled. I wasn’t like, “Yeah, I’m going to fucking do this.” I was petrified and I’m still petrified, but I’m chugging away. It’s definitely a lot slower than writing a script. I can say that. And I don’t know how it is for novelists and journalists and people that write in that capacity every single day, but for me it’s been a slow burn and trying to learn. It hopefully will be in the world and I won’t hide. Hopefully those two things will happen at the same time.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she’s listening to Lorde right now.