“All of Us Can be Girl Failures”: Discussing the New Web Series Girl Failure With Creator Mary Kate Abner and Co-Star Diana Rendon
Written by Marion Johnson
Image courtesy of Alex Ayala
Heartbreak, friendship, and navigating your 20s… ah, yes– Girl Failure. Created by Mary Kate Abner and co-written alongside Olivia Steinberg, Girl Failure follows Mary Kate and her two roommates, Benji and Diana, in an all too relatable coming-of-age story. Viewers meet Mary Kate as a messy 20-something in New York City who is getting over a tough breakup and learning (or at least trying to learn) how to be a good ex-girlfriend, actress, and roommate. I had the pleasure of meeting Mary Kate alongside her co-star, Diana Rendon, virtually to discuss their newly released web series.
Mary Kate and Diana are amazing actresses, but their chemistry on camera doesn't come as a surprise when you talk to the two of them off-script. Sitting next to each other on a couch in the same apartment where Girl Failure was filmed, it became clear that Mary Kate and Diana are real-life roommates and besties. In between the giggles, finishing each other's sentences, and sharing their inside jokes with me, I got to ask these best friends some questions about what it was like working together on the first season of Girl Failure and what being a“ girl failure” truly means.
Marion: So clearly you guys are roommates and best friends in real life. Can you tell me how you met?
Diana: I love telling this story. Fall of 2021 was my freshman year of college, and it was Mary Kate's junior year. Mary Kate had transferred into the theater program at NYU that I was just starting at, so she was with the freshmen. We were at this orientation thing, and were split up into this thing called color groups and that was your cohort of 12 people that you were going to take every class with for the year. They had split us up into random groups and we were doing icebreakers saying your names, your pronouns, where you're from, and then what color group you were in. I was right next to Mary Kate, and I was like, oh, I'm Diana, and I'm in Blue Group. And she was like, oh my god, I'm in Blue Group too!!! Twins!!! She put her arm around me and squeezed me. I was like, who is this magical princess next to me?
Mary Kate: Yeah, I think we discovered that we liked a lot of the same things like Little Women and Greta Gerwig I'm sure came up in that first conversation, and probably Hannah Montana. From there, it just spiraled.
Image courtesy of Jo Allen
Diana: We were inseparable from that moment.
Mary Kate: So much so that I think our teachers thought that we were dating for a long time.
Diana: Yeah a few of our teachers would see us skipping down the hallway holding hands.
Marion: I literally love the idea of you guys having a candlelit picnic in this grassy area, and being like, no, we're not dating!
Diana: No, no, why would you think that?
Mary Kate: We're just, like, deeply in love.
Marion: That’s the sweetest thing. Watching you two reminds me of my relationship with my best friend. What was it like working on Girl Failure together?
Diana: I think that Girl Failure in a really strange way, brought us closer together. I feel like working on something that was such a difficult thing to pull off in a short amount of time, and shooting it [with] a million people being in our apartment, it was really inspiring watching [Mary Kate] not only be on the actor side of things, but also being a girl boss around the apartment and taking on this big producer role. We haven't been able to act together since we were in school, and [it was] so much fun getting to play these elevated versions of ourselves in these insane scenarios. It's so easy to act with [Mary Kate because] there's a fundamental level of trust and love.
Mary Kate: On my end, it was really fun because Diana and I [have] been friends for a really long time, and so something that was really special was writing these scenes knowing that it was based on us. And I admire Diana so much, because she is such a loyal, kind, sparkly person, but specifically for her friends, and [for] us being like sisters in a lot of ways, [it] is extremely elevated. So we were doing these scenes where she was like,“ I'm gonna ruin your fucking life” to this ex-boyfriend [and] that was very healing for me, because I am so loved and supported by this person that has seen me at my absolute worst and still chooses to really love me.
Diana: And honestly, working with your friends is not always easy, and I think that’s a really difficult part of navigating being an artist and having friends that are in the arts. It’s really rare, honestly, to have a best friend that you work really well with–
Mary Kate: -and that you can still be friends with afterwards.
Diana: It's really a rare thing, and I'm so grateful that we've been able to work together so many times in our lives, but also in a new way because we're full adults now [that are] out of school and doing this big thing.
Mary Kate: It's just a testament to our friendship and the way that we love each other, that we were able to come out [as] better friends. It reset our friendship in a fun way.
Image courtesy of Mary Kate Abner
Marion: Yes! With the themes in the show being friendship, navigating artistic careers, and breakups, there's a lot in the series about growing up. What can shows like Girl Failure teach us about being in our 20s?
Mary Kate: I feel like the 20s don't make sense. You’re trying to focus on certain things, and then you hear about somebody else focusing on their career or their relationship, and then you're like,‘ oh, wait, I should be doing that. So then you kind of shift your thoughts, and you're like, oh, should I be making web series? Should I go to grad school?’ There's too many questions [and] too many things that are going on. I think that Girl Failure sort of acknowledged some of that.
Diana: I feel like Girl Failure and other stories [by] mostly female filmmakers [and] writers [embrace] the messiness of being in your 20s, and knowing that that's okay. I feel like there's so much pressure, you make all of these crazy decisions, and you're really figuring yourself out, but then you're weirdly expected to have it all under control and figured out when you're graduated. [Mary Kate’s] vision and intent with the show was [for] people like us at this stage in our lives [to] feel seen. [We] don't have to have it together.
Mary Kate: The biggest part for me about making this web series was embracing the messiness with your community. The only reason that I was even able to make this was because I had 54 friends that were willing to help me. I think that making of the web series itself, is a representation [that] the only thing that really matters in life is your friends, your partners, and the people that you surround yourself with by choice. I am just very grateful because Girl Failure showed me how many people I have around me that love me and want to uplift me.
“The only reason that I was even able to make this was because I had 54 friends that were willing to help me. I think that making of the web series itself, is a representation [that] the only thing that really matters in life is your friends, your partners, and the people that you surround yourself with by choice.”
Marion: I remember the first time I heard the phrase“ girl failure”, but after watching the web series, I feel like I have a completely different perception of what it means. What does girl failure mean to you?
Mary Kate: The title, Girl Failure, wasn't actually solidified until probably a week before shooting, because I kept wanting to change it [to] something like,“ boys are not your friends,” or“ Mary Kate just got dumped,” more of a quippy title. Then I had this breakdown because I could not figure out how to write [the] monologue [for] Episode 4, and we were getting really close to shooting, and I was just sobbing on the phone to my friend and I was like, I don't understand why this shit keeps happening to me, I feel like such a failure. I don't understand why I feel so unlovable all the time, this sucks. I just genuinely feel like I'm failing in so many aspects of my life, like career, romance, whatever. And from that, [I decided] we should keep the title Girl Failure, because I do feel like a failure internally. What girl failure means to me, then, is not this girl that does a lot of bad things. We're all normal people who make messy mistakes, flop, fail and get broken up with. [This show is] redefining what girl failure actually means. I think girl failure is something more relatable than being this sort of evil dark woman that’s like“ you know, she's a mess, but we love to love her.” All of us can be girl failures, even if you aren’t morally gray. At one point in your life, you've not felt loved and accepted, and maybe that has made you feel like a failure– at least I know I have–so that's what it means to me.
“We're all normal people who make messy mistakes, flop, fail and get broken up with. [This show is] redefining what girl failure actually means.”
Diana: I agree. I think that it's something that's inherent in all of us, and that we all go through different stages in our life where we feel like a failure. I feel like it has been stigmatized in a way, [but] it doesn't need to be. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and it feels like I've gotten shot 50 times, and my life is a fucking mess, like everything is horrible, whatever. But you know what? I make the decision to get back up, and keep fucking doing what [I’m] doing, and keep persisting through it. I think that every awesome female character is a girl failure if you look hard enough.
Marion: As you know, Dreamworldgirl is about all things girlhood. What role did girlhood play in producing the first season of Girl Failure?
Mary Kate: I think the ups and downs of Girl Failure is just very girlhood to me. The character of Mary Kate, but also the real-life Mary Kate, is one day at a complete zero like I hate myself, my life is bonk, versus a level 100, like, I'm the hottest shit to ever exist, and you're gonna regret not being with me because I would have been the wife of a century. I think that just goes back to messiness, because that is the theme of growth for me, that's what girlhood means.
Image courtesy of Alex Ayala
Diana: I think all of the friendship stuff like scheming together and knowing each other so well that you don't even have to tell the other person what you need, that’s what girlhood means to me. Community, too, it is so important to have a good group of female friends around you. [A lot] of the people that worked on Girl Failure were women that we're friends with, so the production felt [like] girlhood; like when our production designer, Alexia, redecorated our entire apartment [and now] it looks like iCarly threw up in here. My other best friend was our BTS photographer, and she would come on set, take photos, and she would be making me laugh. It really just felt like hanging out with the girls, and when you're able to find a work environment that feels like you're 5 years old and you're playing with your girlfriends on the playground it's so awesome. It feels so… like girlhood.
Marion: I absolutely adore the show so I must ask, what can we expect for the future?
Mary Kate: There will definitely be more. There will definitely be a Season 2.
Diana: We're scheming, and we're working, and we have so many ideas.
