Once shooting wrapped and the editing process began, Gordon started watching The Bear. “I hadn’t seen something so original, authentic, and unfussy. I was so inspired by it, and it became my favorite show.” So she was shocked—and still is to this day—when she was offered the part of Claire without an audition or a chemistry test with Allen White. “I have to audition for everything else, and I don’t get anything,” she says with a laugh. “This was a very beautiful thing.” Acting in the series alongside her Theater Camp costar Ayo Edebiri was just the icing on the cake.
Despite the sleepiness, Gordon is eager for moviegoers and theatergoers alike to see her film and has been relishing the moment over NYC pizza, despite a gluten allergy (yes, her stomach perpetually hurts). And she’s determined this won’t be the last time we see her in front of or behind the camera, something I have no doubt will hold true. “I’m an actress,” she says of taking the reins on future projects. “I can just pretend I’m not scared.”
Glamour: Did you always want to write and direct, in addition to acting?
Molly Gordon: I had a little too much energy as a child. I had a dress-up box and was always making up stories. I remember my parents showing me films that I was too young to see, like The Graduate, Silkwood, and Anchorman, which I think I saw when I was 11. I was so fascinated by every element of the filmmaking process, whether it be the visuals or the score, and wanted to be in the pot of that creativity. I just didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do within it.
What was it like to write Theater Camp with three other people?
We wrote the movie during COVID, mostly on Zoom. We had this insane Google Doc and would just sit on Zoom for seven hours at a time and write down every single idea that we had. I think at one point it was 300 pages of crazy stories about our theater experience. And then over a six-month period, we crafted the story together. I love collaboration. Even though a lot of people might think that writing a script with four people would be too many people, I really enjoyed the process. We would never go down the road of a bad idea because someone would say, “Molly, that’s not good. We’re not going to do that.” And it would push me to be better.
How did you most relate to Rebecca-Diane?
I think Rebecca needs to be on medication, like, tomorrow. I’m very goofy and silly, and felt that if I was going to write myself a character, I should write something where I get to be wild. I’ve ended up playing softer characters, but I’m a kooky person, so it was fun to get to show that side of myself. I was directing in upstate New York with children and was like, “I need to be a Jewish woman with frizz.” There was no vanity. I had to be very honest and free in this character.
