When I first jump on the phone with Jessica Williams, she's a little out of it. "It just took me out," she says. No, she isn't talking about the rave reviews for her performance in season 2 of HBO Max's
Love Life—she just got her booster shot.
The California native recently moved back to her home state after nearly a decade in Brooklyn. She first broke out in 2012 as a sharply funny 22-year-old correspondent on
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and was so beloved that people wanted her to take on the host gig when Stewart left. She has since created and co-hosted a hit podcast,
2 Dope Queens, and starred in movies like Netflix's
The Incredible Jessica James and Olivia Wilde's directorial debut,
Booksmart.
In the second season of the anthology romantic series
Love Life, Williams plays Mia Hines, a hyper-independent millennial who works at an auction house. Mia emanates effortless cool. She's the kind of person who can make scrunchies look high fashion or confidently order weird dishes like a chicken Caesar (hold the chicken, sub in broccoli) and have you believe you're the weird one for overthinking it. She's the love interest of
The Good Place's William Jackson Harper, who leads the series as Marcus, a book editor whose marriage implodes soon after meeting her. Mia and Marcus are two people who share crackling chemistry and a penchant for self-sabotage, and this season is all about watching them try and fail and try again to make a relationship work. Initially, they attempt to be friends, but it is clear to viewers as soon as Dionne Warwick's "You're Gonna Need Me" starts playing in the background when they first start texting that Marcus is a goner.
I spoke to Williams over the phone recently about why rom-coms are hard, being inspired by the outspoken women in her family, and intimidating men who are shorter than her.
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