'SHRILL’S' LUKA JONES ON UNDERSTANDING THE CHARACTER THAT MOST PEOPLE HATE

On a gloomy afternoon in Los Angeles, actor Luka Jones, who plays Ryan opposite Aidy Bryant in the Hulu comedy TV series “SHRILL,” spent some time with us and talked about a lot of things. From mid-century modern Eichler homes in Granada Hills, to his character Ryan and his evolution in the show.

Shrill is an important, unapologetic, comedy show treading sensitive, relevant topics like self-worth, acceptance and relationships.

Luka’s character in Shrill inspired tremendous reactions from the fans of the show, some even dubbing Ryan as “The worst.”  Despite being one of the worst boyfriends on TV, Ryan’s character helped the story and the characters around him to evolve into better people throughout the show.  

In contrast to Ryan’s character, Luka is a calm, gentle, smart man that you can have a chat with almost anything.

In this exclusive interview, we also talked about his sympathetic approach in playing Ryan’s character, working with Aidy and the cast, his other projects, relationships and love. 

PHOTOGRAPHER: IRVIN RIVERA

First, kudos to you and your character Ryan for being able to evoke strong levels of emotions from the audience. How did you approach Ryan’s character, especially in terms of acting it out?

I just play myself and I’m just that bad of a guy. (laughs) No, but what I did was, I just thought of it as what you’re supposed to do when you’re playing a character. I think of the character in the most sympathetic terms as possible. I just thought of him as somebody who just don’t get certain things. He wasn’t trying to do certain things on purpose. He wasn’t trying to be insensitive on purpose.

MAKEUP: TRACY RAFFELSON, HAIR: ALEX HENRICHS

Well you can see that he’s trying. The effort is there It just misses the mark.

Yeah. He misses the mark.

I approach Ryan by playing the guy that people so clearly dislike by just thinking what would I do. It wasn’t so conceptual, it was more instinctual, I guess. The idea was like, he’s really not trying to hurt Annie (Aidy Bryant). He’s just has deeply different assumptions in what means what and if you remember in the beginning of the first season, when you meet him, there’s a hook-up and he asked her to leave on the back, and climbed the fence. And he says that because he doesn’t want her to meet the guys at that moment. Understandably, I think a lot of viewers are like, no…that’s not why. It’s cause you’re an asshole.

And I’m not saying he’s not an asshole. When I’m playing a moment like that, I’m thinking of the times when I just can’t handle my worlds colliding. It’s not because I’m embarrassed of anybody but because of a short circuit on my part. And maybe that’s the more sympathetic way to play it. And even when playing it, obviously he look s like a big jerk.

I do like what you just said. When you said that when you feel like your worlds are colliding. Like, what do you really do in those situations?

You’re not ready for certain people to meet certain people. It could become easier looking back into that first scene. When you see who those guys were as the series progresses and like, you could see why he might be embarrassed of them. Or why he would think that his brother is gonna say embarrassing things about him in front of Annie. It could be a lot of things but I fully understand why people thinks the way they commonly do. I think that’s the point. It’s shot and told from the point of view of Annie. So that ‘s how I’d see it too.

We’ve seen the obvious side of Ryan’s character but what do you think is the best part about playing his character?

It’s a really cool job working with a lot of very cool people like Aidy, Ally Rushfield, Lindy West, and the entire cast. Aside from that obvious fact, I think it’s one of the first characters that I’ve played that’s not really a total Teddy Bear. People don’t like him. The other characters I’ve played, I don’t think people have this strong reactions to them so that’s fun. Even if the negative reaction sometimes are like, whoa!

I get “Hope Luka Jones don’t go on a date anytime soon Cause fuck that guy!”  on twitter or something like that, which is fun to watch. It’s fun to watch when people have a big response.

It  means that something that we’re doing, primarily the creators and the writers, is like resonating with the viewers. I’d say that’s the coolest part. He’s at least somewhat more of a questionable guy.

Did anybody come to you in real life and said, “I hate you!”

Yeah. More than half of the people. I mean they don’t say like they hate me as a person.

I’d say after the first season was released, I was at my local coffee shop and this woman from across the way caught my eye, signaled that she recognizes me and loves the show. I was like, oh thanks so much. After I got my coffee, I walked over and said thank you. We had a really nice talk and she said, “Tell Aidy how meaningful of a show it is for me. I can’t wait to show my daughter when she’s old enough.”

Then I went back, sat down and felt really good about being a part of  something that make people feel really nice. And when she walked out, she was like, I do want her to dump you though. I want you to be dumped. And I totally get it. Everybody that I met pretty much wanted that for him.

It’s cool hearing that though because you know people are invested in the character.

For sure.

And does that put more pressure on your part as an actor, especially when people are this invested in what you’re doing, being an important show and giving out this message?

Oh yeah. I’m sure it could in some sense put pressure. But the creative environment that we’re in, we shoot in Portland, and it’s kind a like more of a camp, kind of being creatively fun together. Just enjoying that and performing in that context makes it easier.

And to be honest, I think that Aidy is just so likeable, as a performer and as an actor. Obviously she does hilariously comedic stuff in general. Not just in the show or in SNL but –given the amount of energy she gives on the show and who she truly is as a character, it really makes it easy for any viewer to go like, “Fuck anybody that does anything bad to her or that makes her feel bad.” I relate to that. I would feel the same way watching Aidy. I do.

Going back to Annie and Ryan’s relationship, do you think they deserve each other? I am basing this off the quote from the book Perks of Being a Wallflower- “We accept the love that we think we deserve”

That’s a deep question. I don’t know. I’m not sure of things in those terms. But I do think one thing in general about relationships- is that if there’s any good about them, we learn things from them. We always learn things that help us, in the next relationship, if anything ends.

As for Ryan, maybe because I have to, but I like to think that he is trying and he is just not for Annie. She deserves somebody who is more perceptive of her needs and helps her feel more heard about speaking up for her needs. But I definitely think they learn things from each other in a way that I would hope would help the characters in the future. Ryan learns that you can’t just think about your own needs because that’s a jerk thing to do. But also, not everybody is as comfortable as you Ryan, saying whatever you want.

And I don’t wanna speak for her character, but it’s possible that she learns more about her own self-worth and she learns not just in this relationship but across the show in general about how it’s okay to speak her mind and that people would want to hear what she has to say.

I think what happened in the final episode of season 2 when she broke up with him and actually told him that, “I don’t have to tell you everything”- there’s actually learning in there.

Oh yeah.

It’s powerful when she did that. When she said that “I don’t have to tell you everything that you need to do.” to Ryan.

Yeah there is growth in the realization that a lot of us don’t have to tell everything of what we want them to do. It’s cool that we’re speaking of some of the needs that we understand, but if it ends up that we literally have to list every important thing that’s about to happen and we needed to be treated, then we might not be in the right relationship. We might need somebody that more intuitively understands what we need. And what we need is important enough. And we are important enough individually. And Annie is important enough individually to let go and be like, look, this guy tried and it didn’t work. We both tried and I will go try and see if I can try with other people. And that takes a certain level of self-confidence and in my perspective maybe she’s grown into from the beginning of the series which is really exciting.

It is. And speaking of growth, in terms of Ryan, how would you describe his evolution throughout the seasons of the show?

At the beginning he takes her for granted completely. So his evolution at least in the relationship from my perspective is like—he takes her for granted, and I think he thinks that she’s cool with everything that he’s doing. He’s kind of a boneheaded that way. Not that he’s laughing behind the scenes twisting his huge beard about how much he’s hurting her, but rather he’s like, she’ll say something if she didn’t like it. And sometimes what you want to say to Ryan, was like, she did man. It would be cool if you have another pillow and you sort of didn’t hear it. And then sometimes she doesn’t, and then she learns too.

But I think he learns that if he’s going to care about a relationship and open himself up to being vulnerable at all, he has to try to pay more attention to the needs of the other person in the relationship. And that’s a huge thing for most people.

I love how our conversation became mainly about relationships which is what the show is about.

I think it’s one of the things a lot of people focus about on the show. Obviously like in some general sense, that the show is about self-acceptance and feeling comfortable in your own skin, and feeling  your own self-worth. And Annie is the character that we’re following throughout her journey with those issues, but they’re all attached on this relationship as well. The writing is really good in that way, in a lot of ways, I think. They thread all the important issues on the different aspects of their life.

The people who come up to me in social media or in real life, I think at the very least, were struck by something about the relationship between Annie and Ryan. It really resonates with them. There’s feelings. Like old pain, or healed pain. You know, I think that’s part of what they like about the dynamic as a part of the show.

It’s really relatable. So good job to you guys.

Oh yeah, thank you!

Tell us a bit about your Sundance short film He’s The One.

It’s about a woman who goes on a Tinder date. In the Tinder Date, she finds out that the guy that she’s liking and getting along with, is a guy that assaulted her on a mutually drunken night years prior.

She didn’t recognize it. Neither of them did.

And she was drunk that night but then she remembers about 2/3rds or more throughout the film, that this was the guy, and has to come to terms with the fact that she just gone on a date with him, that she was in his house, and what to do about that. Jessie (Jessie Kahnweiler), the director was fantastic. It’s a very personal story for her. You get to see one person’s idea of what their reaction might be in a situation like that. Who could even guess what one’s reaction would be in situation like that.

It seemed like a crazy situation that way you’re describing it to me.    

She wrote it with comedic elements in it, which made it even harder. It’s like threading a very particular needle that I wouldn’t necessarily think I could thread. When she came to me with the script, and told me that she’d like me to be in it after I read it and talked to her, I was like, this is really an interesting way to talk about something that is really difficult to talk about. So I was like, yes please, I would love to be part of your film. And it was an interesting experience. Going to Sundance and watching her and the other directors, some of whom, also co-starred, huddle together as a creative team, excited to be in Sundance for their film was fun.

If you were a book, what book would you be and why?

This is the first thing that comes off on top of my head. This is like a cheating answer. When I was in highschool, I hated school. I hated school all the way through college. Then I ended up going back to gradschool and liking it but in highschool I’d come home and we have a set of this World Book Encyclopedia. This is way before Wikipedia obviously. I would sit with them in front of the TV instead of doing my homework and just read, absorbing facts, in a sort of an odd way. It was clear that I was hungry for knowledge but I was not open to being told what I was supposed to study.

That was when I was a bad student. When someone was like, do this, this is your homework. I go like, uhh how about you fuck yourself! I was just not really a very cooperative kid for that type of situation. But I was just like sitting there with peanut butter and honey reading, reading, reading. Now they were gone but they were a beautiful thing for me.