EW spoke with creator and star Rose Matafeo about the series' journey so far and what lies ahead.
Is it something you’d been sitting on for a while?
So, it’s been a while.
Rose Matafeo in ‘Starstruck’.Mark Johnson/HBO Max
And I think I’ve always had an obsession with the world of rom-coms.
It was very organic.
I’m not, like, getting married to a prince.
Nikesh Patel as Tom in ‘Starstruck’.Mark Johnson/HBO Max
What was the casting like for Nikesh Patel?
It was a very long process.
And, to be honest, we didn’t find Nikesh until very close to the end of it.
So we were very particular and when he came along, it was fantastic.
We were auditioning on Zoom and doing chemistry reads on the Zoom, which was very strange.
There’s something here actually."
So then we got him in the room and this all happened.
And then you got picked up for season 2 before you’d finished season 1, right?
We were writing it.
Because the pandemic pushed us, we were writing the second series before we had shot the first one.
So then, it all got pushed.
In the meantime, what we did was we wrote the second series.
We then started shooting the day after the first one came out.
And I just found that quite a boring thing.
We ended it on the classic rom-com high.
And I love that you have her freak out after deciding to stay.
And people do it.
People are just idiots.
If you’re actually in love, they’ll do f—ing crazy s—.
It’s like no one knows anything.
You follow your heart.
And don’t think you’re too good for love because you’ll do some crazy s—.
I’d move for people.
I’ve moved countries for people.
Many people have done that.
Is there much improv on this show?
Weirdly kind of not.
Me and Alice come from a big improv background.
Also, the nature of how we shoot it is so tight as well.
We do not get a big amount of time to shoot it.
So, because of those slight limitations there isn’t actually much and I don’t mind that.
[Laughs] But we’ve only got one camera.
Let’s be honest, we can’t improvise because we have one camera.
you might improvise with two cameras, you cannot improvise with one.
Do you have a certain season plan in mind for this story?
I go with the flow.
I don’t think there’s this grand story that needs to be told of these characters.
I just don’t think I’m that confident, to be honest.
I don’t have that confidence.
But I think you got to have love for it.
Now that you’ve created two seasons, has anything surprised you about the experience?
Well, to be honest, I’m slightly surprised at the reaction from people.
We were just trying to make another nice rom-com.
It helps that Jessie is so relatable.
I love that, f— yeah!
It’s funny with rom-coms.
You really, truly want to relate because you want to basically role play.
Other people can probably relate to them more, but who can relate to f—ing Sandra Bullock?
She’s the most stunning person on Earth!
We are mere shadows to you, Sandra Bullock.
So I’m very happy that the hot mess of Jessie is relatable.
[Laughs]
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Starstruckseasons 1 and 2 are now on HBO Max.
