Jill Kargman Takes On Influencers and the UES In New Film “Influenced”

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Last night in Manhattan, The Cinema Society and Kargo hosted the premiere of the deliciously funny film, Influenced, at the Florence Gould Theater. The film, opening tomorrow at the Quad, stars the brilliant Jill Kargman with a hilarious supporting cast including Christine Taylor, Justin Bartha, Laura Bell Bundy, David Krumholtz, and Nathan Lee Graham with a slew of famous cameos — Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Drew Barrymore among them.

Kargman fills The Daily in on what you can expect from the film! 

What’s the premise of Influenced?
It’s about an influencer whose life looks perfect but is fucking miz. Our girl Dzanielle navigates fake friends among the [AmEx] Black card-swiping, Ozempic-sharting, workout-addicted Upper East Siders.

What made you want to tell this story?
I feel like influencer culture is a very particular world reaching its apex at this moment, though I hear it’s only growing. There is such a dichotomy between the filtered, polished shit we see online and obviously it’s not real so it felt ripe for satirization.

How closely did you follow mom influencers? What’s your takeaway from them now that you’ve spent some time peeking into their world?
I don’t follow any influencers, just a handful of media companies, comedians, and my best friends. I guess spending time inhabiting that culture even heightened the stretch between the ambassador of one’s self online versus the real thing. We partnered with Instagram so they gave us all their user interface to lend veracity to Dzanielle’s world, which can be hyperbolized for fun.

There’s a lot of incredible cameos in the film: Matt Damon, Gwyneth, Drew Barrymore. How challenging was it to get everyone to sign up?
Weirdly easy! I feel like an asshole asking favors of anyone ever. I’ve never asked for a discount or special treatment ever in my life so I felt slightly cringe but then I figured they can just say no and no one did!

The Upper East Side has become a focus of a lot of your creativity. What is it about this neighborhood that makes it so ripe for satire?
I mean it’s legit fish in a barrel. There is a lot of excess and flash, but there are also many down-to-earth, kind, smart people. But the obnoxious ones are the ones I enjoy lampooning. I can’t believe there is a such an aspirational following of people who post the telltale oval windows of a private jet. Vom!

You have a new look in the film! Tell me about how you approached the look of your character Dzanielle!
Okay so I, obviously, am a middle-aged vampire and I’ve been dying my mousey brown hair jet black since college, so being blonde felt so fuckin’ off. Like if I were actually going to (never happening) I love how Debbie Harry has it — a platinum punk bob. But this is cheesy beach waves like half the Hamptons. Saturday Night Live was on hiatus so I had their wig team and stylist, Brittany Hartman and Koryn Gonzales-Novotny who created the look, along with my killer makeup artist, Charles, who introduced me to bronzer.

Indie films are always a challenge to put together.
Odd Mom Out helped me a lot. I could never ever have done this without that show. People missed it and were happy to get it off the ground

What’s next for you?
My next movie is an adaptation of my book Spinkle Glitter On My Grave. It’s about the death positive movement and is a very dark comedy. It’s a super New York/goth family in Brooklyn and the dad owns a boutique eco-friendly funeral home with green burials and the wife is a death doula. They kind of corner the market on hipster death.

After the screening, the cast celebrated with a party at Doubles on Fifth Avenue, which brought out Harry Kargman, Paul Giamatti, Candace Bushnell, Stacey Bendet Eisner, Kathy Hilton, Dylan Lauren, Alina Cho, Batsheva Hay, Peter Davis, Alex and Keytt Lundqvist, Julien Farel, Hunter Kohl, and more.