ROSE & IVY All About Rose Starring Rose Matafeo Star of 'Starstruck' on HBO

Dress by Nobody’s Child; earrings by La Grotta Collective

It’s so great to mEet you rose, i’m a huge faN. I’d love to learn more abOut your background. I read you started doing stand up in New Zealand at 15, that’s pretty impressive. Looking back from that time period, have there been any key moments that were defining and led you to where you are day?

The first thing was going to a comedy workshop when I was 15. I was always into free extracurricular activities so I put myself forward for that. If I hadn’t done that, I don’t know if I would have ended up doing stand-up at all. It wasn’t really a natural path for a teenager to jump into but it was the perfect one for me. It was where all of my creativity as a kid was hidden and it strengthened so many tools, like writing, performing, and directing. I was also into creative writing, drama, music, musicals, media studies, and I’d make it into short film competitions. So, it wasn’t just stand-up, I was experimenting with a lot ilof different ways to show off (laughs). I feel like I was very prolific as a teenager, far more prolific than I am now in expressing myself creatively, which is cool because that’s a time to do it all.

Then moving to the UK in 2015 was also a huge step. I had a good career in New Zealand doing comedy on TV, I also had a sketch show. Then I performed in Edinburgh’s festivals—doing international festivals changes your experience of comedy. I feel so lucky to have been able to do that for many years in Australia and the UK because it taught me so much about producing my own shows. Comedy is such a wonderful thing because no one is asking you to do it; you have to do it because you want to do it. There’s also a lesson in doing 25 shows in a row; there is no other type of situation where you get to do that. You get to fine-tune something because you don’t get a break. It’s a full-on thing to do but I’m lucky I did it. When I won the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, it opened so many doors and gave me a lot of opportunities including getting Starstruck made.

Jumpsuit by Serena Bute; shoes by Terry de Havilland

Have you had to overcome any major hurdles or road blocks along the way?

I can be insecure and hard on myself, in so many aspects of my life, but I have always had the confidence that I can work hard enough to be good at this thing. It’s a very strange sense of self-belief. I was lucky enough to have the tools and the control to do better. You are constantly critiquing yourself with comedy, and making your material better–you are the only one that is going to improve yourself. So when it comes to hurdles, I don’t know if I had any because nothing is promised, ever (laughs). There are definitely barriers to who you are, where you are from, and where you can actually afford to live, like in a city or perform at a festival. I spent all of my savings moving to London and putting on an Edinburgh show, but I never questioned that. I was never worried; I have very lovely parents who never asked, what are you doing with your life?

Dress by Queens of Archive

What’s one piece of advice that you wish you could have told your younger self?

Try to act your age sometimes (laughs). I act older; I have always acted older.

You mentioned you were pitching a lot of different TV show ideas and they didn’t work out, prior to Starstruck. How did you not let the rejection deter you from getting to the actual moment when you finally got the big ‘yes’?

I’ve had disappointments, just like the next person, but I don’t think I’m ever owed anything. I think, if they don’t want something, that’s fine. I am empowered to have that attitude because I come from a background of stand-up, which is, okay, I am just going to go and do my own thing or put on my own show. I can technically make a living from doing that and I always have that. It’s such an amazing thing to have because you aren’t always waiting for someone to give you an opportunity, which I don’t really love. With Starstruck, I am so thrilled they rejected everything else because it crystalized what I really wanted to do. All of the pitches I was doing was what I thought they wanted to make, what they wanted from me, or what the current comedy climate was wanting. Starstruck was the first thing where I thought, I would really want to watch that.

Did you always envision that You would play the role of Jessie? I love the character, she is so real and relatable.

All of my pitches were off the back of my Edinburgh show, which was pitching ideas for me ideally to be in. I can’t even lie about that, I would have been like, oh, we are doing auditions for Jessie, are we?

Is the character based on you at all?

Yes, but not the premise; I have always described her as me if I hadn’t done comedy. It’s my dream to work at a theater and be a projectionist. My friend had that job when I was a teenager and I was super jealous and that’s why I put that part in the series. I can relate to the idea of living in a country when you aren’t from there. In the first season episode five, when she is freaking out about everything that has gone wrong like loosing her job, many New Zealanders living in London were like, that’s exactly it. I don’t know why I am still here but I have all of these feelings at the same time. You feel simultaneously how you love the city and you never want to leave it but you are desperately homesick.

I feel like there haven’t been that many rom-coms recently, as compared to say when I was a teenager or in my 20s that have pulled me in. There were shows like Dawson’s Creek, How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days, She’s All That–they almost ruined me in a way (laughs)

Don’t even get me started on Dawson’s Creek, it did ruin me (laughs).

The same! What have fans told you they love the most about the series?

One huge thing that people have told me is about the relationship with me and Kate—played by my best friend Emma Sidi—and my ex-flatmate, we have moved away from each other, which is very heartbreaking. There is so much of me in Jessie and her in Kate–they ham up aspects of our personality. People say it’s a wonderful thing to see such a genuine female friendship on-screen where the person isn’t always there to say, you go girl, or is going to support the main character no matter what. Kate challenges Jessie, it’s always in the same breath of offering unconditional support. It’s such a messy, wonderful, and, tight female friendship and I’m happy it comes across.

Season two was renewed before it even premiered, wow, that’s incredible. You must be so proud! What can fans except from the new season?

We started filming season two the day that season one came out, it was wild. If you followed season one, it continues the moment the first season finishes. It explores what happens after the big romantic gesture at the end of a rom-com, realistically, what are the next steps and the challenges of an early romantic relationship when you finally get together and admit your feelings for each other. So it’s about Jessie trying to catch up with this huge decision that she makes. There is also an ex-boyfriend in there for good measure.

What’s your writing process like, how far in advance are you writing the scripts before filming? I’m in awe you do it all.

It has consumed my life for the past two years (laughs), but I’m really lucky that it’s been the case. I wrote the pilot, it got commissioned to be filmed, and then we got commissioned for the series. Alice (Snedden) and I ended up storylining when we were both in Edinburgh performing. Every day we would go into a windowless, underground office and storyline the wholes series and then we performed every evening. She went back to New Zealand and I was in the UK and we hoped to film in March 2020 but that did not happen. We both went back to New Zealand, wrote season two, and came back to the UK to shoot season one and realized we needed to rewrite season two. There are six episodes that were never made because we decided to start at the moment the first season ended. We separated again, I’d work on scripts during the day in the UK and she’d work on them through the night in New Zealand. It was really hard, it’s best when you are in a room together. Because we are such a small writing team and we know each other well, we get a lot done just talking to each other. It’s massive; it’s all-encompassing, but I would hate it any other way.

I’d love to know how you get inspired for your work?

The big things I was watching for season two were different screwball films and Nick & Nora. I remember reading the Age of Innocence and I was freaking out. Dawson’s Creek was a big inspiration. Music inspires me, I make a lot of playlists to go with the series. Good writing, too, reading how other romantic comedy scripts are crafted.

Is it challenging to funnel what you’ve researched or looked into and make something with it?

It’s about sponging it all up and hoping one day it will come out. It’s like the Everlasting Gobstopper machine in Willy Wonka–you put a shit ton of stuff and hopefully, eventually something comes out. I love that part of the creative process; it’s about being open to the world and then your brain subconsciously finds way to inspire yourself and come up with an idea, randomly, in the middle of the night and you have to write it down in your Notes app. It’s very annoying to force it when you have a deadline.

I agree with that completely. Are you working on anything else right now or are you going to take it all in?

I have no clue! I am working on a couple of scripts with no really end to them. I have no deadlines which is great and I’m just pursuing my small creative pursuits and hobbies and hoping someone gives me a job where I don’t have to write (laughs).

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With special thanks to The Wallace Hotel and the 42West Team

‘All About Rose’ Starring Rose Matafeo