Exclusive! MTV’s Nicole Byer Unleashed!

The series finds Byer living adjacent to the Hollywood dream, somewhere deep in LA&#8217;s San Fernando Valley. Life should be rosy, but instead she&#8217;s navigating a minefield of unpaid bills, dysfunctional friendships and online dating, all handled in Byer&#8217;s overconfident, irreverent and sometimes crude comical way.In an exclusive interview with MediaVillage&#160;after her TCA session, Byer revealed that her&#160;journey to get the series just right began with a pilot for the network --&#160;one she describes as&#160;&#8220;essentially a f**ked-up &#8216;Uncle Buck&#8217;&#8221; that has since been relegated to &#8220;the vault,&#8221; she laughs.&#8220;I played a girl who starts a fire in her apartment, gets kicked out by her roommate and moves in with her sister and adopted kids,&#8221; Byer says&#160;of the unseen pilot. &#8220;Through quirky misadventures I teach the kids things, along with myself, but it was very &#8216;Uncle Buck&#8217; and very &#8216;sitcom.&#8217;&#8221; &#160;Despite co-writing the unseen pilot, the result wasn&#8217;t true to Byer&#8217;s comedic voice. &#8220;It was definitely in my voice,&#8221; she adds. &#8220;But it was more &#8216;Nicole in a situation&#8217; rather than &#8216;a Nicole situation.&#8217;&#8221;&#8220;Loosely, Exactly Nicole&#8221; is, on the other hand, definitely full of&#160;&#8220;Nicole situations,&#8221; Byers says.&#160;&#8220;Most of the stories we tell are from earlier in my life. Like, I married a man for money; that's a storyline. I did it when I was 20; a green card situation. I managed to get myself into $30,000 worth of debt in a year and didn't know what to do. I went on craigslist and started answering ads to meet a man to marry. I ended up giving up on the idea until a friend called to tell me she'd met someone who was perfect. She picked me up and took me to a gas station in Queens where I met this man. We liked each other and &#8230;&#8220;My wedding pictures are so stupid, so stupid,&#8221; she continues. &#8220;I look so happy.&#160; The justice of the peace was like, &#8216;You look so happy, honey.'&#160;I told her I was, but inside I was thinking, &#8216;I am because I'm getting money!&#8217; &#160;It was nuts, but it made it into the show.&#8221;Byer also talked about falling in love with a stuntman while shooting a commercial in Romania, where she played a sassy fairy. &#8220;That's for real,&#8221; she laughs. &#8220;I ended up writing him a very salacious letter, so we wrote an episode loosely based on that. The letter is in there but they wouldn't let me put [all] the nasty [details] in. It was so filthy that they had to edit it down.&#8221;In fact, the envelope-pushing dialog on &#8220;Loosely Exactly Nicole&#8221; has already raised eyebrows with MTV&#8217;s Standards and Practices. &#8220;My old roommate Evan used to call women's vaginas &#8216;stink ditches,&#8217;&#8221; she jokes.&#160;&#8220;That ended up in an episode, and Standards and Practices just went, &#8216;if you must.&#8217; They let it through because it's not on the list of what's unacceptable. I don't think anyone has said it before on television!&#8221;Surrounded on the show by her colorful friends Devin (Jacob Wysocki) and Veronica (Jen D'Angelo), Byer insists borrowing character traits from her personal relationships was done with the&#160;blessings of those involved. &#8220;Jacob plays a version of Evan. Originally the character was named Evan, but we changed it to Devin. Just put that D on it and nobody cares!&#8220;[Evan] was like, &#8216;Why can't I play it?&#8217; I was like, &#8216;Because you haven't acted in 10 years!&#8217; Jen plays a hybrid of my friends Veronica and Shasheer (Samata, currently of &#8220;Saturday Night Live&#8221;). So it's all me and the people in my life.&#8221;With all ten episodes of the show&#8217;s first season already shot, Byer is just beginning to fully appreciate the reality of her accomplishment. &#8220;When we wrapped I was like, &#8220;Oh, I did it,&#8221; she says. &#8220;That's when it all sunk in. I have this amazing thing and the network fully believes in me -- and that I'm funny. It also really set in when I saw the billboards on Sunset Boulevard. That was astounding!&#8221;Michael Klein, MTV&#8217;s Executive Vice President of Original Content President, insists Byer is an important addition to the MTV brand for a number of reasons. &#8220;Authentic, completely unfiltered and really funny,&#8221; is the way he describes her. &#8220;She speaks to this audience and speaks in a language that is relevant to them and truly, truly, authentic -- and she is completely unfiltered in the show.&#8221;Prepare to see a lot more of Nicole Byer when &#8220;Loosely Exactly Nicole&#8221; premieres Monday, September 5 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT.The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet, Inc. management or associated bloggers.

Exclusive! MTV’s Nicole Byer Unleashed!

Author

Publish date

Channel

Archived in

Steve Gidlow

Most Shared